Basketball is an intermittent sport with very high intensity demands. Players cover significant distances during a game with constant changes of pace and direction, and the aerobic system plays a critical role in recovery between those high intensity efforts.
What Level Should Basketball Players Aim For?
Guards / Small Forwards (Elite)
Elite national and professional level. Guards tend to show the strongest relationship between beep test score and match performance.
Centres / Power Forwards (Elite)
Strength and power are relatively more important for bigs, but aerobic base still supports recovery and late game performance.
Competitive Club / College
Reasonable target for competitive club and college level players.
Recreational
Good aerobic fitness relative to the demands of the game at recreational and social level.
The NBA draft combine does not currently use the standard beep test, preferring a lane agility drill and a three quarter court sprint. However, many professional leagues outside the US and collegiate programmes use the beep test as a fitness benchmark.
The Link Between Beep Test Score and Basketball Performance
Research on basketball fitness consistently shows a positive relationship between aerobic capacity (as estimated by VO2 max, which the beep test measures) and performance metrics including distance covered, high intensity running volume and recovery between efforts.
Guards, who cover the most ground and make the most high intensity efforts, tend to show the strongest relationship between beep test score and match performance. For bigs, strength and power are relatively more important, but aerobic base still supports recovery and late game performance.
Training for Basketball
The interval training approach in this site's training guide is highly applicable to basketball. The weeks 3 to 5 sessions, which focus on training at and above current maximum level, directly build the high intensity aerobic capacity basketball demands.
For basketball players, it is also worth incorporating court based training — suicides, full court sprints and specific defensive footwork drills — alongside the shuttle work. These develop similar energy systems while also training basketball specific movement patterns.