Abstract
This cross-sectional study aims to analyze the physical demands of elite beach handball players during an official competition. Nine elite female (mean age: 24.6 ± 4.0 years; body weight: 62.4 ± 4.6 kg; body height: 1.68 ± 0.059 m; training experience: 5 years; training: 6 h/week) beach handball players of the Spanish National Team were recruited for this study. A Global Positioning System was incorporated on each player’s back to analyze their movement patterns. Speed and distance were recorded at a sampling frequency of 15 Hz, whereas acceleration was recorded at 100 Hz by means of a built-in triaxial accelerometer. The main finding of the study is that 53% of the distance travelled is done at speeds between 1.5 and 5 km/h and 30% of the distance is between 9 and 13 km/h (83% of the total distance covered), which shows the intermittent efforts that beach handball involves at high intensity, as reflected in the analysis of the internal load with 62.82 ± 14.73% of the game time above 80% of the maximum heart rate. These data help to orientate training objectives to the physical demands required by the competition in order to optimize the players’ performance.
Highlights
The analysis of the physical demands of the beach handball players during the matches revealed a total distance covered of 1004.49 ± 258.11 m and a maximum speed of
In relation to heart rate, the results showed a HRMEAN of 166.44 ± 14.60 b.p.m
At the internal load level, the variables HRMAX 193.58 ± 10.68 and HRMEAN 166.44 ± 14.6 of the present study coincide with the results presented by Zapardiel and Asín-Izquierdo [9], where it is observed that beach handball is a high-intensity discipline where the longest activity time is accumulated above 80% of the HRMAX (62.82 ± 14.73%)
Summary
Scientific studies have analyzed psychological profiles, levels of competitive anxiety or moods and self-efficacy [3], decision-making at a tactical level [4,5], body composition and anthropometric profile [6], or physical and physiological demands of beach handball players [7,8,9]. This sporting discipline is characterized by intermittent efforts, with actions lasting 6–15 s, these physical demands vary depending on the sex of the players [5,10]. If there is a tie, a tiebreaker set is played to determine the winning team; it is necessary to know the physical demands of the player during each of the sets of the match [12,13]
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