The Individualisation Of Basketball Players’ Training, A Condition For Achieving Sports Performance

Abstract

In order to achieve good results in sports performance, in the basketball game it is necessary to review the training concepts, so as to consider the simultaneous approach to all training components. The coach’s concerns must be directed toward the thorough knowledge of the players and the team they train. The coach must be aware of the level of training, performance and availability of each individual athlete. Coaches are recommended to know the athlete’s performance on the position they play - guard, forward, centre - and the extent to which they can evolve permanently or temporarily, as well as the level of universal training. Contemporary basketball is highlighted by the complexity of the game, its dynamism and speed, the special qualities of the players, their multifaceted and harmonious development. In the modern methodology of training in the field of sports games, as well as in basketball, there have been important mutations in designing the training content, structure and organization for the players and teams. Thus, in this study, we have tried to analyse the individual training of the players by position and to draw up a project on the individual technical and tactical training, identifying instructional strategies focused on the training factors, which combine methods, methodological procedures, means and operational structures that help to increase the efficiency of the training process.

Keywords: Basketballbasketball playersindividualisationscientific training

Introduction

The high value of sports performance is the consequence of the science-based management of the training process. Contemporary training has become a science, a research field where many specialists join together, in the desire to gain a deeper understanding of the multiple aspects of the training process in order to increase its efficiency.

To achieve good results in sports performance, in the basketball game it is necessary to review the training concepts, so as to consider the simultaneous approach to all training components. The coach’s concerns must be directed towards the thorough knowledge of the players and the team they train. The coach must be aware of the level of training, performance and availability of each individual athlete. Coaches are recommended to know the athlete’s performance on the position they play - guard, forward, centre - and the extent to which they can evolve permanently or temporarily, as well as the level of universal training.

In order to continuously increase the performance of a team, it is necessary to know the efficiency of the game model, the team’s behaviour on different segments, moments, phases and the efficiency of the team viewed through the parameters of the game model, for establishing how the players’ performance capability matches the tactical concept of the game.

The basketball team is a performance system that includes the distribution of players by position, their field behaviour and collaborative relationships.

The core structure of the team is a component of the game model that specifies the positions of the best players, who are placed on the field in certain game alignments, occupying a position on which each one performs specific tasks or roles. Each position involves objectives, tasks, responsibilities, areas of exercising well-established actions. This does not exclude the universal ability of each player to play temporarily, accidentally or permanently on other positions.

In practice, there are player models by position and team-building patterns, which include all the above-mentioned elements.

A science-based training is inconceivable without individualisation, which has become an essential form of organizing modern training.

Problem Statement

Contemporary basketball is highlighted by the complexity of the game, its dynamism and speed, the special qualities of the players, their multifaceted and harmonious development. Considering the current complexity of athletic training, as a result of the increase in performance, it is worth mentioning that the optimisation of basketball training involves many organizational, medical and material factors that are meant to amplify the sphere, to surpass the one of an instructive-educational process. In the modern methodology of training in the field of sports games, as well as in basketball, there have been important mutations in designing the training content, structure and organization for the players and teams. The training takes place according to a schedule that can be considered an overall scheme of the optimal succession moments (optimal or objective model) expressed in the performance of motor skills, the optimal reactivity capacity and the biological and psychological adjustment. When applying aspects of the training modelling, the coach must select exercises of maximum efficiency, which reproduce partially or entirely the content and structure of the game (Predescu & Ghițescu, 2001).

Studying individualisation in sports games, Bompa (2001) says the coach should pay attention to each individual player, depending on their learning particularities and the specificity of their position, regardless of the level of performance.

According to Epuran (1990) and Crețu (1998), individualisation in the training process must meet all objectives either by the acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities or the development of physical or mental qualities.

Matveev (1980) considers that the individualisation of training must be carried out on two levels that must be combined, namely general and specialised training. In his opinion, individualisation of the sports training process is necessary in the specialisation stage.

Cojocaru and Panait (2015) said that good football cannot be practiced if training is not individualised, so that each player is trained for situations specific to their position on the field.

It can even be said that the uniformity of the technical-tactical value currently observed in high-performance sports and due to the training methods, among which we emphasise individual training that can influence performance.

Thus, in this study, we have tried to analyse the individual training of the players by position and to draw up a project on the individual technical and tactical training, identifying instructional strategies focused on the training factors, which combine methods, methodological procedures, means and operational structures that help to increase the efficiency of the training process.

