Load and performance monitoring in wheelchair court sports: A narrative review.

Introduction:

Quantifying measures of physical loading has been an essential part of performance monitoring within elite able-bodied sport, facilitated through advancing innovative technology.

Wheelchair basketball (WB), wheelchair rugby (WR) and wheelchair tennis (WT), collectively known as wheelchair court sports (WCS), share unique characteristics which restrict application of mainstream technologies.

In wheelchair court sports (WCS) the inter-individual variability of physical impairments in the athletes increases the necessity for accurate load and performance measurements. Standard load monitoring methods (e.g., heart rate) often fail in this group and dedicated WCS performance measurement methods are scarce.

Study aim:

1) To identify and examine the technology within WCS literature for load and performance monitoring to identify the studies with meaningful insights.

2) To establish the applicability of these technologies in sports practice.

3) To propose practical recommendations for WCS performance monitoring.

Methods:

A comprehensive search of relevant databases (PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar) was performed in January 2021. Search terms associated with “wheelchair”, “sport”, “performance” and “technology” were used to assess suitability. Articles were included if a form of technology was used for quantifying performance load metrics in WCS, with no restriction on the year of publication.

An initial search yielded 3198 articles, with 1166 remaining after removing duplicates and incomplete references. Two authors independently conducted stage-wise eligibility screening, with title- followed by abstract-screening for review relevance. Subsequently, reviewers selected 59 and 67 papers respectively, with consensus attained (n = 72). 

Main findings:

• Objective measures of wheelchair mobility performance are paramount in WCS, since they enable quantification of workload across athletes of all classifications and in structured field testing, training and match play settings.
• Wheelchair mounted inertial sensors are most reliable and versatile for measuring wheelchair mobility performance and estimates of workload - a combination with local position measurement via indoor tracking or image-based processing could be useful to add context.
• For wheelchair athletes bound to a wheelchair for daily use, workload monitoring on a regular basis, both on- and off-court, is crucial to avoid overuse injuries.
• Athletes with lower severity impairments often lack frequent exposure to optimal and progressive loading, reducing the likelihood of positive physiological adaptations.
• The flexibility afforded by IMUs, which functions accurately with detailed performance metrics available in both structured and unstructured settings, makes this device the most universally suitable.

Reference:

Van der Slikke RMA, Sindall P, Goosey-Tolfrey VL, Mason BS. Load and performance monitoring in wheelchair court sports: A narrative review of the use of technology and practical recommendations. Eur J Sport Sci. 2023 Feb;23(2):189-200. DOI: 10.1080/17461391.2021.2025267. Epub 2022 Feb 13. PMID: 34974822.

Image credit: © Paralympics GB