Acute Effects of Verbal Encouragement and Listening to Preferred Music on Maximal Repeated Change-of-Direction Performance in Adolescent Elite Basketball Players—Preliminary Report.

Featured Application: Repeated change of direction (R-CoD) is an important capacity in basketball. In this study, we evaluated the potential applicability of the two specific ergogenic methods, listening of preferred music, and verbal encouragement, regarding its effectiveness in improving R-CoD in elite youth basketball players. Results showed beneficial effects of both methods, but with no significant differential effects. As R-CoD in basketball is directly related to competitive success, these findings should be translated into regular basketball training to benefit competitive success. Verbal encouragement (VE) and listening to preferred music (PM) are considered effective ergogenic methods in strength and conditioning, but studies examining the effectiveness of these two methods simultaneously are lacking. This study analyzed the influence of PM and VE on repeated change-of-direction performance (R-CoD) in elite young basketball players. On alternate days, 18 elite young basketball players (17.2 ± 0.61 years; 189.8 ± 7 cm; 71.6 ± 6.7 kg; body fat: 12.3 ± 2.5%) were assessed on R-CoD under three randomized conditions: team-selected PM, VE, and control condition. Total time (TT), peak time (PT), and fatigue index were registered and compared across conditions. Significant differences across conditions were evidenced for TT and PT (F-test = 6.96 and 4.15, p < 0.05; large effect size), with better results in VE and PM than in the control condition and no significant differences between VE and PM. No correlations were evidenced between changes that occurred as a result of VE and those which occurred as a result of PM, indicating individual responsiveness of the players to VE and PM. The results evidenced positive acute effects of VE and PM on R-CoD performance, indicating the usefulness of these training methods in the conditioning of youth basketball players. Future studies should evaluate the applicability of VE and PM in the training of other conditioning capacities and the individual responsiveness of players toward VE and PM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]