Among the particularities of the player that should be taken into account when applying individualisation, we mention:

The existence of different positions (guard, forward, centre) and the related tasks in the attack and defence phases require individualisation. These tasks, which are general in nature, must be complemented by elements specific to the attack and defence systems applied by the team. From match to match, depending on the opponent and other criteria, players in the system receive special tactical tasks (aggressive, double, flotation, etc.), individualisation requiring them to be well trained.

Preparing for the opponent’s specificity can only be achieved by individualisation. The application of individualisation must be based on the technical and tactical requirements of each position in the team, the adaptation to the system used in the game and the special tactical tasks, with limited adaptation to a particular opponent or team.

Individualisation is reflected in the current and prospective planning that involves determining the objectives and tasks for each of the players, which will be provided in the planning documents. This is reflected in the individual training plan, including the particular aspects. The effectiveness of this plan is influenced by the extent to which the coach sets objectively and realistically the actual and prospective profile of each player. Thus, the coach will direct each player to the position for which they have skills and, on the other hand, will be able to use the most appropriate means and methods to speed up the training process according to the requirements of the position and the player’s particularities.

During the training lessons, individualisation takes on several aspects:

• within a cycle, special exercises are planned;

• the experienced players will perform complex exercises with a small number of repetitions;

• the correction of execution errors will be individually done (intensity of effort, pace and range of motion, duration and number of repetitions).

Individualisation is also applied in the following cases:

• players selected in the batch will additionally perform special exercises according to the assigned tasks; a player may move to a batch on a different position than the one they play at the club team;

• injured players;

• players with certain specificity in their professional activity.

Research Questions

If:

• the training of the players by position is done in a specialised and unitary way for all components of sports training and in the training, the specific structures of the station are diversified, insisting on the mastery of the individual technique and tactics, as well as the development of specific motor qualities,

• the individual training is a form of specific training of the players by position, aiming to achieve the instructional objectives of the training process set for the entire team, solving the objectives according to the training period and the training component,

• then the performance of the team will improve.

Purpose of the Study

The main objective of the research is to improve the training of basketball seniors and find new optimal ways to increase the ability of the team and players to perform and achieve better results in competitions.

The research was conducted during the competition year 2016/2017 with the senior basketball team of “Aurel Vlaicu” National College, a team in the 1st league. During the research, we tracked the evolution of the team’s game parameters in the 2016/2017 season, compared with the parameters of the game model proposed by the Romanian Basketball Federation (FRB).

The conducted research concerns the individual training of the basketball players, but it is not limited to this aspect, taking into account the methodological conditions of the players’ complete training under the physical, technical, tactical, psychological and biological aspects.

The research objectives are:

• the evaluation of physical, technical and tactical training of the players by position (guard, forward centre), in terms of values of the somatic parameters, general and specific motor, functional and psychological tests and parameters of the game model, as required by the FRB;

• the development of a training process in the experimental group, based on a specially designed program whose objectives include the sports training components:

  • Physical training - 30% of the workload was allocated to this component during the competition year, with each player having individual training sheets made after passing the tests at the beginning of the competition year, with emphasis on the physical deficiencies of each player;

  • Technical training - 35% of the workload was aimed to improve the individual technique in relation to the sports attributes and skills, as well as their enhancement depending on the position in the team structure, using a battery of means for the individual technical training;

  • Tactical training - 35% of the workload was focused on acquiring the fundamental principles of action with the whole team, for the purpose of applying a tactical concept by all team players, as well as a set of means for the guard - forward, forward - centre to improve tactical combinations in the game model;

  • Psychological training – for cultivating certain attributes and educating some psychological qualities that favour the behaviour and efficiency of the basketball player during the game.

• the optimisation of methodological training by promoting rationalised and standardised means in the training of basketball players and individual training programs, especially for the improvement of physical training;

• the confirmation or invalidation of the established hypotheses.

Research Methods

The theoretical and practical documentation included aspects related to individual training and individualisation of training, the game model and team training, the player model by position. We studied books, textbooks, guides, periodicals, specialty journals, papers presented at scientific sessions, video recordings on the research topic.

