FEATURE ARTICLE
THE APPLICATION OF
CONTRAST TRAINING TO
BASKETBALL
JEREMY BETTLE, PHD
PHYSICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL DEMANDS OF BASKETBALL
Basketball is a high-intensity, intermittent sport that places high demands on
the metabolic systems (4). On average, a player’s heart rate will be maintained
at around 90% of the maximum heart rate during active play, with players
performing 100 – 200 high-intensity, short duration (1.7 s) movements
during a game. This means that the main energy systems stressed are the
adenosine triphosphate-phosphocreatine (ATP-PC) and the anaerobic
glycolytic systems (4).
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