Shuttle runs can be used to study the physiological responses in sports (such as basketball) characterized by sprints (accelerations/decelerations) and changes of direction.

To determine the energy cost ( C ) of shuttle runs with different turning angles and over different distances (with different acceleration/deceleration patterns).

Nine basketball players were asked to complete 6 intermittent tests over different distances (5, 10, 25 m) and with different changes of direction (180° at 5 and 25 m; 0°, 45°, 90°, and 180° at 10 m) at maximal speed ( v ≍ 4.5 m/s), each composed by 10 shuttle runs of 10-s duration and 30-s recovery; during these runs oxygen uptake (VO ₂ ), blood lactate (La _b ), and C were determined.

For a given shuttle distance (10 m) no major differences where observed in VO ₂ (~33 mL · min ⁻¹ · kg ⁻¹ ), La _b (~3.75 mM), and C (~21.2 J · m ⁻¹ · kg ⁻¹ ) when the shuttle runs were performed with different turning angles. For a given turning angle (180°), VO ₂ and La _b were found to increase with the distance covered (VO ₂ from 26 to 35 mL · min ⁻¹ · kg ⁻¹ ; La _b from 0.7 to 7.6 mM) while C was found to decrease with it (from 29.9 to 10.6 J · m ⁻¹ · kg ⁻¹ ); the relationship between C and d (m) is well described by C = 92.99 × d _0.656 , R ₂ = .971.

The metabolic demands of shuttle tests run at maximal speeds can be estimated based on the running distance, while the turning angle plays a minor role in determining C .