engleski

BODY HEIGHT OF BASKETBALL PLAYERS IN THE LAST 15 YEARS

In basketball the main objective is to score by putting a ball into the basket that is in the hoop with the regular rim height of 305 cm. As early as in 1976 Alexander found that body height is significantly related to success in the game of basketball which means that it is a good predictor for the number of points a player can score, number of rebounds after shot attempts and generally for successful playing. The aim of this study was to analyze changes in body height of basketball players in the period from the year 1995 to 2010. Methods According to data from official FIBA webpages body height of players from the first eight ranked teams in European and World championships and Olympic Games from 1995 till 2010 was assessed. The average height was calculated for every team, and number of players taller than 200 cm was evaluated. Results and discussion Almost all studies related to body height of both male and female basketball players confirmed the fact that basketball players are on average significantly taller than non-selected population and mostly taller than athletes who compete in other sports. It can also be observed that over years mean values increased, that is, that basketball players today are taller than basketball players who played ten years ago or even before that. Hence, we can conclude that there has been a long-term trend of body height increase in basketball which in recent years partly slowed down. This can be attributed not only to the omnipresent process of acceleration, but also to the process of selection. Namely, it can be seen in youngest players in basketball schools that players who are selected are of above average body height. Malina (1994) in his study concludes that basketball players are in childhood about or above 90 percentiles of population height and are also biologically older. Some 20 or 30 years ago a certain body height of basketball team corresponded to a certain result in a competition (Furukava, 1974). By analyzing results obtained in European and World championships as well as in the Olympics in the last fifteen years it can be seen that such a trend does not exist today. Nonetheless, it can be seen that there is over 60% of players of a mean body height over 200 cm among the top eight teams while the others mainly ranged between 198 and 200 cm. Furthermore, most teams have 7 to 8 players who are above 2 meters and among winning teams there is rarely a team with less than 6 players above 2 meters.

Basketball ; basketball players ; body height

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