<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Change of direction speed, reaction time, sprint speed, and explosive strength are important factors that determine athletes’ performance in the majority of sports. From the practical standpoint, it is of interest to investigate to what extent they differ among athletes of team and individual sports. We compared 7 handball, 11 basketball, and 15 male table tennis players in four reaction time tests, 505 Agility test, 5m and 20m sprints, squat, countermovement, and drop jumps. Basketball players performed better in reaction time to fast generating stimuli (12.6%, p=.001) and countermovement jump height (14.5%, p=.05) than handball players. In addition, they achieved a higher reactive strength index (25%, p=.01) than table tennis players. Handball players were faster in the 505 Agility test compared to table tennis players (4.6%, p=.04). Results revealed that performance of basketball players is mainly determined by explosive strength, handball players by change of direction speed, and table tennis by speed of response to visual stimuli. These differences may be ascribed to long-term adaptation to sport-specific stimuli. Novel assessment methods and devices should better determine key performance factors of athletes with regard to sport-specific tasks.</p>
</abstract>

Change of direction speed, reaction time, sprint speed, and explosive strength are important factors that determine athletes’ performance in the majority of sports. From the practical standpoint, it is of interest to investigate to what extent they differ among athletes of team and individual sports. We compared 7 handball, 11 basketball, and 15 male table tennis players in four reaction time tests, 505 Agility test, 5m and 20m sprints, squat, countermovement, and drop jumps. Basketball players performed better in reaction time to fast generating stimuli (12.6%, p=.001) and countermovement jump height (14.5%, p=.05) than handball players. In addition, they achieved a higher reactive strength index (25%, p=.01) than table tennis players. Handball players were faster in the 505 Agility test compared to table tennis players (4.6%, p=.04). Results revealed that performance of basketball players is mainly determined by explosive strength, handball players by change of direction speed, and table tennis by speed of response to visual stimuli. These differences may be ascribed to long-term adaptation to sport-specific stimuli. Novel assessment methods and devices should better determine key performance factors of athletes with regard to sport-specific tasks.

Sport-specific differences in key performance factors among handball, basketball and table tennis players

Department of Track and Field, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport

Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport

International Journal of Computer Science in Sport

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Change of direction speed, reaction time, sprint speed, and explosive strength are important factors that determine athletes’ performance in the majority of...

Sport-specific differences in key performance factors among handball, basketball and table tennis players

Published Online: Apr 06, 2023

Page range: 31 - 41

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijcss-2023-0003

Keywords
ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE, INDIVIDUAL SPORTS, TEAM SPORTS, TESTING, REACTION TIME

© 2023 Henrieta Horníková et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sport-specific differences in key performance factors among handball, basketball and table tennis players

Published Online: Apr 06, 2023

Page range: 31 - 41

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijcss-2023-0003

KeywordsATHLETIC PERFORMANCE, INDIVIDUAL SPORTS, TEAM SPORTS, TESTING, REACTION TIME

© 2023 Henrieta Horníková et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE, INDIVIDUAL SPORTS, TEAM SPORTS, TESTING, REACTION TIME