Quantification of external and internal match loads in elite female team handball

Abstract

Team handball is a complex sport and the quantification of the match-play performance seems fundamental to provide coaches with useful information to design sound training sessions In this regard, previous investigations showed that team handball matchplay imposes high physical and physiological demands on both male and female players In the last few years, microtechnology has been adopted to determine elite female handball players' physical performance during official matches A previous study investigating the physical demand of a Norwegian elite female handball team documented an external load quantified as player load (PL) per min of 8.82 2.06 arbitrary units (AU), with 3.90 1.58 high intensity events (i.e. the sum of accelerations, decelerations, and change of directions) per minute These results demonstrated that elite female team handball players spend a considerable amount of energy performing high-intensity events, underlining the high demand of the matches.