Physical Needs Analysis of a Handball Player
The first step (and therefore probably the most important as it sets you up for success the rest of the way) is a needs analysis based on the demands of your sport, and then following this up with specific goals based on your own personal situation (position, level of play, role in your team, areas you most need to improve, etc.) So the aim of this short article is to give an overview of the type of physical qualities required, as well as the movements performed in a game of handball, in order to give a better idea about how specifically to go about targeting training do develop certain qualities specific to development in handball. There is no more inefficient way to go about training for a specific sport than just general ‘fitness’ work and ‘getting fitter and stronger’ – merely being fitter or stronger in a general sense means nothing more than that – you are fitter and stronger. There must be transfer.
Of course certain characteristics will change dependent on your size, what position you play and what your role in the team is. For example, training single and double-legged jump training will be of far more importance to you if you play as a back, than if you are on a wing (although of course this will also be dependent on individual team strategy, or the type of skill set you personally require or desire from your game). However, this quick general overview gives a good outline of some of the major athletic requirements that are required in handball. This is an abbreviated discussion of the one we have in part 3 of Strength & Power Training for Handball.
As Tudor Bompa says;
“Strength in sports should be viewed as the mechanism required to perform skills and athletic actions. Athletes do not just develop strength for the sake of being strong. The goal of strength development is to meet the specific needs of a given sport, to develop specific strength or combinations of strength to increase athletic performance to the highest possible level.”
So with that in mind, lets first look at a quick outline of the major physical movement qualities required in handball, particularly as they relate to power output, and then take a quick look at the primary movement patterns and combinations themselves, based on the most commonly preformed tasks in handball.
Movement Qualities
Power – Power is the ability to generate strength quickly, or in other words the ability to apply maximum force in the shortest time. Power is also very task specific. So in handball, the need for power refers to things like a powerful jump (off 1 leg or 2) by a back, or a powerful takeoff or acceleration when rebounding on a turnover and fast break by a wing. All the following movement qualities tie in with power and are a quite brief introduction.
Power Endurance – Not only are the expressions of power in handball important to be able to perform, but it is also important to be able to perform them repeatedly to as high an ability as possible. As such, the requirement for power also includes the requirement for power endurance. After all, it is all well and good to have a great jump shot, but its not much use if you are totally ‘cooked’ 5-10 minutes in, and can no longer perform the movement to a high level.
Starting Power – Starting power is the ability to start a movement quickly, in its simplest terms. In a sport like handball, where speed of movement is so important, both as an individual and as a collective, being able to generate maximum force at the beginning of a muscular contraction to create high initial speed is a good quality to have. Just picture the ‘calm before the storm’ as a team passes the ball around from player to player at a walking pace, where the attacking players are largely stationary, and then all of a sudden, bang! – they explode into a chain of passes. The first part of each individual movement of this collective explosive movement is starting power.
Acceleration – Or more specifically the need for acceleration power. Think of acceleration as what comes after starting power has been. The guys (or girls) who appear to be the quickest out on the court aren’t necessarily the best sprinters, but rather the players who can take off and accelerate the most powerfully. After all, sprints in handball are very rare, and the only thing close would be running from one end of the court to the other on a turnover. As such, genuine acceleration isn’t overly prevalent in handball, however the ability to build this will certainly be beneficial at times through a match.
Deceleration – Whilst acceleration isn’t as common in handball as powerful starts, deceleration certainly is. Handball is such a dynamic game, where the patterns of play can change abruptly, and much of the movement you perform involves avoiding your opposition when in possession, and tracking your opposition when not in possession. As such, efficient and well-coordinated deceleration is required, which requires a great deal of eccentric strength and power to achieve as well as to avoid soft tissue injury. This is why placing an over-emphasis on sprint training only, or running training only, misses the point, as there is no deceleration component to it. Sprinters are required only to run as fast as possible in a straight line, with no deceleration or change of direction required. This certainly isn’t the case in a game of handball. So it is important to note with effective deceleration, the aim here is not only to effectively perform it, bust also for the tendons, ligaments and joint attachments to effectively absorb and cope with this loading.
Change of Directions – This ties in greatly with deceleration, where the ability to effectively decelerate often sets you up to be able to effectively change directions. Following the deceleration, the ability to effectively and powerfully push back off in the next direction is a key movement ability in handball, when evading an opponent, or chasing an opponent, or simply trying to lose an opponent to open up space for a teammate or to receive a pass.
“High levels of strength are required to decelerate and then accelerate in another direction. Therefore strength training should be targeted to allow handball players to be able to decelerate safely and accelerate in various directions minimising the risks of injury.”
Marco Cardinale
Acceleration, deceleration and changing of directions are all covered in more detail in Agility, Speed & Conditioning for Handball.
A multi-directional lunge is a great exercise for training the ability to change decelerate the stepping motion and reaccelerate through a variety of positions and directions.
Takeoff Power – Takeoff power is basically the ability to use explosive power to jump as high as possible. So just as acceleration comes after starting power in a running based movement, takeoff power follows starting power in a jumping style movement. This can be from a stationary start such as a standing double-legged vertical leap (very rare in handball), or from a running start such as a running step and jump like when shooting.
