Influence of analysis focus and playing time on internal average and peak physical demands of professional male basketball players during competition. [Influencia del tiempo de juego en las demandas de carga interna pico y promedio en jugadores de baloncesto.]

The main aim of this study was identifying the internal demands during competition including the impact of analysis method (i.e., average vs. peak demands). A secondary aim was to analyze the effects of playing time on the internal demands (average and peak). Methods: Twenty-two professional basketball players were mo- nitored during 11 games. The following internal workload variables were recorded as averages (i.e., value per minute considering the entire game) and peak values (i.e., greatest 1-minute window): 1) average Heart Rate (HR), peak HR, average Respiration Rate (RR), peak RR, average Ventilation (VE), peak VE, average VO2 and peak VO2. Results: Significantly higher peak values (very large effect size) for all internal variables were evident when compared to their average demand. Concerning playing time comparison, significantly greater average values were reached for large playing time group (24.54 ± 3.23 min) for all variables compared to small playing time group (14.13 ± 3.78 min). However, non-significant differences were apparent between large playing time and small playing time group at their internal PD. Conclusions: Understanding internal load demands using averages values drastically underestimates the internal peak values of games. Thus, 14 minutes of total playing time (1.5 quarters; ~37% of a game) is enough to expose to the players to internal peak demands.