Physical demands of game-based training drills in women’s team handball

ABSTRACT

Game-based training drills are popular in team sports. This study compared two game-based training conditions and official matches in team handball. Thirty-one women players wore inertial measurement units in five training sessions and five official matches. In training, 3vs3 and 6vs6 game-based training conditions were performed with a 5-min duration. PlayerLoad™ and high-intensity events (HIEs; >2.5 m · s⁻¹) were extracted from the raw data. Data were analysed using magnitude-based inferences and reported with effect sizes (ESs). PlayerLoad™ · min⁻¹ from all positions combined was 11.37 ± 0.49 (mean ± 90% confidence limits) and 9.71 ± 0.3 for the 3vs3 and 6vs6 conditions, respectively. Backs (ES: 1.63), wings (ES: 1.91), and pivots (ES: 1.58) had greater PlayerLoad™ in 3vs3 than 6vs6. Substantially greater HIE · min⁻¹ in 3vs3 occurred for all positions. There was substantially greater PlayerLoad™ · min⁻¹ in 3vs3 and 6vs6 than match play for backs, wings, and pivots. Wings (ES: 1.95), pivots (ES: 0.70), and goalkeeper (ES: 1.13) had substantially greater HIE · min⁻¹ in 3vs3 than match play. This study shows greater PlayerLoad™ and HIE in 3vs3 than 6vs6. Both game-based training conditions investigated in this study provide an overload in overall PlayerLoad™; however, additional exercises might be needed to overload HIE, especially for backs and pivots.

KEYWORDS:

• Female athletes
• inertial movement units
• match analyses
• team sports

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the players participating in this study for their time, effort and enthusiastic participation, and the Norwegian handball federation for giving us the opportunity to execute this study. The authors would also like to thank Will Hopkins for his help and assistance with the statistical model used in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.