The purpose of this study was to evaluate changes in the estimated body composition of elite female and male Polish handball players during a five-week preseason training camp. Height and weight were measured, while body composition was estimated with bioelectrical impedance in 18 male and 17 female handball players before and after the five-week training protocol. Components of body composition included total body water (TBW), fat-free mass (FFM), muscle mass (MM), and absolute and relative fat mass (FM). Weight and body mass index (BMI) did not change in males, but declined in females after five weeks of training. FM and %FM declined, while estimated TBW, FFM, and MM increased significantly after training in both males and females. In contrast, comparisons of log transformed ratios for changes in weight, the BMI and body composition in males and females, respectively, suggested that estimated TBW, FFM, and MM increased relatively more in females than in males, while FM and %FM decline relatively more in males than females. Overall, the five-week preseason training program modified the body composition of male and female handball players. FM and %FM decreased, while estimated TBW, FFM, and MM increased, in both males and females after the preseason training program. Comparisons of log transformed ratios for changes in body composition in males and females suggested sexual dimorphism in response to intensive preseason training.

An important role in handball and basketball is played by ability to accelerate and ability to repeat multiple sprints. The aim of the study was to assess level of ability in multi-directional sprinting and running time over the first 5 m of the 30 m sprint in 93 basketball and handball players (46 boys and 47 girls) aged 14 to 15 years. The attempts were also made to find the relationships between the time of a 5-m run to evaluate initial acceleration phase and multi-directional sprinting evaluated using Five-Time Shuttle Run To Gates Test Statistical analysis revealed no important differences in times of 5-m runs and times of multi-directional sprinting between groups with different ages, genders, and sports specialties. Furthermore, no significant correlations were found based on Spearman's rank correlation coefficient between times of 5-m run and multi-directional sprinting in the most of subgroups studied.

PurposeOne of the basic operational goals of early physical education is the early recognition of athletic potential in children. When examining the presence of talent, it is necessary to consider the specific nature of a given sport, especially if it is a team sport, and the fact that skill in playing a sport is determined not only by featuring a high level of applicable motor abilities. Within this context, the aim of this study was to determine what dependencies existed between the methods frequently used to assess talented children in the game of handball, specifically targeted sports and motor tests. The popularity of these diagnostic methods is based on the theory that achievement in sports is accompanied by a high level of physical ability. Therefore, the practical aim of the study was to improve the accuracy of recognizing and examining sports talent.MethodsA group of 21 twelve-year-old boys were recruited, all of whom were involved in a sports program that specialized in handball. Talent was identified by the observation, analysis, and interpretation of the participants’ (1) general physical ability – assessed by the Eurofit test battery, (2) targeted physical ability – measured by specific hardball skills such as moving with the ball, catching and passing the ball, and throwing the ball from a distance, and (3) innate in-game behavior – based on a ranking of thirteen behavioral categories exhibited during the course of a game.Results and conclusionThe correlation coefficients adopted in this study indicated a high dependency between the three methods used to identify potential talent in handball. This indicates that young athletes who score relatively well in one test are likely to attain positive results in the other two methods.

Key words: speed, running in a straight line and with a change of direction (running in a broken line), handball, judo SummaryIntroduction. Attempts at improving the efficiency of training methods in order to achieve sport mastery mainly consist in introducing changes in two types of training, i.e. technical and motor training. In the majority of sports, as far as motor skills are concerned, the speed of performing particular movements by a player has an enormous impact on a sport result. The process of speed formation has become one of the basic elements of sport training.Material and methods. Our study constitutes a comparison of the speed of moving of judo practitioners and handball players in the following two situations: running in a straight line and running with a change of direction (in a broken line). During the first trial, the subjects covered a distance of 30 meters in a straight line, while in the second trial the distance was also 30 meters measured in a straight line, but due to changes of direction the entire covered distance totalled 42 metres. The evaluation of the movement speed was supplemented by an analysis of differences between judo practitioners and handball players. The research material constituted results of examinations of 16 handball players of the First League club WKS Śląsk Wrocław and 14 judo practitioners (who had at least First Sporting Class) of the clubs KS AZS-AWF Wrocław and Gwardia Wrocław.Results. Judo practitioners in the trial of running at a distance of 30 meters in a straight line reached on average 4.33 seconds, while handball players 4.36 seconds. In the trial of running in a broken line handball players had better times, i.e. 11.31 seconds on average, while judo practitioners reached the time of 12.37 seconds. The difference between the obtained times in the trial of running in a broken line was statistically significant -in favour of handball players.Conclusions. The results of running in a straight line do not differentiate handball players and judo practitioners. On the other hand, in the trial of running in a broken line handball players had much better results which significantly statistically differentiated both of the groups of athletes.

The aim of the present exploratory study was to assess the changes in urinary oxytocin (OT) concentration during the period between five days before, and on the day of match, among rugby and handball players. Nine male rugby players with a mean age of 27.62 years (SD = 4.21) and 18 male handball players with a mean age of 17.03 years (SD = 0.57) participated. Urinary oxytocin level was measured by ELISA immunoassay as a ratio to the concentration of creatinine [mg/ml] measured through colorimetric detection. The relative level of OT to creatinine (OT/CRE) significantly differed between the type of player (rugby or handball) but not between times of measurements. Significant differences were only between OT/CRE level in a day of match in rugby players and in 5 days before match in handball players (p<0.05). There was no change in oxytocin levels during the time periods between five days before and on the day of a match, in either of the two kinds of players. The change in oxytocin might be traceable during the match but not before a match and this perhaps depends on a more subtle context of competition, but not on the assumption of competition. Further studies are needed based on more homogenous group with higher number of matches.