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- 🏀 Skill Adaptation in Basketball and Analyzing Netball Superleague Team Performances
🏀 Skill Adaptation in Basketball and Analyzing Netball Superleague Team Performances
🐍🍎 Using Python to Track Basketball Skill Improvement and Adaptation Patterns
Haresh Suppiah
September 22, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes
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In today’s edition:
• Skill adaptation in basketball coaching
• Analysis of netball team performances 2023-2024
• Effects of training intensity on cancer survivors
• Validity of barbell velocity measurements
• Understanding brain changes in chronic ankle instability
• Muscle fiber adaptations in exercise training
and several more…
In focus: Understanding Skill Adaptation in Basketball Coaching
In the realm of basketball coaching, effective skill adaptation is fundamental for enhancing player development and performance. Recent findings highlight a shift from the traditional product-oriented approach toward a deeper understanding of motor learning processes. Notably, Cognitive Processes Involved in the Motor Control of Basketball emphasizes that there is no single optimal execution model for basketball skills; instead, players should focus on key elements of technique, develop automation through repetitive practice, and embrace variability in training. This individualized approach not only enhances skill execution but also considers each athlete's unique physical and psychological attributes.
Moreover, tracking the longitudinal development of technical skills, as demonstrated in the INEX Study, proves crucial for identifying players who may need targeted interventions to refine their skills. This aligns with the concept of blending skill and performance training, where, as noted in Operating in the Gray Area: Blending Skill & Performance Training, an integration of diverse training methods can better support athlete development.
The application of frameworks like the PoST Framework for Skill Development also underscores the importance of creating adaptive training environments through systematic periodization. Doing so allows coaches to cater to individual athlete needs while facilitating a more comprehensive learning experience. Ultimately, leveraging insights from these studies not only enhances the understanding of skill adaptation in basketball but also provides coaches with a robust foundation for improving performance and meeting the diverse requirements of their athletes.
-Haresh 🤙
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Python Coding Challenge: Basketball Skill Adaptation Tracking
By the end of this challenge, you'll create a comprehensive basketball skill adaptation tracker that generates detailed player progress visualizations and coaching insights. This interactive analysis tool instantly reveals individual player development patterns, team-wide adaptation rates, and actionable coaching recommendations that professional basketball teams use to optimize their training programs.
💻 Launch This Project in Colab
Open the interactive Google Colab notebook for today's project — with full instructions, hints, and solutions to the extension task.
Key finding:
Top-quality netball teams have significantly improved performance metrics since 2008, outperforming lower-quality teams in key statistics.
How they did it:
Methodology: The study analyzed 188 matches from the British Netball Super League (NSL) during the 2023 and 2024 seasons, categorizing teams into top (top 4) and bottom (bottom 6) based on league position and utilizing video analysis software to measure performance indicators like center pass (CP) conversion and turnover (TO) metrics.
Results: Top-quality teams converted a median of over 70% of CP and TO into goals, whereas bottom-quality teams achieved only 62-64%. Additionally, top teams had significantly higher scores, with a median of 63 goals and shooting accuracy of 90% compared to 51 goals and 86% accuracy for bottom teams.
Innovations: A bespoke coding system used by performance analysts allowed for consistent tracking of performance indicators via video analysis, leading to high inter-rater reliability (ICC of 0.908–1.000) and comprehensive data comparisons across different match scenarios.
Performance Improvement: Since 2008, the study observed a median performance improvement exceeding 20% in key indicators like goal conversions, illustrating significant advancements in the technical capabilities of teams within the NSL.
Competitive Benchmarking: The results provide a crucial benchmark for evaluating future league changes as the NSL prepares for a major relaunch in 2025, ensuring that the assessment of competitiveness and consistency among teams remains grounded in up-to-date performance metrics.
Why it matters:
These findings emphasize the clear performance gap between top- and bottom-performing teams in the British Netball Superleague, with top teams converting over 70% of their centre passes and turnovers into goals. This data provides coaches with concrete benchmarks to guide training focus on possession strategies, ultimately enhancing game efficiency and effectiveness against varied opposition. As the league prepares for its 2025 relaunch, understanding these performance indicators will be crucial for teams seeking to elevate their competitive edge.
Key finding:
Personalized shooting coaching in the NBA enhances player adaptability and performance through a structured skill training approach.
How they did it:
Methodology: The study involved an applied case analysis of professional basketball shooting coaches, focusing on individualized player development within the NBA setting. Coaches utilized the ‘Periodization of Skill Training’ (PoST) framework to design practice tasks that enhanced skill adaptability and coordinated shooting techniques.
Results: Coaches noted significant improvements in shooting performance metrics, specifically highlighting that players who underwent individualized training adapted their shooting techniques to better align with emerging gameplay dynamics and improved their success rates, particularly in three-point shooting.
Innovations: The PoST framework was introduced as a systematic approach for skill periodization in team sports, allowing for the integration of ecological dynamics principles in specialized coaching contexts. This framework advocates for training designs that shift between coordination, adaptability, and performance training across different phases and competitive schedules.
Practical Application: The study provided insights into how individualized coaching interventions can systematically enhance players’ shooting efficacy through tailored constraints in practice environments, illustrating a departure from traditional, one-size-fits-all training methods often used in professional basketball.
Implications for Coaching: The findings emphasize the necessity for basketball coaches to create training environments that foster continuous adaptability and exploration of movement solutions, thereby enhancing players’ performance under varying competitive pressures.
Why it matters:
This study sheds light on how individualized skill training, specifically in basketball shooting, can better prepare athletes to adapt to the fast-evolving dynamics of modern gameplay. By employing the Periodization of Skill Training (PoST) framework, shooting coaches can optimize practice sessions, aligning them with player strengths and weaknesses, ultimately leading to more consistent shooting performance—especially crucial given that nearly 40% of shots in the NBA are now taken from beyond the arc. This focus on tailored development not only enhances player confidence but also contributes to overall team success on the court.
Biomechanics
-The human adductor magnus primarily functions as a hip extensor rather than an adductor, influencing locomotion mechanics.
Injury
-The ROMMIL checklist establishes 33 essential data elements to enhance musculoskeletal injury reporting and research in military settings.
Injury
-Preseason shoulder function, not pain, predicts swimming performance improvement in collegiate athletes.
Injury
-Knee torsion thresholds can predict the severity of patellar maltracking in patients with recurrent dislocation.
Injury
-Elite handball players navigate health risks by balancing personal agency and performance pressures throughout their careers.
Psychosocial Factors in Sport
-Atrophy in brain areas linked to pain suggests psychological barriers hinder recovery in chronic ankle instability patients.
Sport Physiology
-Muscle fiber types in humans adapt differently to exercise training, highlighted by advancements in proteomics.
Sport Physiology
-The respiratory compensation point is not a reliable estimate of critical power during normoxia or hypoxia.
Sport Physiology
-Prolonged running decreases speed at higher intensity without further impact from increased eccentric load.
Sport Psychology
-The yips in golf may be linked to physical ailments like sore throats and fevers, suggesting health impacts on performance.
Sport Technology
-The My Jump Lab app is a valid and reliable tool for real-time measurement of barbell velocity and power during squats.
Training and Conditioning
-Pyramidal and threshold training similarly improve endurance in cancer survivors, with threshold training requiring less time.
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