On‐court game‐based testing in world‐class, top‐elite, and elite adult female team handball players

Abstract

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. AbstractThe on-court physical performance knowledge of adult female world-class players in team handball is lacking, especially when testing specific physical performance oncourt under similar conditions as in competition. Consequently, the aims of the study were to analyze team handball on-court physical performance in elite, top-elite, and world-class female team handball players by using team handball specific testing.Ten elite, eleven top-elite, and eleven world-class adult female players performed a team handball game-based performance test. We measured oxygen uptake, heart rate, blood lactate concentration, ball velocity, and jump height in the jump shots as well as running time (in offense, defense, fast break, and retreat). Significant differences were found in peak oxygen uptake, heart rate, ball velocity, defense, offense, and fast-break time between world-class, top-elite, and elite players. During breaks, between the high-intensity movements in the game-based performance test, a worldclass player had greater increase in oxygen uptake compared with an elite player. The results of the present study clearly indicated the importance of specific agility both in offense and defense, in throwing velocity in the jump shot as well as in aerobic performance to become a world-class adult female team handball player. K E Y W O R D Sagility, ball velocity, blood lactate, jumping height, oxygen uptake How to cite this article: Wagner H, Fuchs P, Michalsik LB. On-court game-based testing in world-class, top-elite, and elite adult female team handball players.

Effects of strength training with elastic band programme on fitness components in young female handball players: a randomized controlled trial

“…Rapid change-of-direction tasks are critical in handball [ 31 ]. The results of Wagner et al 2019 [ 32 ] indicated the importance of specific agility both in offense and defence, in throwing velocity in the jump shot as well as in aerobic performance, to become a world-class adult female team handball player. Our results showed improved agility performance after STEB (p = 0.034; d = 0.62: medium).…”

The Team Handball Game-Based Performance Test Is Better than the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test to Measure Match-Related Activities in Female Adult Top-Elite Field Team Handball Players

“…In addition, the total running distance covered during match-play was remarkable low, and no significant relationships were found between Yo-Yo IR1 test performance and highintensity match activities. The latter findings are challenged by numerous studies showing much higher total match running distance covered and in particular by the conclusion that high-intensity activities are crucial for the performance of adult elite field team handball players during competitive match-play [1,11,14,22,36].…”

“…In another study, Wagner et al [14] found that specific anaerobic and aerobic performance factors are pivotal for high-level performance in team handball, and to gain knowledge of these aspects for individual players, it is essential to measure the on-court performance of the players under conditions similar to competition match-play. The GBPT was proved to be appropriate to measure this.…”

Differences in Decision-Making Behavior Between Elite and Amateur Team-Handball Players in a Near-Game Test Situation

“…In this regard, it has been proposed that physical (e.g., anthropometric), physiological, psychological, sociological, technical, and tactical factors discriminate between athletes of different levels of expertise ( Burgess and Naughton, 2010 ; Sarmento et al, 2018 ; Piggott et al, 2020 ). Most emphasis in research has been placed on studying physical aspects and biomotor abilities (such as speed, strength, power, agility, and endurance), although recent studies suggest that the predictive validity of these factors regarding performance and talent identification is limited, especially when they are looked at in isolation ( Wagner et al, 2016 , Wagner et al, 2019 , 2020 ; Bennett et al, 2018 ; Bergkamp et al, 2019 ). This might be due to the fact that these particular predictors are not representative enough with respect to the contextual constraints of on-field behavior ( Bergkamp et al, 2019 ).…”