As athletes mature through adolescence, they begin to reach their peak performance and physical conditioning. Teenagers and young adults are beginning to develop and perfect the health and skill related fitness components that are imperative to the game of basketball. But, what do these health and skill related fitness components look like between the point guard and the other four positions? In a study conducted with 45 elite basketball players, the mean and standard deviation of anthropometric and physiological characteristics were collected and categorized by playing position.1 The data can be seen below. Click on the image to enlarge it.
Focusing on the physiological differences between the point guard and the four other positions, some interesting differences are apparent. Particularly focusing on the height, body mass, body fat, Agility-T test, 5-m sprint, 10-m sprint, and 30-m sprint, it is evident that point guards have significant differences.
The mean height for point guards was 186.4 cm with a standard deviation of ± 5.2 cm. This is significantly different from shooting guards (p < 0.01), small forwards, power forwards, and centers (p < 0.001). Body mass of point guards is significantly lower than shooting guards, small forwards, power forwards, and centers (p < 0.05) and body fat percentage is higher than shooting guards and small forwards (p < 0.05), but less than centers (p < 0.001).
The Agility-T test of the point guards were significantly different than shooting guards, small forwards, power forwards, and centers (p < 0.05). Interestingly, there was no significant difference found among shooting guards, small forwards, power forwards, and centers for the Agility-T test. The point guards were the quickest in the 5-m sprints with a mean of 0.88 seconds and a standard deviation of ± 0.09 seconds and quickest in the 10-m sprint with a mean of 1.74 seconds ± 0.12 seconds. This position was significantly faster than all other positions in both sprints (p < 0.05). The final sprint conducted was the 30-m sprint which was significantly slower than shooting guards and small forwards (p < 0.05).
Given the data collected during this study, it is evident that there are some significant differences between anthropometric characteristics of the point guard position and the other players. According to this study, the point guard is shorter, lighter, has the greatest agility and has the ability to accelerate quickly for short distances.
1 Hoffman, J. R., Tenenbaum, G., Maresh, C. M., & Kraemer, W. J. (1996). Relationship between athletic performance tests and playing time in elite college basketball players. Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 10(2), 67-71.
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