Basketball Referee In The Physiological Load

Purpose: To examine heart rate and the walk steps in basketball referees in the provincial adolescent games, and examine the relationship among the changes of those physical indices in games and age, weight, classes of referee.Methods: This study was conducted in 21 basketball referees, with the average age 36.96±7.2. One International Class, 1 National A Class, 8 National Class, and 11 Class I were included in those referees. The heart rate and walk steps were recorded in Jiangsu provincial adolescent basketball games using a heart rate monitor and pedometer.Results: Average heart rates of the referees in the basketball games mainly changed within a range from 130 to 149 beats/min, and it also increased above 150 beats/min (about 10 percent of the subjects). Of the subjects, about 33% had a maximum heart rate in the games more than 200 beats/min, and 30% were below 180 beats/min. These changes of the heart rate were not associated with age, weight and rest heart rate. Comparing the average heart rate, the maximal heart rate and the distribution of the heart rate in the games among different classes of the referees, we found there were no significant differences among them. Average walk steps in the games were 5861.64+941.78, and the higher class of referee was likely to move more frequently in the games. There was, however, no significant difference in the walk steps between the two different classes of referee groups. The results also showed that, the walk steps in games were not related with age and weight.Conclusions: The average workload of basketball referees in the provincial adolescent games belongs to medium intensity. However, the heart rate of the referees also increased above 200 beats/min or more in the basketball games. To maintain enough physical fitness in the games, more exercises in daily life are needed for the basketball referees.