Recovery strategies for sports performance in the spanish professional basketball league (Acb)

Abstract

This study aimed to describe the recovery strategies used by the Spanish professional basketball teams playing in the “Liga ACB.” Data from all teams during the 2019-2020 season (n = 18), and the team promoted for the season 2020-2021 were collected using a six-section online survey. Protocols, timings, and recovery strategies employed differed among teams. However, natural and physical recovery strategies such as sleep/nap, food/fluid replacement, active field, or gym-based cool-downs, use of supplementation, active or passive stretching, cold/ice bath/shower/immersion, massage, and foam-rolling were the most used among seventeen teams (>89%). Food and fluid replacement, showed a higher presence in the recovery protocols after competition and practice, always used by thirteen or more teams (~70%). The design and supervision of recovery are multidisciplinary tasks in 74% of the teams. Only two teams (11%) acknowledged not periodizing or individualizing recovery, while the other seventeen used these procedures regularly, considering different parameters, being previous injuries a factor always present. Teams not reaching the playoffs used a higher number of recovery strategies on average. This study pro-vides a real vision of how the “Liga ACB” teams use recovery protocols, and pertinent contextual information that may be used for coaches and practitioners to tailor them.