Agradecimentos: The first two authors were supported by a grant from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Finance Code 001. This study was partially supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) and Federação Catarinense de Basketball (FCB). Other co-authors have received no funding for this work besides salary support from their respective institutions. An initial version of the manuscript is available as a preprint (doi:https://doi.org/10.51224/SRXIV.135) Ver menos

Abstract: The present study examined the influence of the specialization onset on the magnitude and patterns of changes in basketball-specific physical fitness within a competitive season and developmental fitness trends between 11 and 17 years in young basketball players. Repeated measures of 181 young basketball players (female, n?=?40; male, n?=?141) were examined. Anthropometry, age, estimated maturity status, and basketball-specific physical fitness (assessed with the countermovement jump, line drill, and yo-yo intermittent recovery level-1 and fitness score) were considered. Players were grouped by the onset of specialization as related to biological maturation milestones (pre-puberty, mid-puberty, and late-puberty specialization). The within-season and developmental changes in physical fitness were fitted using multilevel modeling in a fully Bayesian framework. The fitness outcomes were similar between-player and within-player changes when grouped by specialization across a season. Fitness improvements across a season were apparent for female players, while male players maintained their performance levels. There was no variation in the patterns of physical fitness development between 11 and 17 years associated with the onset of specialization. Conditional on our data and models, the assumption that early sport specialization provides a physical fitness advantage for future athletic success does not hold Ver menos