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

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.