Abstract
PURPOSE: Team handball is a sport of intermittent high intensity and sizeable distances covered during match play. Coaches commonly use small-sided games (SSG) in their training programs, as a means of developing technical and tactile skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the distance covered and physiological response of altering the number of players during SSG in team handball.
METHODS:Participants were twelve professional female handball players [24.6±3.7 years, 172±6.2 cm, 68.2 ± 9.9kg, 22.7 ± 2 kg/m2. The SSG were played, first with five on each side (5 vs. 5), then four (4 vs. 4), then three (3 vs. 3). Each game was four minutes long, followed by three minutes of passive rest. The distance covered and time spent in four speed zones (based on player movement speed) were selected for analysis, as follows: Zone 1 (0-1.4 m/s); Zone 2 (1.4-3.4 m/s); Zone 3 (3.4-5.2 m/s); Zone 4 (>5.2 m/s). ANOVA with Bonferroni post-hoc testing were used for statistical analysis.
RESULTS:The largest distance covered was during the SSG 3 vs. 3 condition (527.3 ± 70.9 m), followed by 4 vs. 4 (503.9 ± 41.7 m) and 5 vs. 5 (497.4 ± 51.8 m). Statistically significant differences were found in the Zone 2, between SSG conditions 3 vs. 3 and 4 vs. 4 (p=.049, ω2= .32). The highest average heart rate was measured during SSG condition 3 vs. 3. A statistically significant difference for average heart rate was found between SSG conditions 3 vs. 3 (89.7 % HRmax) and 5 vs. 5 (87.8 % HRmax) (p= .04, ω2= .26). Participant heart rate response between the speed zones was not statistically significant. Heart rate response was negatively correlated with the number of players within the SSG condition. Statistically significant results were found for RPE between SSG condition 3 vs. 3 and the other two SSG conditions (4 vs. 4, p = .01, and 5 vs. 5, p = .00).
CONCLUSIONS:These results have both statistical significance and clinical relevance. These results indicate that changing the number of players during SSG in handball can be used to manipulate the physiological response during handball training.