The height importance of male athletes for the classification in the world handball championships

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to investigate the height factor and player position concerning final team ranking in the three age categories, youths, juniors, and seniors. Height data were checked. Methods: Data was analyzed from 24 participating teams for seniors (n = 972, age = 27.3 ± 4.5), juniors (n = 622 age = 19.9 ± 1.0), and youths (1035 age = 18.8 ± 0.2) from official data from the selected last male World Handball Championships of 2013-2019. For each participating player, his position was noted too: backs (left and right), pivot (line player), goalkeeper, back (center), and wings (left and right). The final team ranking was recorded and the 24 teams were divided into 3 ranking groups of 8 teams. Results: The ANOVA test proved that mean heights were significantly different between the three age groups (seniors: 190.04 ± 7.33, juniors: 187.28 ± 8.13, youths: 186.84 ± 7.55, F(2,3095) = 61.1 p < 0.001). Effect size 0.039. In all ranked groups and all categories, the heights of the players were significantly different between different player positions. The discrimination ability of height in all three categories and player positions represented an overall percentage of around 70% classifying the three 8-team ranking tiers. Conclusion: Height is a factor that differentiates high-level performance for both players' position and age categories. The practical results can help the national federations and coaches apply more effective strategies for player selection.

Performance differences and determinants of success in world men's handball championships

“…Another fundamental aspect of the game's development can be seen in the number of distinguished performance indices such as the increase of total number of shots and consequently of goals scored per match 3 , the total number of attacks per game 4 , the significance in the improvement of player shot efficacy, in addition to the importance of somatometric characteristics 5 that are predictors of top level performance. Body anthropometry, which is related to playing positions 6 , technical match characteristics as well as other factors such as the organizational structure of the competition seem to influence the final outcome 7 .…”