| Sumario: | The aim of this investigation was to examine the impact of mental fatigue on basketball specific shooting performance, utilising the newly developed basketball Standardized Shooting Task (SST). Fifteen male elite NCAA Division 1 collegiate basketball players (Age 20.2 ± 1.2 y, height 199.3 ± 7.1 cm, body mass 93.1 ± 8.6 kg) volunteered to participate in a randomised, counterbalanced crossover design undergoing three conditions (Control, Stroop, and Film). The task, performed on three consecutive days, was comprised of 60 free throw attempts followed by a 4-minute spot-to-spot shooting. Visual Analog Scales revealed significantly higher levels of mental fatigue following the Stroop (54.2 ± 24.5) condition compared to the Control (24.5 ± 16.2) and higher levels of mental effort in the Stroop (61.0 ± 31.3) and Film (49.9 ± 27.7) compared to the Control (14.0 ± 18.5). No significant differences were observed for Motivation among groups (p > 0.05). There was a significant decrease (p = 0.006) in number of shots made in 4-minutes (MAKE4MIN; control = 49.5 ± 10.2, Stroop = 44.0 ± 10.6, and Film = 45.1 ± 11.7) and shots missed in 4-minutes (MISS4MIN; control = 27.3 ± 7.0, Stroop = 30.9 ± 7.1, and Film = 30.9 ± 7.6). No significant differences were detected for any other performance variables. These data demonstrate that mental fatigue negatively impacts basketball shooting performance in elite collegiate basketball players. We suggest that practitioners and coaches encourage athletes to abstain from cognitively demanding tasks prior to basketball competition. Basketball shooting performance was significantly reduced following acutely increased levels of mental fatigue. This study provides novel preliminary evidence that a sport-specific Film session of 30-minutes in duration (or longer) requires a large amount of mental effort and may also have a detrimental effect on subsequent basketball shooting performance The outcomes of this study suggest that practitioners and coaches should encourage elite collegiate basketball players to abstain from potential cognitively demanding tasks prior to practice and games when shooting performance is required.
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