Injuries and their prevention in the handball game

Abstract

Sport training involves repeated bouts of exercise and high volume of physically demanding practice sessions and competitive games, which may lead to decline on performance, oxidative stress, and inflammation (Margonis K. et. al., 2007, Finaud J. et. al., 2006) Handball is considered a demanding exercise mode that places important stress on a players aerobic metabolism. In addition, handball game involves a large number of anaerobic actions such as bodycontact, repeated accelerations, sprints, jumps, throwing, blocking, pushing, and rapid changes in moving directions (Ronglan L.T. et. al., 2006, Gorostiaga E.M. et. al., 2006). Studies in elite handball players have focused only on performance parameters like maximal muscle strength, sprint time, and jump height in response to a tournament (Ronglan L.T. et. al., 2006). During a competitive handball season, the demand for playing two games per week elevates the stress imposed to the athletes, thereby increasing the injury risk and performance decline due to fatigue and muscle damage. Most prevalent injuries in handball is today, without any doubt, an extremely traumatic sport and it will be getting even more so with reference to the increase of strength, speed, and rhythm of the game. Numerous injuries which occur during the training process and games do not differ greatly with reference to age and sex (Wedderkopp N. et. al., 1997, Junge A. et. al., 2004).

Occupational specifics of elite female handball players in relation to injury recovery, social support and environmental factors

“…According to these findings and other similar studies [8][9][10][11][12], the most common injuries in professional handball are sprains, and the most prolonged absences from training and competitions are caused by knee injuries, which can last ≤10 months (practically the whole season). Studies in modern professional sports [4][5][6] present social support as an important factor for a faster injury recovery process.…”

“…In the social support part, following the methodology applied in some previous research studies [18,24], the authors used and adapted some questions from the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ) [18], which is a quantitative and psychometrically sound questionnaire that was approved for public release in 1981. Some other ance this stress in the last few decades by contributing to the optimization of injury prevention [7][8][9][10] and injury recovery with intense research [2][3][4]6,8,[11][12][13]. Since professional handball is one of the sports with the highest injury risk [6,7,9,12,[14][15][16], there is an increased focus on prevention training, especially in female handball, which has several specific features, from differences in the body composition and motor abilities to different emotional reactions [6,9,14].…”

“…Sports science has been trying to bal-IJOMEH 2021;34(1) sport-specific social support research [22], which is mostly related to the above-mentioned specific features of elite sports (a special position in the society -public presence, extreme conditions and demands). Injuries in professional sports constitute a topic that is widely analyzed from different perspectives [3][4][5]7,8], but not often from the occupational point of view. This study presents certain specific environmental factors which come at play during injury recovery in elite female handball, including a comparison of different viewpoints, which can lead to a better understanding of the occupation of an elite female handball player, as well as contribute to improved relationships between players and coaches, and their general well-being, and, consequently, yield better results in elite competitions.…”

Muscle Coactivation Index Improvement in Junior Handball Players by Using Propioceptive Exercises

“…Both nationally and internationally, in handball, the ankle sprain occupies a secondary place in the top of injuries (the chances of injury are 67.8%, over a period of two years), the main joint prone to injuries being the knee (Curitianu & Balint, 2015;Mircioaga, 2010).…”