Observation - is the scientific knowledge of a reality (object, phenomenon, process) by intentional contemplation involving the participation of a sensory, perceptual element and an intellectual, conscious element. The observation used in this research was methodical (active, intentional, structured, provoked), cross-sectional (more variables, more indices were searched simultaneously), but also longitudinal (evolution of one or more variables).

Experiment - a complex system of knowledge of reality using experimental reasoning that processes both observational and experimental facts, which involves checking the value of an experimental idea, an assumed relationship between two phenomena provoked and controlled by the experimenter (the fundamental type of experiment and the verification or confirmation of the formulated hypothesis were used, namely how the individualisation of training influenced the parameters of the game model).

Findings

During the 2016/2017 competitive season, the basketball team of “Aurel Vlaicu” National College had a very good track, winning the 1st place out of the 7 teams competing in the qualifying phase (series), the team qualifying in the semi-final round for the National League (4th place out of 8 teams) and then playing the final stage, where two of the four teams were to promote to the Senior National Basketball League, finishing on the 3rd place and losing qualification for the National Championship by 1 point. To take note that most of the team players are still junior.

Only by presenting the very good results of a junior team in a senior championship, we can say that the research hypotheses have been validated.

After applying the experimental program in the competitive season 2016/2017, the team achieved, at the end of the qualification tournament for the National League, the parameters of the game model shown in Tables 01 and 02 . We made a parallel with the indicative parameters for senior teams proposed by the Romanian Basketball Federation.

We can see that the “Aurel Vlaicu” team had a very good behaviour in the three games, many parameters of the game model being overcome by the team players. In the team, there are a few great players who have had very good efficiency during the game.

Conclusion

• The player profile encompasses a number of elements, including physical ability, tactical ability, technical ability, mental ability and theoretical knowledge.

• The player is the person who acquires what the coach conveys: learning, training, skills, specific motor skills, correcting and refining skills, capabilities, attitudes, operational schemes and theoretical knowledge needed to practice the game.

• The main objective to which these actions are directed is the personality of the athlete, and in sports and implicitly basketball, it is approached as an individual goal.

• The player model is a variable of the integrative model - in this model, the player has four assessment criteria: the skills for exercising the role by position (the somatic, motor, functional, psychological, psychomotor and biochemical ones), the level of technical, tactical, physical, psychological and theoretical preparation, the role played in the game phases and systems when performing the tasks on the pivot, extreme, defender positions and the player with double specialisation and the individual performances.

• The player model or profile links the basic structure of the team to the ability of the players to perform certain game tasks, including the established game conception.

• The individual model of the player by position discusses heredity (individual particularities: stature, weight), technical structures specific to the position, individual tactical actions specific to the position, psychological and psychomotor skills, individual tactical actions involved in the collective combinations and the game systems.

• Individual training is determined by a number of factors that increase the performance potential of the player and team. Players who evolve on positions must participate in individual training on the basis of individual plans. These individual plans for basketball players must be designed in the light of the training shortcomings or other performance limitation factors.

• Exceptional skills or capabilities of the players on positions should be taken into consideration and also seen as a topic of individual training. They can help improve the individual style of play and can make a serious contribution to the team’s play model.

• Individual training must cover instructional objectives both in the preparatory and competitive stages, ensuring learning and improving or educating motor skills or technical-tactical training.

• Individual training strategy should include methods, materials, means, exercises and a training schedule within the weekly training microcycle.

The evaluation of the obtained results is done by setting the behavioural and performance objectives and establishing verification tests for the achievement of the proposed individual objectives.

Acknowledgments

We would like to say thanks to Cristian Teodorescu, Coach at the “Aurel Vlaicu” National College, for all the support provided in the achievement of this research.

References

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• Cojocaru, V.Panait, C. (2015). Analysis of physical impact of the specific means on individualizing football training positions at the level of the first league teams in Romania.. 4th International Congress of Physical Education Sport and Kinetotherapy (ICPESK, 163-168
• Crețu, C. (1998). Psihopedagogia succesului.
• Epuran, M. (1990). Modelarea conduitei sportive. Bucuresti: Editura Sport Turism.
• Baschet, Federația Română de. (2017)
• Baschet, Federaţia Română de. (2006). Colegiul Central al Antrenorilor.
• Matveev, L N. (1980). Teoria și metodica educației fizice.
• Predescu, T.Ghițescu, G. (2001). Baschet - pregătirea echipelor de performanţă.