The speech of three school coaches on basketball initiation and specialization

Abstract

Objective: to identify the categories considered ideal for sports initiation, sports specialization and specialization in a field position in basketball.

Methods: three semi-structured interviews were conducted with coaches, whose testimonies were analyzed based on the Content Analysis method.

Results: from the coaches’ speeches and the interlocution among other authors, it was observed that there is no approach considered ideal among them for sports initiation, early sports specialization is a common concern among them and care should be taken to specialize the athlete in a position due to morphological, biodynamic and pedagogical factors; the coaches' opinion revealed that this specialization should occur between the under-16 and adult teams (categories).

Conclusion: the coaches showed concern with aspects related to early specialization, with speeches aligned with the literature on the age group (category) to reduce involvement with other sports.