Evaluation of the propulsion technique and motor performance of wheelchair basketball players

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the propulsion technique of wheelchairs basketball athletes. The group of study was formed for 11 athletes practicing, the modality studied, with an average age of 30.27 ± 6.51 years. The sample was divided in two groups (faster, slowest) according to the performance in the agility and speed tests. To analyze the angular kinematics of the upper limbs, each person performed three
attempts to “round trip” in a distance of 5 meters. The results indicate a strong positive association between the results obtained in the speed and agility tests (r = 0.83; p = 0.002) and negative between speed test time and sports practice time (r = −0.68; p = 0.02). For the analysis of angular behavior significant difference was observed (p = 0.02), only in the variable maximum angle of the left elbow and the faster group presented
the highest values. The angular behavior analyzes during all the movement, present significant difference at some point of the cycle, for the variables abduction angle on the left shoulder, absolute angle of the right and left forearm, absolute angles of the shoulder in the sagittal plane left and right, maximum angle of the right and left elbow. The results indicate that the athletes present specific characteristics of propulsion, and
that some angular movement characteristics, as a smaller angle of shoulder abduction during early stages of the propulsion, influence the performance in the speed test.