An investigation of the effect of heart rate variability feedback training on cognitive and basketball skills on basketball players

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of breathing exercises with the 10-week Heart Rate Variability (HRV) on basketball players, especially on basketball free-throwing skills and basketball skill tests. The second aim of the study is to investigate the effect of breathing exercises on the cognitive skills of basketball players in conjunction with the HRV. Method: A total of 24 basketball players, ages 18-24 years, were actively engaged in basketball sports. Participants were divided into two groups as experiment (n = 12) and control (n = 12). The experimental group participated in a 10-week HRV feedback training and basketball training, while the control group participated in a 10-week basketball training session. Basketball free throws, basketball skills, cognitive skills and HRV tests were applied to the experimental and control group before and after practice. Results: As a result of the statistical analysis performed, it was determined that experiment and control group obtained similar values in all tests in pretest evaluation (p> .05). As a result of the 10-week application, the test group of the experimental group improved significantly (p <.05). In the Senso motor coordination test results, both experimental and control groups showed significant improvement (p <.05). In the spatial perception test, it was determined that both the experimental group and the control group had significant improvement only in the total operation time variable (p <.05). In the attention test results, the experimental group showed significant improvement (p <.05). There was no significant change in the reaction time variable in both the experimental group and the control group (p> .05). Conclusion: The HRV feedback, along with the basketball workouts, provided a meaningful development of basketball skills.In cognitive skills, however, significant improvement was observed in the attention and reaction duration components, while the change in other components was limited. Key words: Basketball, heart rate variability, cognitive skills, free-throw