engleski

Anthropological profile of basketball referees

The game of basketball is a specific kind of competition between two opposing teams. The objective of each team is to score by putting a ball into the basket and to prevent the other team from doing so. Basketball referees are very important part of a play because their desicions can directly influence the final result. Their wrong judgments or tolerance of rule violations could lead to basketball players’ injuries. The aim of this study is to investigate functional abilities of elite basketball referees in Croatia. Methods The sample consisted of 32 male Croatian referees who volunteered to participate in this investigation. Participants completed progressive test on treadmill which provided the measuremnt of aerobic capacity and ventilatory threshold using the Cosmed Quark b equipment. The obtained data were analyzed by standard statistical procedures, with statistical software package SPSS 13.0. Results and discussion Today’s basketball game is characterized by highly intense activity virtually throughout of its duration, requires players to apply a wide range of basic and specific functional and motor skills. It is evident that referees who always have to be in the center of events also experience high intensity work rates and need good functional abilities. Maximal values of oxygen uptake were assessed at the maximal speeds of treadmill ranging from 13.5 to 17 km/h (average 15.41 km/h) and they ranged between 3.77 and 5.60 l/min (average 4.59 l/min) or expressed in relative values 52.49 ml/kg/min. The values are indicating good aerobic capacity and are significantly above the average of normal population in Croatia (1). In comparison with basketball referees in previous investigations (27) referees had slightly better results. Comparing the aerobic capacity with basketball players it can be concluded that referees are better than centers but have significantly lower values than guards (3) and similar to forwards. The values of oxygen pulse indicates good efficiency of cardiorespiratory system. Conclusion: According to the obtained results and the average value of the ventilatory threshold (86.19±4.35 % of maximal oxygen uptake) it can be concluded that the aerobic abilities of basketball referees are on adequate level and can support high demands during the competition.

referees ; basketball ; oxygen uptake

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