To describe the physiological and activity demands experienced by Australian female basketball players during competition. Design A between-subjects (positional comparison) repeated measures (playing periods) observational experimental design was followed. Methods State-level basketball players (n = 12; age: 22.0 ± 3.7 yr; body mass: 72.9 ± 14.2 kg; stature: 174.2 ± 6.9 cm; body fat: 17.2 ± 5.6%; estimated ) volunteered to participate. Heart rate (HR) and blood lactate concentration ([BLa]) were collected across eight competitive matches. Overall and positional player activity demands were calculated across three matches using time-motion analysis methodology. Activity frequencies, total durations and total distances were determined for various activity categories. Results Mean (±SD) HR responses of 162 ± 3b min-1 (82.4 ± 1.3% HRmax) and 136 ± 6b min-1 (68.6 ± 3.1% HRmax) were evident across live and total time during matches. A mean [BLa] of 3.7 ± 1.4 mmol L-1 was observed across competition. Player activity demands were unchanged across match periods, with 1752 ± 186 movements performed and 5214 ± 315 m travelled across total live match time. Furthermore, 39 ± 3%, 52 ± 2%, 5 ± 1% and 4 ± 1% of total live time was spent performing low-intensity, moderate-intensity, high-intensity and dribbling activity. Positional comparisons revealed backcourt players performed more ball dribbling (p < 0.001) and less standing/walking (p < 0.01) and running (p < 0.05) than frontcourt players. Conclusions Together, these findings highlight the high intermittent demands and important contributions of both anaerobic and aerobic metabolic pathways during state-level female basketball competition.
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