Sports Injuries in Basketball Players: A Systematic Review.

(1) Background: The objective of this systematic review was to collect relevant data in the available contemporary studies about sports injuries of basketball players and explain differences in sports injuries relative to gender, location, sport, and position on the court; (2) Methods: The papers were searched digitally using PubMed, MEDLINE, ERIC, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect databases, from 1990 to 2024; (3) Results: The most frequent severe injuries for both genders are knee and ankle injuries and the most frequent forms of injury are ankle sprain and ligament strain. The most frequent injuries occur during running and after contact with the ball. Shooting guards sustain the highest injury rate followed by centers and point guards, while guards have the highest rate of adductor muscle injury; and (4) Conclusions: Studies indicate that ankle and knee injuries are prevalent among basketball players, with ankle sprains being particularly prevalent. Knee injuries are more common in female basketball players, including ACL injuries. Various factors contribute to injuries, including the biomechanics of jumping, landing, sudden changes in direction, and the physical demands placed on the body during the game.

Muscle Contractile Properties Measured by the Tensiomyography (TMG) Method in Top-Level Football Players of Different Playing Positions: The Case of Serbian Super League.

The aim of this study is to investigate the differences in muscle contractile properties measured by the TMG method between top-level football players of different playing positions. The sample consisted of 57 football players from the Serbian Super League, divided into three groups: defenders-DF, midfielders-MF, and forwards-FW. Muscles included in the study were the Rectus Femoris (RF), Vastus Medialis (VM), Vastus Lateralis (VL), Biceps Femoris (BF), and Semitendinosus (ST) of the right (R) and left (L) leg. The TMG parameters used in this study were contraction time (Tc), delay time (Td), relaxation time (Tr), maximal displacement (Dm), and sustain time (Ts). The ANOVA results showed that differences in TMG parameters between top-level football players of different playing positions are small and exist only in the Tr of RF (F = 4.658, p = 0.014), BF (F = 4.433, p = 0.016), and ST muscle (F = 3.808, p = 0.028), and the Tc (F = 3.214, p = 0.048) and Td (F = 3.705, p = 0.031) of the VM muscle. All differences were detected between DF and FW players, and all differences were in the left (non-dominant) leg. The results obtained in this study indicate that the training and selection process in football, from the aspect of functional and mechanical muscle properties, should be similar for all players, regardless of playing position. It has been shown that TMG has relatively low sensitive strength for detecting differences between football players of different playing positions.