Resumen de Body composition, fitness level and training load controlled through the batloc tool in female british basketball
There is a huge amount of articles analysing the anthropometry of basketball players, the parameters of basketball, its physiological demands, and the fitness level of the teams. However, the vast majority of these studies focus on male basketball players. There are only a few studies working on British high-level female basketball teams. Therefore, the main objectives of this thesis will be to study the body composition and fitness level of English and British female basketball players, and to desing a tool for controlling and monitoring the training load in basketball (BATLOC Tool). This thesis will be a compilation of 6 articles published in international journals. The general results obtained from the six studies show that (a) there is no differences when it comes to use of the Bleep test or the Yo-Yo test in order to calculate the maximum oxygen uptake through an indirect method. (b) The sample analysed of British female basketball players (from grassroots to high level) had fitness level and body composition values lower than high-level female basketball teams from countries where basketball is more popular and better developed probably due to the big difference in the number of traininig hours per week performed. (c) The BATLOC tool seems to be a good method to control global internal training load in basketball. This method does not require any expensive equipment and may be very useful and convenient for coaches to monitor the internal training load of basketball players and plan a proper periodisation, since the fitness level of players involved in this study improved through the season.
Keywords: BMI, arm span, agility, speed, endurance, periodisation, team sports, RPE, heart rate.
