Influence of Functional Movement, Jumping Ability and Linear Speed on Change of Direction Speed in Female Basketball Players: Novel vs. Traditional Approaches.

There is extensive discourse surrounding the factors influencing performance in change of direction (COD) actions in basketball, given the wide range of tests and methods that exist in the scientific literature for assessing this ability. This study analysed and compared relationships between functional movement, jumping and linear speed performance using two distinct methods of measuring COD performance in female basketball players, while also distinguishing between cut-off angles. Fifty female semi-professional basketball players (age: 23.7 ± 3.81 years, body height: 175.5 ± 7.69 cm; body mass: 64.4 ± 7.88 kg) participated in the assessment, involving various performance and COD tests. COD tests were categorised for each method and angulation into "low performance" and "high performance" groups, facilitating a Bayesian comparative analysis. For the traditional method of measurement (execution time) vertical (ES ≥ 0.66; BF ≥ 3.50) and horizontal (ES ≥ 0.97; BF ≥ 44.4) variables exhibited significant differences between performance groups across all cutting angles, with faster players performing better in all tests. For the novel approach (COD Deficit) differences between performance groups were only found for horizontal variables, while these differences disappeared for vertical variables. These findings suggest the need for caution when considering the determinants of COD performance, as these relationships are directly dependent on the COD method used. Therefore, female basketball coaches are encouraged to adopt the COD Deficit for assessing this ability, as it isolates COD from other abilities.