Comparative study of the tactical indicators that characterize the fast break in male and female under-16 Basketball teams

The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare, in youth Basketball, the offensive technical and tactical indicators which contribute to the development of fast break situations. The sample consisted of 12 games, regarding female and male Under-16 during the 2009/2010 season. The variables studied were: a) fast break development form, b) recovery of ball possession (form and zone), c) distance of the outlet pass, d) fast break situations, e) fast break finalization (form and zone) and f) fast break finalization. For the overall results of this study, we used descriptive statistics procedures for presentation of frequencies and percentages of variables. For comparison of the results between male and female teams we used the ChiSquare Test (χ2), with a significance level of p ≤ .05. The results showed that for female teams the fast breaks were mostly initiated by defensive rebounds in areas near the basket as for the male teams it was through interceptions. For both groups fast breaks were mostly developed by pass and the outlet pass most often delivered to the offensive midfield. Also, for female and male teams the most common fast break situation was the 1x1 followed by the 1x0 and the lay-up was the most frequent form of finalizing ball possessions, mostly, in areas near the basket. Finally, male teams have completed a larger number of fast break and more efficiently, compared with the female teams. These results confirm that fast break is an indicator of the game with great importance and provide relevant information that can help planning and organizing the training of fast break at youth level guards; these differences were are not observed in the playoffs. Revista de Psicología del Deporte 2013. Vol. 22, núm. 1, pp. 239-244 ISSN: 1132-239X ISSNe: 1988-5636 Universitat de les Illes Balears Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Correspondence: Isabel Monteiro. Rua Maria Pia no 43. 4200-396 Porto, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected] * University of Porto. – Artículo invitado con revisión Data Analysis The statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software 17.0 and significance level was set at p ≤ .05. For the overall results of this study, we used descriptive statistics procedures for presentation of the frequencies and percentages of the variables. For comparison of the results obtained by male and female teams it was used the Chi-Square Test (χ2). Results Considering, in Table 2, all the fast breaks developed by the observed teams we realize that male teams carried out more fast breaks per game than the female teams. d) Fast break situations; e) Finalization (form and zone); f) Fast break efficiency. Isabel Monteiro, Fernando Tavares and Américo Santos 240 Revista de Psicología del Deporte. 2013. Vol. 22, núm. 1, pp. 239-244 The studied variables regarding the fast break were the following: a) Recovery of ball possession (form and zone); b) Fast break development form; c) Distance of outlet pass; Figura 1. Ball recovery zones (Mikes, 1987). Figura 2. Distance of outlet pass (Fotinakis et al., 2002). Figure 3. Finalization zones (www.82games.com). Table 1. General analysis of observed fast breaks. Fast break Total Female Teams Male Teams Frequency (n) 81 129 210 Percentage (%) 38.6% 61.4% 100% On Figure 8 we observed that the most frequent fast break situation for both groups was the 1x1 (female teams 34.6% and male teams 33.3%) followed by the 1x0 (27.2% and 28.7%, respectively), while de 2x1 was the least frequent situation with similar percentages for female (16%) and male teams (17.1%). Considering Figure 9 we verified that the layup was the most frequent form of finalizing the fast breaks for both female (74.1%) and male (77.5%) teams. This was the only variable in which we found significant differences (p ≤ .05) in the results between genders, more specifically in the suspension shot, with a 6.2% registered by the male teams and 0% by the female teams. Fast break indicators in under-16 basketball 241 Revista de Psicología del Deporte. 2013. Vol. 22, núm. 1, pp. 239-244 Regarding the fast break development forms, by observing Figure 6, we verified that female and male teams used preferably the pass rather than the dribble (64.2% e 51.9%, respectively). Analyzing Figure 7 we found that when the male teams developed their fast break using pass in more than half the times it was executed to zone 4 (56.7%). As for the female teams although showing the highest percentage of passes also to zone 4 (34.6%) they did not diverge much from the number of passes made to zone 1 (32.7%). Comparing the results regarding the form of recovering the ball possession between genders, by observing Figure 4, we realize that while the female teams registered the offensive rebound as the most frequent form of winning ball possession followed by interception (38.3% and 27.2%) the male teams obtained inverse results (32.6% and 36.4%). Considering the values presented on Figure 5 we can see that zone 8 was the most used by the female teams (26%). As for the male teams the highest value was registered on zone 9 (25.8%) although this was very close to the one registered on zone 8 (25%). Figure 4 and 5. Analysis and comparison by gender of the form and zones where the recovery of ball possession occurred. Figure 6 and 7. Analysis and comparison by gender of the fast break development forms and distance of the outlet pass.