Use of Performance Testing for Monitoring Overtraining in Elite Youth Basketball Players

Jay R. Hoffman, PhD, CSCS, *D, FACSMDepartment of Health and Physical EducationThe College of New JerseyMeir KaminskyIsrael Basketball OrganizationTel Aviv, IsraelKeywords: fitness; basketball; overtraining; elite athletes; conditioning.THE OVERTRAINING SYNDROMEmay be considered a continuum ofnegative adaptations to training.Symptoms of overtraining appearwhen the training stimulus hasreached the point where either orboth training intensity and trainingvolume has become too excessiveand is coupled with inadequate restand recovery. Initial stages of over-training are generally accompaniedby subjective feelings of fatigue andstaleness but may or may not beaccompanied by decrements inperformance. As this continuumproceeds, these subjective feelingsof fatigue and staleness become as-sociated with decreases in perfor-mance. When the training stimulusis excessive and recovery and adap-tation do not occur within an antic-ipated time, the athlete is consid-ered to be overreaching. With adecrease in the training stimulusand adequate rest, complete recov-ery will usually occur within a weekor two (14). This recovery may alsocoincide with an overcompensationand improved performance. Often,overreaching is a planned phase ofmany training programs. When the imbalance betweentraining and recovery continues foran indefinite period of time, theathlete will progress from a stage ofoverreaching and fatigue to themore serious problem of overtrain-ing. Overtraining may be the cul-mination of repeated warningsthat went unacknowledged or un-noticed by the athlete or coach.Many times, a plateau or a decre-ment in performance will be metwith frustration on the part of theathlete and/or coach. This may bethe initial symptom of what wasearlier referred to as overreaching.However, the athlete or coach mayignore these signs, and instead ofreducing the training stimulus andresting, they increase the trainingstimulus, thinking that the athleteneeds to train harder to get pastthis plateau. This will result in adownward spiral of events that cul-minates in chronic fatigue and insignificant performance decre-ments that are associated with theovertraining syndrome. Recoveryfrom overtraining may be quitelong (exceeding 6 months; 14).