The Effect of Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback on Basketball Performance Tests

The objective of the present study is to investigate the effects of ten-weeks heart rate variability biofeedback training on the basketball skill, free throw, and heart rate variability parameters. We aimed to increase vagal activation and to assess its effects on basketball performance and heart rate variability parameters . Twenty-four basketball players (experimental, n=12 and control, n=12) aged 18–24 volunteered to participate in this study. The experimental group participated in a ten-weeks heart rate variability biofeedback and basketball training program, while the control group participated only in a ten-weeks basketball training session. Basketball free-throw performance, basketball skills, and heart rate variability tests were applied to the experimental and control groups before and after ten-weeks of the intervention. We found that basketball free-throw performance, breathing frequency and heart rate variability parameters that reflect vagal modulation of parasympathetic activity improved in participants who underwent the ten-weeks heart rate variability biofeedback and basketball training, and not in those who underwent basketball training only. Finding suggest that heart rate variability biofeedback, along with basketball workouts, may contribute to better basketball free-throw performance potentially via improved autonomic nervous system functioning.