Compensatory action of the index and middle finger in the kinematic chain of a basketball shot

Performing effective actions requires the basketball player to balance factors such as motor variability, error minimalization and a complex sequence of coordination to determine the best action.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to differentiate the strength of the muscles of the index and middle fingers when performing a basketball shot.

Materials and methods: Study group consisted of 122 male college basketball league students. The study included psychophysiological tests to determine indices of individual and typological characteristics of higher nervous activity, proprioceptive sensitivity tests of the fingers of the leading hand and field tests to assess participants’ shooting skills. The touch-based finger pressure sensing system measured the different levels of pressure exerted by the participants’ main index and middle finger during grasping.

Results: For both the middle and index finger, the highest correlation with shot efficiency was found for a 120 g load g ( p < 0.01 for 2PS; 2PS40 suc; FT; 3PSO and 3.5 mS). Furthermore, high reproducibility of proprioceptive sensitivity of the index and middle finger of the leading hand was found in basketball players.

Conclusions: The research indicates that it is possible to organize compensatory behavior between joints on the basis of proprioception, with the last compensatory movements of the kinematic chain being performed by the fingers of the hand. The demonstrated high proprioceptive sensitivity of the index and middle finger of the leading hand in basketball players at a weekly interval may indicate ability to maintain high repeatability of movements controlled by these fingers.