NEUROMUSCULAR PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS AND MONITORING IN COLLEGIATE NCAA DIVISION I BASKETBALL ATHLETES: AN ADOPTION OF THE APPLIED RESEARCH MODEL FOR THE SPORT SCIENCES

Developments in technology allow for quantification of data on a large number of athletes in a time-efficient manner, permitting frequent data collections. This results in data sets with numerous variables and observations over time, which must be appropriately analyzed and interpreted to aid in decision-making for respective stakeholders. Force plates allow for quantification of vertical jump tasks reflective of stretch-shortening cycle (SSC) efficiency and are frequently implemented to assess neuromuscular status in athlete populations. However, evidence is limited as to which assessments and derived force-time variables may be most sensitive or responsive to changes in fatigue or training exposure, especially, when studied over extended periods of time. Therefore, the overarching aim of the current work is to study neuromuscular performance as quantified via force-plate derived measures of vertical jump performance in collegiate NCAA division 1 basketball players, deriving implications for performance and fatigue monitoring over extended periods of time. Chapter three focuses on descriptively studying changes in countermovement jump (CMJ) force-time characteristics over the course of an entire male collegiate basketball season, showing that while performance significantly increases from pre-season to in-season, athletes were able to maintain performance throughout the remainder of the season. Based on findings from chapter three, chapter four aimed to determine if there is a dose-response relationship between external load exposure and changes in CMJ-derived force-time characteristics over the course of a complete female collegiate basketball season. Findings suggest that associations between external load exposure and respective force-time characteristics after controlling for the random effect of athlete ID were dependent on the specific metric, or metric sub-group used, as well as the type of load exposure (e.g., acute vs. chronic), encouraging practitioners to use athlete-specific approaches toward neuromuscular fatigue monitoring. Chapters five and six focus on manipulating workload stimuli, exposing male and female athletes to heightened levels of exhaustion over a one-week duration, and studying how performance changes in response. Findings suggest gender-specific responses to high-intensity phases of training, with metrics from both a fast and a slow SSC task showing sensitivity toward the stark changes in training stimuli. Lastly, chapter seven determined differences in vertical jump performance and data variability between two feedback conditions, providing practitioners with suggestions for optimizing data collection procedures, especially when studying performance over time. In summary, the current work documents that force plates pose a viable and non-invasive tool to monitor neuromuscular status in athletes over extended periods of time. Practitioners may refer to our work when selecting assessments and variables of interest for quantifying neuromuscular performance over time.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Kansas

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Philipp, Nicolas Mathias

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Fry, Andrew

• Kinesiology
• Athlete monitoring
• Basketball
• Biomechanics
• Force plate
• Sport science

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:19671

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/38004