Advances in microtechnology have enabled detailed monitoring of athlete movement and physiology, providing actionable data for training periodization in team sports. Basketball combines aerobic and anaerobic efforts with frequent changes of direction, accelerations, decelerations, jumps, sprints, and sport-specific technical actions, making accurate load quantification essential. The study applies a task-specific framework—directed-oriented (DIR), special-oriented (SPE), and competitive-oriented (COM)—to examine how different training task orientations and court-space manipulations affect external and internal load in women’s basketball.
Fourteen female basketball players were continuously monitored for 22 weeks. Movement was captured using a WIMU PRO® local positioning system (LPS) and physiological responses were recorded with GARMIN® heart rate monitors. The external load (EL) and internal load (IL) variables analyzed were:
Training tasks were categorized by orientation: DIR (drills without opposition), SPE (small-sided games such as 2v2–4v3 formats integrating decision-making), and COM (game-like 4v4 and 5v5 formats). Tasks were also grouped by three levels of court space to assess how playing area size affected measured demands.
The Shapiro–Wilk test assessed data normality. Linear mixed-effects models were used to analyze all outcome variables, accounting for repeated measures across players and sessions. Variables with skewed distributions were log-transformed to satisfy model assumptions. Statistical significance was defined as p < 0.05.
The analysis revealed consistent differences across task orientations:
SPE tasks produced significantly higher values than COM tasks (p < 0.001) for all external load variables measured, with the exception of HRZ where no SPE > COM difference was reported.
When comparing SPE to DIR, SPE elicited greater internal and high-speed demands: HRZ and HSR were higher in SPE than in DIR (both p < 0.001), and PL was also greater in SPE (p = 0.008).
DIR tasks generated higher DIST, HACC, HDEC and JUMPS than COM tasks (all p < 0.001). In contrast, COM tasks yielded higher HRZ than DIR (p < 0.001), indicating that competitive-like formats promoted greater time spent above 80% maximal heart rate compared with directed drills without opposition.
These contrasts indicate that small-sided games and directed drills can impose greater mechanical and locomotor loads than full competitive formats for certain metrics, while competitive formats may drive higher cardiovascular strain as measured by heart rate zones.
Court-space level influenced all variables analyzed. In general, larger court spaces produced greater demands across most external and physiological metrics. The results indicate that manipulating playing area is an effective method to scale external load (distance, accelerations/decelerations, high-speed running, jumps, and player load) during training tasks.
The findings demonstrate that both task orientation and court space are key determinants of the physical and physiological loads experienced by female basketball players during training. Practical implications reported by the authors include:
Use of SPE (small-sided games) to increase mechanical load and high-speed running while also elevating physiological stress compared with some drills, supporting their use when the goal is to simulate multi-component demands that include decision making.
Incorporation of DIR drills when the aim is to raise accelerative/decelerative demands, total distance and jump counts without the same cardiovascular strain seen in COM tasks.
Recognition that COM formats (4v4 and 5v5) may produce higher heart-rate-based internal load (HRZ), suggesting their utility when targeting cardiovascular or game-specific intensity.
Manipulating court space provides an additional, controllable parameter to scale the magnitude of external and internal load according to training objectives.
Overall, training should be strategically tailored—selecting task orientation and court space depending on whether the target stimulus is mechanical, locomotor, neuromuscular (e.g., jumps), or cardiovascular.
The article reports that data cannot be publicly shared due to Institutional Review Board rules; qualified researchers may request access from the Instituto Nacional de Educación Física de Catalunya, which will review requests for ethical and legal compliance. The study was supported by a Spanish Government project focused on multimodal data integration and intelligent models for team sports performance (PID2023-147577NB-I00, 2024–2027). No competing interests were declared.
Objective monitoring across 22 weeks in a cohort of 14 female players shows that task orientation and court space significantly influence both external and internal load in women’s basketball. SPE and DIR tasks often elicited greater mechanical and locomotor intensities than COM tasks, while COM formats induced greater heart-rate-based internal load compared with DIR. Coaches and strength-conditioning staff should adapt training design—including choice of task orientation and court area—to produce the desired physical and physiological stimuli for performance development and periodization.
Published citation: Pons-Gomila P, Castellano J, Calleja-González J, Espasa-Labrador J, Cabarkapa D, García F (2026) Analysis of physical and physiological training demands in women’s basketball. PLoS One. Details and raw data access conditions are reported in the original article.