Acute physiological, perceived exertion and enjoyment responses during a 4-week basketball training: a small-sided game vs. high-intensity interval training
Question
Do 4 weeks of basketball small-sided games and running-based HIIT differ in physiological load, perceived exertion, and enjoyment in female collegiate basketball players?
Summary
In sub-elite female collegiate basketball players, 4 weeks of half-court 2v2 small-sided games produced similar heart-rate and exertion responses to duration-matched intermittent running HIIT, but players enjoyed the small-sided games more.
Methodology
- Sub-elite female collegiate basketball players from one regional league team
- 19 participants.
- Intermittent shuttle running with 180-degree changes of direction.
- Work intervals: 15 seconds at 90-95% VIFT.
- Recovery: 15 seconds passive recovery while walking back to the start.
- Intensity: 90-95% VIFT; heart rate monitored.
- Duration matched to the SSG sessions after a 15-minute standardized warm-up.
- 3 sessions per week.
- 4 weeks.
- Matched-group randomized parallel training study
- Mean heart rate, Perceived exertion, and Enjoyment were tracked.
Outcomes
Heart rate
Heart-rate responses did not differ significantly between SSG and HIT, although SSG was below 90% HRmax during weeks 1 and 2.
No group x time interaction or group effect; time effects for HRmean p=0.004 and %HRmax p<0.001. SSG %HRmax was 87.8 +/- 2.2 in week 1 and 88.1 +/- 2.6 in week 2.
RPE
Perceived exertion rose over time but did not differ between training modes.
No group x time interaction or main group effect; time effect p<0.001, partial eta squared=0.31.
Enjoyment
Players reported higher enjoyment during SSG than HIT at every week.
Main group effect p<0.001, partial eta squared=0.44; weekly mean differences favored SSG by 7.70 to 11.06 points with p values from 0.03 to <0.001.
Insights
- Half-court 2v2 basketball games can produce internal load similar to running HIIT while improving enjoyment.
- For high-intensity targets, early SSG sessions may need rule constraints, encouragement, or sufficient duration to reach >90% HRmax.
- Game-based HIIT may be useful when adherence and athlete motivation matter.
Limitations
- Small sample of sub-elite female players from one team.
- No blood lactate, biochemical markers, or external-load measures.
- Anonymous enjoyment ratings prevented individual RPE-enjoyment correlations.
- Motivational factors were not measured.
Safety
- Five participants were excluded from analysis because of more than two missed training sessions or lower-limb injuries; the NXML did not clearly attribute injuries to the interventions.