Test da campo per il fitness di giovani giocatori di Pallacanestro: una revisione sistematica

Introduction: With over 315,000 athletes and 22,000 technicians, basketball is undoubtedly one of the most popular sports activities in Italy. Briefly, basketball is a dynamic, intermittent sport composed of multiple aerobic-anaerobic tasks with particular endurance and muscle power and strength requirements. The success of basketball players, therefore, is likely to be dependent on physical fitness, combined with adequate levels of technical, tactical, and cognitive abilities. The assessment of basketball players' physical fitness is clearly important for both coaches and conditioning trainers, who use these data to verify the effectiveness of their training programs. However, most of the physical fitness tests used in basketball were created for adult players, and any attempt to apply it in younger players may lead to unrealistic conclusions. Purpose: The aim of this systematic review was to identify field-based physical fitness tests used in youth basketball players. Methods: A systematic search was performed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) criteria. To be eligible, full-text articles should have investigated field-based fitness tests in youth basketball players. There were no restrictions on gender (e.g.,female and male) and competition level (e.g., regional, national and international). Results: In total, 69 studies covering 125 field-based physical fitness tests were identified. The most cited tests were countermovement jump (n = 30), squat jump (n = 16), and 20-m sprint test (n = 16). Muscular strengthand power (n = 149) were the physical fitness components most often cited, followed by endurance and agility (n = 18) and combinations of the aforementioned (or other mixed components) (n = 58). There were scarce combinations with technical skills and few studies assessingbalance, coordination, and flexibility. Conclusions: The present systematic review has identified the most used field-based physical fitness tests among youth basketball players, despite the urgent need for further standardization of such tests and the demand for sport-specific features. These findings could help coaches and conditioning trainers organize effective test batteries for assessing physical fitness components and, as a consequence, adequately plan training programs.