Sports potential modeling of young basketball players: A preliminary analysis

Abstract

The aims of this study were: 1) to evaluate the sports potential of young basketball players; 2) to identify variables that discriminate sports potential assessed by coaches; 3) to verify the relationship between classification of the multidimensional profile of athletes and classification of the sports potential by coaches. Sixty-two young basketball players aged 15.6±1.1 years from U-15 (n = 24) and U-17 (n = 38) categories participated in the study. A test battery was applied to evaluate sports potential indicators: 1) anthropometric; 2) physicomotor; 3) psychological; 4) skills; 5) socio-environmental; 6) maturational and 7) sports potential. Cluster analysis was performed in three groups: high, medium and low potential. Student’s t-test was used for the comparison between athletes evaluated by the coach as excellent and the others and the Chi-Square test to verify the relationship between sports potential classifications. It was observed that in the high-potential group, athletes were chronologically older, with higher % predicted adult height (PMS), competitive and determined sports orientation, higher body size, lower skinfold summation, and greater physicomotor performance. In comparison with other athletes, high-potential basketball players presented higher stature, wider wingspan, longer limb length, greater predicted adult stature and higher Z score of the % PMS. It could be concluded that the multidimensional approach was useful for the evaluation of the sports potential of young basketball players, requiring the use of multidimensional variables, in addition to coaches’ opinion regarding the potential of their athletes.