Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2024

Abstract

This report aimed to examine the effects of COVID-19 on athletic performance and recovery in women’s basketball players. Twelve participants were included in this case report, with four serving as the test group and eight serving as the control group. All participants wore a Polar GPS unit and a Whoop Strap. The Polar unit was worn during games and practices and used to collect metrics of physical workload. The Whoop strap was worn during daily activities, including periods of sleep, to collect metrics of sleep and recovery. Data were analyzed via descriptive statistics (mean difference ± standard deviations), and T-tests were used to evaluate between-group differences (p < 0.05). To further analyze clinical significance, the Smallest Worthwhile Change (SWC) and Cohen’s d effect sizes were calculated. The results indicated that COVID-19 had the greatest effect on heart rate and sleep metrics with smaller, yet still clinically meaningful, effects on athletic performance. The results show the multisystem effect of COVID-19 on women’s basketball players, including both a physiological and performance decrement during training and less efficient recovery. This was the first study to examine the direct impact of COVID-19 on athletic performance and recovery, and it provides insight into the importance of proper return-to-play considerations.

Comments

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License

DOI

10.24018/ejsport.2024.3.2.105

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


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