Integrating Biomotor Ability Training with Tactical Behavior Development in Under-18 Basketball Players

Abstract

Youth basketball performance depends on the integration of physical capacity and tactical decision-making, yet training programmes for players under 18 years commonly develop these two dimensions in isolation. This study tested whether an eight-week training programme built around six biomotor abilities (sprint speed, agility, arm and leg explosive power, coordination, and performance endurance) produces greater gains in tactical behavior than a club's standard training curriculum. Using a pretest-posttest, control-group experimental design, twenty male basketball players under 18 years (M age within the club's registered youth roster) were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = 10), which received the biomotor-based programme embedded in game-like offensive and defensive situations, or a control group (n = 10), which continued the coach's regular curriculum. Tactical behavior was assessed with the Game Performance Assessment Instrument (GPAI; Oslin, Mitchell, & Griffin, 1998) across five components — decision-making, skill execution, support, covering, and moving with the ball — combined into a performance-rating index and a composite use-index. Both groups improved significantly from pretest to posttest on all six biomotor variables and all seven tactical indicators (paired-samples t-test, p < .05), but the gains were consistently larger in the experimental group. At posttest, the experimental group outscored the control group on every biomotor variable (independent-samples t-test, t(18) = 3.92–7.59, p ≤ .001) and every tactical indicator (t(18) = 2.48–9.51, p ≤ .023), with the largest between-group gap on the covering indicator (t(18) = 9.51, p < .001). These findings indicate that linking biomotor training directly to tactical decision-making within the same training unit yields greater improvement in match-relevant tactical behavior than developing physical and tactical qualities separately, and support embedding biomotor-tactical integration in the training curricula of youth basketball academies.