Manuel Sanz Matesanz

Handball is a sport that involves high-intensity actions throughout the game, such as sprints, jumps, landings, and high-speed, repeated throws. This, along with competitive and tactical factors, congested schedules, and the need to maintain a high level of performance throughout the season, contributes to a high injury rate. This study aimed to analyse ligament injuries in a professional handball team over six consecutive seasons. A total of 68 elite male Spanish handball players participated, with 54 time-loss injuries (i.e., injuries involving at least one day of absence) observed during this study period. Ligament injury information was recorded following the International Olympic Committee consensus statement. The overall incidence was 0.89 ligament injuries per 1000 h of exposure. Additionally, a higher incidence and burden of ligament injuries was observed during match-play compared to training. Most ligament injuries were classified as minor or moderate (i.e., 79.63% of the total), and 46.29% were reinjuries. A significantly higher incidence of ligament injuries was suffered in the lower limbs compared to the upper limbs (0.81 vs. 0.08 ligament injuries per 1000 h; p < 0.001). Specifically, the highest incidence was observed in the anterior talofibular ligament of the ankle (0.57 injuries per 1000 h of exposure), while the greatest burden was related to the anterior cruciate ligament (24.08 absence days per 1000 h of exposure). This study provides an overview of ligament injuries among professional handball players, highlighting the need to implement strategies with positive effects during competition (e.g., specific activation strategies or training programmes based on strength and balance) and to reduce injury recurrences.

Beach handball (BH) is characterized by high-intensity actions, such as accelerations and short rest times, in combination with long periods of low-intensity activity during a match. The purpose of this study was to establish a comparative analysis between the effect of a hard surface vs. sandy surface on the properties of the sprint Force–Velocity–Power Profile (FVP) of female beach handball top-level players. Fourteen female BH players participated in this research. A cross-sectional investigation was performed in order to evaluate the determining variables of the FVP profile for different surfaces. After a specific warm-up, two maximal 20–30 m sprints (4 min resting between trials) were performed in two conditions (hard surface and sand) within 10 min. The female BH players showed higher mean values for all the FVP profile variables (p < 0.001) on the hard surface compared to sand, in addition to lower values for the 5 m (ES = 2.29 to 3.89) and 20 m sprinting times (ES = 2.39 to 3.99) (p < 0.001). However, the decrease in the ratio of force over acceleration was not discriminant between the surfaces. Positive correlations were found for the speed variables (0.691–0.807, p < 0.01), as well as the Pmax (0.520, p = 0.035), between the surfaces. A prior knowledge of the FVP profile for hard–sandy surfaces could offer an important reference value about the sprint properties of this population, and be useful for evaluating the efficiency, as well as the effect on the sprint and gaming performance, of specifically oriented training programs based on those reference values.