Same Training for Everyone? Effects of Playing Positions on Physical Demands During Official Matches in Women’s Handball

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare the differences between playing positions on physical demands during official matches in women’s handball. Twenty-two semi-professional female players (4 wings, 14 backs and 4 pivots) from the Spanish 2nd Division were monitored across 13 official home matches. Total distance covered (TDC), high-speed running distance (HSR), high-intensity breaking distance (HIBD), accelerations (ACC), decelerations (DEC) and PlayerLoad™ (PL) were collected in absolute and relative values (normalized by playing time) using a local positioning system (WIMU PRO™, Realtrack Systems S.L., Almería, Spain). Playing positions differences were determined by variance analysis one-way ANOVA with partial Etasquared (ηp2) or epsilon-squared (ε²) and Cohen’s effect size (ES). Wings covered more TDC (3414.5±1710.1 m), HSR (492.7±280.0 m) and HIBD (171.2±104.7 m) compared to backs and pivots (p<0.05; moderate-large effects). Wings also registered more total number of ACC (750.5±362.2) and PL (85.0±7.8 a.u.) compared to backs and pivots (p<0.05; moderate-large effects), whereas backs performed more ACC/min (19.9±1.1 n·min−1) than wings (18.9±1.4 n·min−1) and pivots (18.4±3.9 n·min−1) (p<0.05; moderate effects). In conclusion, physical demands differ between playing positions during official female competitions and these differences should be considered by practitioners to better prescribe and periodize training load and to design more individualized training programs.