Motor Creativity Among Young Elite Basketball Players

Basketball is classified as an invasion game, since players move constantly from offense to defense while confronting their opponents in order to create scoring opportunities and win the game. These game interactions create situations that are hard to predict since there are countless possible outcomes. A basketball player needs both cognitive and physical abilities to perform. Each player has a set of skills that are acquired through training and represent the mode of action and system of action for completing work and tasks successfully. Creativity is defined as the ability to create motor solutions to the familiar and unfamiliar "on court" game situations, which enforces a fast decision-making process. Creativity relies on two main cognitive processes: “divergent thinking” and “convergent thinking”. Divergent thinking is defined as the generation of many alternative ideas that are meant to be useful and meaningful, whereas convergent thinking refers to the ability to find the ideal solution to a given problem. In basketball, divergent thinking relates to tactical creativity, that is, varying, rare, and flexible decisions in different kinds of situations. In order to evaluate motor creativity in sports three facets should be measured: fluency, flexibility and originality. The purpose of the current study is to explore creativity indexes among young elite basketball players. Forty-eight young elite basketball players were recruited for the current study. Participants were tested for motor creativity and divergent thinking. Coaches were asked to assess their players` creativity. A moderate correlation was found between coach assessment and motor creativity flexibility. No correlation was found between coach assessment and motor creativity fluency and originality. Moreover, when dividing participants into positions, a moderate to high correlation was found between coach assessment and motor correlation flexibility for guards but not for forwards/centers or point guards.