Morphologic Characteristics of Adult Male Handball Players Considering Five Levels of Performance and Playing Position

Abstract

This study aims 1- to describe and compare the anthropometric characteristics of male handball players from different levels of performance, and 2- to identify the morphologic variables that allows to discriminate the level of performance for each individual playing position. A total of 212 male handball players (age, 23.6±5.2 years) were included in this study, and divided into five levels of performance for comparison. The playing position of each player was recorded. All participants were tested during the 2008-2009 Portuguese handball season. Twenty-eight anthropometric measures were taken by a group of anthropometrics accredited by International Society of the Advance of Kinanthropometry. Body composition, fat mass and muscle mass were calculated from the equations proposed by Faulkner²⁶, Yuhasz²⁸, Durnin and Womersley²⁵, Jackson and Pollock²⁹, Matiegka³³, Heymsfield, McManus, Smith, Stevens and Nixon³⁴, Martin, Spenst, Drinkwater and Clarys²¹, Doupe, Martin, Searle, Kriellaars and Giesbrecht³⁵ and Lee, Wang, Heo, Ross, Janssen and Heymsfield³⁶. The research findings showed that the morphological optimization is important to have success in handball.