Evaluation of Pre-and Post-Competition Agility in Elite Male Wheelchair Basketball Athletes

The purpose of this study was to evaluate pre-and post-competition agility in elite male wheelchair basketball athletes. Sixteen wheelchair basketball players volunteered to participate in this research. The mean (SD) age was 27.12 +/- 7.28 years, height was 1.68 +/- 0.13 m, body weight was 67.81 +/- 14.46 kg, pulse was 120.30 +/- 4.13 beats/min for pre-competition and pulse was 173.11 +/- 4.27 beats/min for post-competition in the 16 wheelchair basketball players. We applied a testing procedure that included measurements of the agility. Proagility test was applied pre-and post-competition in formal competition, and the result was recorded. Heart rate was recorded and monitored continuously for the pre-and post-competition via a heart rate monitor. The mean (SD) pre-competitive agility was 8.66 +/- 1.00 second and post-competitive agility was 9.10 +/- 1.18 seconds for wheelchair basketball players. Paired t-tests detected significant differences in pre- and post-competition for agility (p<0.05). In conclusion, agility is an important characteristic to consider in the physical conditioning of wheelchair basketball players.