Influence of intellectual impairment (II) on basketball players' capacity to solve a game situation: Towards evidence-based classification systems in II-basketball

Abstract

Basketball for athletes with intellectual impairment (II) requires the development of evidence-based eligibility systems to guarantee that only athletes with significant limitations performing basketball participate in these competitions. In addition, this is needed to re-include II-basketball in the Paralympic program. To do this, it is required to investigate how II impacts on fundamental basketball activities. To address this need, the aim of this study was to compare able-bodied (AB) and II-players' capacity to solve a game situation. A field test was designed ad hoc in which 38 elite II-players from France, Portugal, Australia and Japan who participated in the Global Games (2015) and 38 AB-basketball players competing in Spanish competitions, had to solve 8 standardized game situations. Results indicated that II-players spent significantly (p≤0.05) more time to decide (0.92±0.2s) than AB-players (0.63±0.1s) and to execute the solution (II: 3.01±0.4s; AB: 2.56±0.3s). Also, II-players made more rule infractions (II: 7.11±1.4; AB: 7.71±0.7), more feints (II: 1.37±1.4; AB: 0.3±0.6), more dribbles (II: 15.08±3.9; AB: 12.29±2.3) and they performed less successful solutions (II: 4.42±1.5; AB: 5.39±1.3). However, no differences were found in number of correct decisions made. Decision time, number of dribbles and situations in which they succeeded were the variables that best discriminated between II and AB-players. These results confirmed the negative influence of II on players' capacity to solve a basketball game situation. The calculated discriminant function let us establish the minimum scores from this test that indicates significant limitations on the capacity to solve a game situation. These scores are applicable to determine eligibility criteria in II-basketball worldwide.