A Comparison of Match Loads and Time Course of Recovery in Youth Handball Players With Different Neuromuscular Performance.

Authors

Diego Marqués-Jiménez, Marta Domínguez-Díez, José M Izquierdo, Daniel Castillo

Published in

Sports health. Pages 19417381261459595. Jul 13, 2026. Epub Jul 13, 2026.

Abstract

Fatigue-induced changes influence physical performance of youth players during and after handball matches.
Players with higher levels of neuromuscular performance may exhibit reduced postmatch fatigue and a faster recovery.
A prospective, comparative, repeated-measures observational design was used.
Level 3.
A total of 34 outfield male youth handball players participated in this study (age, 15.42 ± 1.65 years; height, 171.31 ± 9.92 cm; body mass, 64.68 ± 15.14 kg). Each participant played 1 simulated match during the in-season phase. Neuromuscular performance was evaluated pre-, post-, 24 hours post-, and 48 hours postmatch using the maximal isometric hand grip strength test, the countermovement jump test, the 505 change of direction test, and a linear straight sprint test (i.e., 10 m, 20 m, 30 m). Moreover, perceived wellness was obtained at pre-, 24 hours post-, and 48 hours postmatch, and match-related internal and external loads were monitored. Random forest clustering was used to categorize participants into 2 clusters based on their prematch neuromuscular performance (i.e., higher- and lower-performing players).
Higher-performing players experienced greater internal and external match loads but showed minimal postmatch performance declines (P < 0.05). During the recovery period, lower-performing players exhibited greater impairments in sprint performance while higher-performing players reported elevated perceived fatigue and exhibited greater impairments in change of direction performance (P < 0.05).
Higher neuromuscular performance enables youth handball players to manifest superior physical outputs during simulated matches and minimizes the extent of match-induced acute fatigue, but the contribution to a faster recovery remains unclear.
Training programs for youth handball players should emphasize the development of neuromuscular function, not only for enhancing match physical performance, but also for reducing acute fatigue.

PMID:
42444167
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 14 Jul 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.