Anthropometric and electromyographic characteristics of the free throw shooting gesture in university basketball players

Abstract

The free throw in basketball is a shot at the basket awarded after a foul, it depends solely on who makes the shot. Analyzing muscle contractions during a free throw allows the design of sports training programs with an injury prevention component. Objectives: were to determine the anthropometric and electromyographic characteristics in the free throw throwing gesture along with possible associations between the study variables and explore profiles of the athletes using unsupervised machine learning algorithms. Method: 48 university basketball athletes from Manizales-Caldas were included (24 men and 24 women, age = 20,979±4,128 years). The surface electromyographic signal of several muscles involved in the technical gesture was recorded. After measuring the muscular electrical activity in an isometric and dynamic manner, the muscle contraction was estimated through the maximum voluntary contraction, the average of the signal and the maximum values obtained during the throwing gesture were estimated, and the with the endorsement of the institutional bioethics committee through minutes of April 27, 2022. Results: Regarding the maximum voluntary contraction, it was found that the muscles with the greatest contraction in the gesture are the middle deltoid, longissimus dorsi, triceps and flexor radialis longus. . Additionally, a higher fatigue index in dynamic tests than in isometric tests. Regarding the Cluster analysis, three profiles clearly differentiated by anthropometric variables were identified. Conclusions: Most of the participants are overweight, Cluster 3 was characterized by being made up only of men, having anthropometric characteristics superior to the other clusters specifically in height, length and body perimeters such as grip strength, greater isometric fatigue in the muscles dorsal and triceps for taller athletes), compared to the other profiles. On the contrary, greater dynamic fatigue was observed in the dorsal and trapezius muscles in the athletes of profile 2. Regarding the MCV, greater neuromuscular activation was evident in the athletes of profile 1 (athletes of shorter height and record in the anthropometric variables evaluated) Likewise, a higher fatigue index was established in the dynamic tests than in the isometric tests. These results make it possible to make decisions about the free throw gesture and include recommendations in training programs, thus improving the performance of athletes and preventing upper extremity injuries.