The formation of basketball players: quantification of practice time and the number of matches

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the process training of players of youth academy level of basketball considering the practice time of training and the number of matches of professional and Minas Gerais under-19 Brazilian basketball players. To do this we applied Practice Time Questionnaire for Basketball Athletes to the players, and semi-structured interviews to coaches. For quantitative data, Shapiro-Wilk and Mann-Whitney tests were applied for a 0.05 significance level. A data treatment of the interviews we used content analysis. The results show that there is no statistically significant difference between Minas Gerais players training time and professional players training time during youth academy level. In relation of competitive experience, significant differences were found (p = 0.003) that indicate a greater number of matches played by professional players during their formation time in youth academy level in comparison with the players of under-19 category of Minas Gerais. It is concluded that despite the practice time of training have been similar during the formation process in the youth academy level, the professional players have more number of matches played than the players of category under-19 years of Minas Gerais.