Landing Power – Landing power is to jumping what deceleration power is to sprinting, and equally as forgotten in physical training for handball. Many players train only the takeoff part of a jump, with no concern for a controlled and balanced landing. Landing power is the ability to eccentrically control a landing consistently. This is especially important to train consistently if you find yourself leaving the ground regularly during a game (as most handball players do), particularly if you are a back, and therefore have more height and size and therefore generally a higher center of gravity to control. As with the deceleration in sprinting, our physical concern here is not only to effectively perform this movement, bust also for the tendons, ligaments and joint attachments to effectively absorb and cope with such a loading upon landing.
Throwing Power – Throwing power refers to the force applied against an implement – in our case a handball. The release speed of the ball when throwing it is determined by the amount of muscular force exerted at the instant of release. We go into a lot more detail on the throw – breaking it down to certain components and elements that need to be worked on to maximise your power potential in this movement in Strength & Power Training for Handball.
Tasks & Movement Patterns
So based on the brief overview of movement qualities we just covered, you now realise that handball requires a fair bit of power – or more to the point, various expressions of power. Lets now have a quick look at the various movement patterns and tasks that handball can be broken down into.
Single Leg Jump – Commonly associated with shooting, and normally performed when on the move or running to jump.
Throwing (Main emphasis here on shooting) – The name of the game in handball, putting the ball in the back of the net. This requires (in most cases) a powerful throw, but also an accurate throw. Throwing is a complex movement. Especially to train for, hence why we go into it in a fair bit of detail in Strength & Power Training for Handball.
Rotation – Once again, when talking about the need for rotation, it is mainly the throwing action, and more specifically the shooting action that 
we are talking about. This requires both a powerful torso rotation as well as a shoulder and arm rotation.
Body on Body Contest – This is the common 1-on-1 body-to-body contest that we so often see between 2 opponents when an attacking player has attempted to sidestep and push their way through a gap in a defensive wall, and a defender has stepped up to block them. This is the most physical component of handball. There are of course several slight variations of this, but they essentially boil down to the same physical tasks. However, there is far more to this contest than simply overpowering the opponent with a strong upper body push. There is also a great amount of balance required, core strength, and the transference of power from the ground up through the torso and finally out through the hands. Simply performing bench press will not make you better at this. Elsewhere, we cover the risk that the bench press presents to the shoulders as well - which is something we are very big on, considering how vital shoulder health is to handball performance.
Core and Pelvic Stability (when jumping, changing directions, landing, etc) – This is a very broad and all-encompassing requirement. ‘Core and hip stability’ isn’t overly specific, and as we have covered previously the role of certain muscle groups can change dependent on what pattern of movement or task is being performed. However, the key point here is that there is a great deal of hip stability coupled with core stability required in commonly preformed (and seemingly simple) tasks such as jumping, running and landing. It is also important that this core and hip stability is trained in similar positions to those that they will be required in when performing these tasks. It is no good having great core and hip stability performing planks and other exercises on the floor, if these abilities aren’t transferred to positions that they will be required in a match, particularly standing, as lying on the floor is not the position that you play a game of handball in (task and movement specific remember.) As a result, many of the exercises that you will come across in the books and programs (with several of the single leg exercises being good examples) have been selected also with this requirement in mind.
Joint Stability and Mobility & Injury Prevention - This is another point that is very broad, however getting specific would create a whole new book, and far more detail than is practically required here. Whole body joint stability as well as mobility is important to not only maximise performance at certain tasks, but also to minimise injury when performing them. We have also mentioned the importance of training hip stabilisation when performing dynamic single-leg movement, however shoulder stability is another one that is vital. How many guys (girls too) playing handball have dodgy shoulders? Or weak ankles after rolling them so many times that the ligaments in the ankles have been irreparably stretched? Point made! Therefore whilst this isn’t a movement ‘pattern’ as such, it is certainly a physical requirement for effective performance.
Performing all these tasks with proficiency in all 3 planes of motion – When training to improve for the tasks above, remember that they are performed in a dynamic environment, standing, and involving movement and stability in all 3 planes of motion. Don’t fall into the old trap of performing sagittal plane dominant exercises, or even worse exercises on machines where no ability is required. If you want to improve your ability to match up to an opponent in a body-on-body contest, a seated chest press wont help one little bit, and a bench press on its own will only be marginally better. A combination of Swiss ball pressing and standing cable pressing is better – as well as combining this with work on other full body patterns like squatting. If you want to improve your ability to change directions quicker, a leg press is useless. A multi-directional lunge is the way to go.
This is only a short introduction - naturally there is a lot more depth to each area that we could - and do elsewhere - go into. But the idea is to get you thinking, to look at the tasks, and consider how specifically you are targeting or planning to target these things. How is what you are doing in the gym going to carryover to these tasks? What specifically is it going to improve? What end result to you aim to achieve? And are you doing this with the most efficient and effective use of your time.
Fitness Coach