Talent selection in 3 × 3 basketball: role of anthropometrics, maturation, and motor performance.

Introduction: 3 × 3 basketball is becoming more and more professionalized, which is leading to a growing interest in talent development and talent selection. Different studies have demonstrated relevant factors in the talent selection process of 5v5 basketball but not in 3 × 3 basketball. Therefore, this study investigated the main predictors in the talent selection process in 3 × 3 basketball athletes.

Menstrual cycle tracking in professional volleyball athletes.

Introduction: The menstrual cycle may affect well-being and physical performance of elite female athletes by interfering with the function of multiple physiological systems. The aim of this study was to characterize the symptoms of the menstrual cycle and their frequency in elite female volleyball players.

Methods: Twenty professional female volleyball players were instructed to track their menstrual symptoms over the course of the first German national league season using the FitrWoman® tracking app.

Upper-body isometric horizontal strength in game sport athletes.

Imagine blocking the opposing defense linemen in American football to protect your quarterback or creating gaps in the opponents' defense by setting blocks as a pivot player in handball. Such movements require a pushing action away from the body with the arms and stabilizing the whole body in different postural positions. Upper-body strength obviously plays an important role during American football and handball as well as in other game sports with opponent contact such as basketball.

Stop it! Relationship between sport expertise and response inhibition in elite athletes.

Introduction: The dynamic structure of sport games forces players to make time-sensitive decisions and to initiate actions that may then have to be canceled in response to sudden changes in the game situation. Whether and up to which time already initiated movements can still be inhibited is an important criterion for game performance in elite sport. Research indicates that elite athletes show superior motor inhibition performance compared to recreational athletes.

Acute effects of real and imagined endurance exercise on sustained attention performance.

This study investigated acute effects of real and imagined endurance exercise on sustained attention performance in healthy young adults in order to shed light on the action mechanisms underlying changes in cognitive functioning. The neural similarities between both imagined and physically performed movements reveal that imagery induces transient hypofrontality, whereas real exercise reflects both transient hypofrontality effects and the global release of signaling factors (e.g.

Off-Court Generic Perceptual-Cognitive Training in Elite Volleyball Athletes: Task-Specific Effects and Levels of Transfer.

The nature of perceptual-cognitive expertise in interactive sports has gained more and more scientific interest over the last two decades. Research to understand this expertise can be developed has not been addressed profoundly yet. In approaches to study this with interventional designs, only few studies have scrutinized several levels of transfer such as to the field.

Tapping the Full Potential? Jumping Performance of Volleyball Athletes in Game-Like Situations.

One key issue in elite interactive team sports is the simultaneous execution of motor actions (e.g., dribbling a ball) and perceptual-cognitive tasks (e.

The Relationship between Expertise in Sports, Visuospatial, and Basic Cognitive Skills.

Team sports place high demands on visuospatial and other cognitive skills. However, there is a lack of research on visuospatial skills of elite athletes and there are heterogeneous results on basic cognitive skills of this population. Therefore, this series of studies tested different cognitive skills in elite team sports athletes.