Magnitude, Frequency, and Accumulation: Workload Among Injured and Uninjured Youth Basketball Players

Overuse injuries are common in basketball. Wearable technology enables the workload to be monitored in sport settings. However, workload–injury models lack a biological basis both in the metrics recorded and how workload is accumulated. We introduce a new metric for monitoring workload: weighted jump height, where each jump height is weighted to represent the expected effect of the jump magnitude on damage to the tendon. The objectives of this study were to use principal components analysis to identify distinct modes of variation in all workload metrics accumulated over 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks and to examine differences among the modes of variation in workload metrics between participants before the injury and uninjured participants. Forty-nine youth basketball players participated in their typical basketball practices and games, and lower extremity injuries were classified as patellar or Achilles tendinopathy, other overuse, or acute. An inertial measurement unit recorded the number and height of all jumps, and session rating of perceived exertion was recorded. The previous 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-week workloads of jump count, jump height, weighted jump height, and session rating of perceived exertion were summed for each participant-week. Principal components analysis explained the variance in the accumulated workload variables. Using the retained principal components, the difference between the workload of injured participants in the week before the injury and the mean workload of uninjured participants was described for patellar or Achilles tendinopathy, overuse lower extremity injury, and any lower extremity injury. Participants with patellar or Achilles tendinopathy and overuse lower extremity injuries had a low workload magnitude for all variables in the 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks before injury compared with the weeks before no injury. Participants with overuse lower extremity injuries and any lower extremity injury had a high previous 1-week workload for all variables along with a low previous 3- and 4-week jump count, jump height, and weighted jump height before injury compared with the weeks before no injury. Weighted jump height represents the cumulative damage experienced by tissues due to repetitive loads. Injured youth basketball athletes had a low previous 3- and 4-week workloads coupled with a high previous 1-week workload.