Repeated sprints and the relationship with anaerobic and aerobic fitness of basketball athletes

The sport of basketball is characterized by numerous explosive short exercise bursts interspersed by brief recovery periods over an extended period of time. In this situation, the activation of both energy systems, the aerobic and the anaerobic, is needed to fulfill the muscle energy demands during the game. The objective of this study was to verify the relationship between the performance of repeated sprints and the anaerobic and aerobic fitness indexes in basketball athletes. Twenty university athletes aged between 18 and 24 years participated in this study. Participants performed a 30-m sprint and incremental treadmill test. The anaerobic reserve of running, VO2peak, and ventilatory thresholds were identified. A significant correlation was observed between the anaerobic reserve of running and the performance of sprint 1 (r = 0.55), sprint 2 (r = 0.547), sprint 3 (r = 0.535), sprint peak (r = 0.574), average sprint (r = 0.475), and total time (r = 0.583), whereas VO2peak correlated with sprint 2 (r = 0.489), sprint 3 (r = 0.504), sprint 4 (r = 0.589), sprint 5 (r = 0.620), sprint 6 (r = 0.655), and average time sprint (r = 0.582). These results indicate that the ability to perform repeated sprints involves a significant participation of the anaerobic metabolism, primarily in the initial efforts, whereas as the efforts are repeated, a greater contribution of the aerobic fitness is observed.