Ayhan Goktepe

The Effect of Fatigue on the Kinematics of Free Throw Shooting in Basketball

The Effect of Fatigue on the Kinematics of Free Throw Shooting in Basketball Fatigue is an indispensible part of a basketball game which may affect an athletes shooting kinematics. Although kinematic analyses of various sports related movements were extensively done, this study is the first to consider the effects of fatigue on the kinematics of free throw shooting. After measuring the resting heart rate, ten collegiate level, male basketball players (21.8±1.6 y; 192.8±3.6 cm; 84.1±8.5 kg) were asked to perform free throws. Two successful and two unsuccessful free throws were selected. Thereafter, participants were asked to complete the fatigue protocol, which included 30m sprints and 5 vertical jumps at each end, until they reached volitional exhaustion. Additional two successful and two unsuccessful free throws were collected. All shots were recorded by using two digital cameras operating at 60 Hz and placed in a stereoscopic view. The elbow, trunk, knee and ankle joint angles were measured before and after the ball release and at the ball release point. The selected joint angles were compared between successful and unsuccessful free throws, as well as before and after the completion of fatigue protocol. The results demonstrated that fatigue did not effect free throw shooting kinematics (p>0.05) and there was no significant joint angle difference between successful and unsuccessful shots (p>0.05). This study suggested that high level athletes are able to cope with the possible detrimental effects of fatigue while performing coordinated movements such as free throw shooting.

An Examination of the Differences in the Angles Created in the Lower and Upper Extremities During Tennis Serves by Male and Female Players

The present study was conducted on 4 female and 4 male tennis players (Average age 11.6±0.7 years; height 153.2±6.9 cm; body mass index 42.0±3.9 kg; player experience 6.4±1.3 years). All the participants volunteered to participate in the study. The players hit their tennis serves at the maximum speed they could, imagining that they were in a real tennis match. The images for successful and unsuccessful tennis serves were recorded synchronously with a speed of 60 pictures/ second by using two video cameras. These recorded images were subjected to photogrammetric evaluation using Pictran software. The ankle, shoulder and elbow angles of the players were observed during the tennis serve before hitting, at the time of hitting and after hitting the ball.