Positional differences in explosive power, speed and agility in adolescent handball players

Handball determines as a complex, team sport, where high-intensity activities are followed by short-term movements and low-intensity activities. The aim of this research was to determine whether there are differences in the explosive power of the lower extremities, speed and agility in adolescent handball players in relation to their position in the team. The sample of respondents consisted of 16 young handball players with handball experience 5.88 ± 1.86 years and age: 16.75 ± 1.29 years: who were divided into subsamples depending on the position they play: goalkeepers (n=6) wings (n=6) and defenders (n=4). The results showed statistically significant differences only in slalom agility test, while there were no significant differences in vertical jump height and speed tests. Subsequent comparisons, using the Tukey HSD test, show that players in the position of goalkeeper (M = 0.75; SD = 0.28) and wings (M = -0.75; SD = 0.28) differ statistically significantly (p = 0.04) in the results of the slalom test. These results may prove to be beneficial for talent assessment and evaluation as well as for the creation and improvement of position training regimens. Additionally, enhancing the position-specific profiling, it would appear worthwhile to incorporate additional performance assessments in future research that concentrate on muscle strength or reaction times in all positions of the team.