Breakfast improves basketball players’ shooting performance, gestures that combine cognition and physics.
- Shooting requires high cognitive involvement and energy to put the ball in the basket.
- Free-throw, two-point and three-point shooting performance all improved after eating in the morning
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. New proof is that it improves our athletic and intellectual performance. American researchers from the University of Kansas have published a study showing that breakfast can improve a basketball player’s shooting performance, sometimes significantly. The study was published Nov. 2 in the journal Physical Education and Sport.
Shooting, a mix of cognition and physics
The researchers recruited 18 young players with high-level basketball abilities, some having played professionally, some in college, and all with experience. Two groups were formed: one had breakfast before taking part in the shooting exercises, while the other did not eat before the same exercises. After a week, the groups changed and the tests were repeated. These drills consisted of a series of two- and three-point shots from designated spots on a basketball court as well as free throws.
“We chose shooting because you need strong cognitive involvement to put the ball in the basketjustified Dimitrije Cabarkapa, author of the study and former high-level basketball player. You also need energy to throw the ball. We wanted to investigate a possible relationship between breakfast consumption and basketball shooting influenced by expected improvements in mental and physical performance. A lot of research has shown the link between breakfast and diet quality but, to our knowledge, none has examined the relationship between breakfast and basketball performance..”
Nutrition, too often forgotten in performance
The results showed that while almost all shooting categories improved when participants ate breakfast, free throw percentage saw the greatest difference. Others, like three-point attempts and two-point shooting percentage, had less statistical effect but were found to have real practical applications. “If you come up to someone and tell them you can improve their shooting by 6%, any coach or player is going to ask how.rejoiced Dimitrije Cabarkapa. It goes to show that eating breakfast is a simple way to do it. Even a slightly improved shooting performance can influence the outcome of a match.”
Testing over longer periods may reveal more about the influence of breakfast on performance. The small improvements shown in this study show the influence of nutrition on performance. “Athletes are always looking to improve their performancecontinues the researcher. I always say there are three pillars of sports performance: strength and conditioning, nutrition, and sports psychology. People often talk about taking supplements or the like to improve performance but often forget the basics like a balanced diet.”
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