A time-motion analysis of professional basketball to determine the relationship between three activity profiles: high, medium and low intensity and the length of the time spent on court.

The aim of this study was to determine an exercise to rest profile for basketball, identifying if a relationship existed between total time spent on court and the intensity levels of the players. Five BBL matches (n =6) were filmed using footage which was captured and observed using the Noldus Observer Pro system. The total time and duration of high, medium and low intensity activity was configured with average time bouts of 1.5 s (± 1) for high intensity, 3.4 s (± 0.3) for medium intensity and 4.4 s (± 0.4) for low intensity exercise. Results indicated an exercise to rest ratio of 1:4:5 between high, medium and low exercise. No significant relationship was evident between the activity profiles high, medium and low intensity exercise and the total time spent on court with correlation values < 0.17 (p<0.05). The results provide evidence which refutes previous findings highlighting the link between medium and low intensity activities and their role in energy provision through oxidative metabolism as opposed to anaerobic energy pathways. These findings have a number of implications for conditioning and tactical considerations of basketball.