The EuroLeague Players Association Congress presents the improvement of sports performance through a simple change of habits.
A basketball player spends between two and six hours in an environment controlled by their club. These are the days when there is court training, treatment, video sessions, and other ordinary daily activities. This time increases to eight hours of organized regimen when there is an away game. If you subtract the rest time that the athlete rests, there are many hours ahead with a direct impact on the performance of a professional player.
“These data raise the question of what to do with that time,” says Igor Jukic, a professor at the Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of Zagreb and a member of the medical staff of the Croatian Olympic Committee. “Such time represents great development potential and must be structured to provide new opportunities to improve the well-being, health, and performance of a player,” he adds.
Jukic will be one of the 9 speakers at the third International EPIC Congress to be held in Mataró on May 10 and organized by the EuroLeague Players Association ELPA. The saturation of the sports calendar and the absence of prospects for a reduction in games have forced basketball professionals to seek ways to extend their sporting lifespan as much as possible.
Professor Jukic is a reference in his country. Apart from his teaching career, he has worked for clubs like CSKA Moscow, Baskonia, Cibona Zagreb, or for multiple top-level Croatian athletes. “Taking care of oneself is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week job,” he says. But it’s not rigid or uniform. It must be personalized. “The content of the activities during that time spent outside the club should take into account the context of the player’s life and their personalized needs.”
The Congress is open to health and sports professionals. Other speakers at the May 10 event include the Head of Medical Services of the EuroLeague, Dr. Ignacio Muro; the former physical trainer of the Gasol brothers, the Spanish national team, and FC Barcelona, Toni Caparrós; or the physical trainer of Olimpia Milano, Francesco Cuzzolin; as well as other prestigious nutritionists, physiotherapists, and recovery specialists. Registrations are already open.
ELPA was founded in 2018 and in just 6 years it has gained recognition from all the organizations that are part of continental basketball. It has all the EuroLeague players under its umbrella, since the framework agreement was signed with the competition’s owners.
