Physical performance of wheelchair basketball athletes with Paralympic projection of the Biobío-Chile region: a transversal study

Abstract

The present study aimed to characterize, compare, and correlate the physical performance variables according to sport class of elite wheelchair basketball athletes from the Biobío-Chile region at the beginning of the preparatory period.Twenty-two male athletes from BSR with physical disabilities participated in national tournaments.The athletes were grouped according to sport class:high points - PA (3.0 to 4.5) and low points - PB (1.0 to 2.5). Muscle power was evaluated by means of the Medicine BallThrow (LBM), the acceleration/propulsion capacity and maximum speed in the wheel chair by means of the 20m Speed test(T20m),thehandlingofthewheelchairwithoutandwith ball control through the Eight and Eight-ballTests and aerobic power with the continuous and incremental Octagon Multistage FitnessTest (OMFT). No statistical difference was observed for the motor performance variables between the PB and PA groups (p