ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1644762
Subjective mental fatigue ratings are not associated with basketball game-related statistics in official male semiprofessional games
Provisionally accepted
Pierpaolo Sansone1*
Leonardo De Sousa Fortes2
Damiano Polverari3
Anthony S Leicht4
Miguel-Angel Gomez-Ruano5- 1Pegaso University, Naples, Italy
- 2Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
- 3GranTorino Basketball Draft, Turin, Italy
- 4James Cook University, Townsville City, Australia
- 5Universidad Politecnica de Madrid Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Fisica y del Deporte, Madrid, Spain
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Introduction: Mental fatigue (MF) has been shown to affect several domains of team sports performance, including physical, technical, and perceptual-cognitive aspects. This study examined whether subjective ratings of mental fatigue (MF) are associated with technical-tactical performance in adult male basketball official games. Methods: Fourteen semiprofessional players (age: 22.1 ± 3.8 years) were monitored across 15 in-season weeks, encompassing 17 official games. The day before the game, players reported their level of MF using 100-mm visual analogue scales. Technical-tactical performance during games was assessed by retrieving game-related statistics (GRS) (points; 2-point shots (2P) made; 2P missed; 2P percentage (2P%); 3-point (3P) shots made; 3P shots missed; 3P shot percentage (3P%); free-throws (1P) made; 1P missed; 1P percentage (1P%); offensive rebounds; defensive rebounds; assists; steals; turnovers; blocks; blocks against; fouls committed; fouls drawn; and Performance Index Rating). To control for games with different paces, games were coded as faster or slower according to the number of ball possessions. Separate linear mixed models evaluated the effects of variations in MF (z-scores) on GRS. Results: MF did not influence any GRS (all p > 0.05), while 3P misses were higher in faster games compared to slower (p= 0.049). Conclusions: Subjective ratings of MF are not associated with technical-tactical performance in male semiprofessional basketball. Current findings indicate that male semiprofessional basketball players are able to maintain technical-tactical performances despite the presence of MF.
Keywords: Technical-tactical performance, cognitive, team sports, athlete monitoring, sport psychology
Received: 10 Jun 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sansone, Fortes, Polverari, Leicht and Gomez-Ruano. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Pierpaolo Sansone, Pegaso University, Naples, Italy
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