Differences in ball speed and three-dimensional kinematics between male and female handball players during a standing throw with run-up.

Ben Serrien,Ron Clijsen,Jonathan Blondeel,Maggy Goossens,Jean-Pierre Baeyens

doi:10.1186/s13102-015-0021-x

Abstract

BackgroundThe purpose of this paper was to examine differences in ball release speed and throwing kinematics between male and female team-handball players in a standing throw with run-up. Other research has shown that this throwing type produces the highest ball release speeds and comparing groups with differences in ball release speed can suggest where this difference might come from. If throwing technique differs, perhaps gender-specific coordination- and strength-training guidelines are in order.MethodsMeasurements of three-dimensional kinematics were performed with a seven-camera VICON motion capture system and subsequent joint angles and angular velocities calculations were executed in Mathcad. Data-analysis with Statistical Parametric Mapping allowed us to examine the entire time-series of every variable without having to reduce the data to certain scalar values such as minima/maxima extracted from the time-series.ResultsStatistical Parametric Mapping enabled us to detect several differences in the throwing kinematics (12 out of 20 variables had one or more differences somewhere during the motion). The results indicated two distinct strategies in generating and transferring momentum through the kinematic chain. Male team-handball players showed more activity in the transverse plane (pelvis and trunk rotation and shoulder horizontal abduction) whereas female team-handball players showed more activity in the sagital plane (trunk flexion). Also the arm cocking maneuver was quite different.ConclusionsThe observed differences between male and female team handball players in the motions of pelvis, trunk and throwing arm can be important information for coaches to give feedback to athletes. Whether these differences contribute to the observed difference in ball release speed is at the present unclear and more research on the relation with anthropometric profile needs to be done. Kinematic differences might suggest gender-specific training guidelines in team-handball.

Highlights

The purpose of this paper was to examine differences in ball release speed and throwing kinematics between male and female team-handball players in a standing throw with run-up
They calculated several kinematic and temporal variables but major differences were only found for ball release speed and linear end-point velocities of wrist and hand
For the 20 variables that were analyzed with a twosample Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM){t} test, 12 were found to have significant differences between male and female team handball players

Summary

Introduction

The purpose of this paper was to examine differences in ball release speed and throwing kinematics between male and female team-handball players in a standing throw with run-up. Looking at the available literature, it is clear that male players produce higher throwing speeds than female players [2,3,4] This is a big advantage to score a goal in team-handball because it decreases the reaction time available to the goal keeper. The study of van den Tillaar & Ettema [3] looked at gender differences in team-handball players regarding ball release speed, anthropometric profile and isometric strength. In a later study [4], this gender difference was approached from the perspective of 3D kinematics (coordination) They calculated several kinematic and temporal variables but major differences were only found for ball release speed and linear end-point velocities of wrist and hand. Very small and mostly non-significant differences in joint angles and timing of certain events were found, leading them to conclude that differences in throwing velocity are not related to different throwing patterns

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