Physical performance of elite wheelchair basketball players in armcranking ergometry and in selected wheeling tasks

This study compared the aerobic and the anaerobic performance of 11 elite Israeli wheelchair basketball players in arm ergometric tests and corresponding wheeling tasks, derived from basketball practice. The ergometric tests included a continuous aerobic maximal peak work capacity test (PWCmax), and a 30-second arm-all-out anaerobic test of mean anaerobic capacity (MANC) and peak anaerobic power (PANP). The wheeling tasks included a 428 meter race, slalom and 6-minute endurance race. We examined the relationship of performance variables to personal variables, age, bodyweight and classification as athletes. The results were analysed by Spearman correlation tables, revealing the following: (1) HRmax (maximal heart rate) correlated highly (r = .884-.962) with performance in all wheeling tasks; (2) no relationship was found between variables in the arm ergometric tests and variables in the wheeling tasks; (3) bodyweight correlated significantly with MANC and PWCmax (r = .817 and .783 respectively). This relationship was better than the other independent variables (classification and age). It is concluded that HRmax can be used for performance evaluation in wheelchair basketball practice, and that arm ergometric work capacity has only limited predictive value of performance in wheeling tasks.