Handball is a team sport involving a great physical demand from its practitioners in which a high number of injuries occur, affecting individual and collective performance. Knowledge of the injuries is of great importance for their prevention. The objective of the present study was to identify, locate and compare the most frequent injuries and injury mechanisms in handball practice. It was carried out following the Preferred Informed Item for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The source of data collection was direct consultation of the PubMed and Medline databases. Several keywords were used for the documentary retrieval, and the quality of the studies that were selected was evaluated. Of the 707 studies retrieved, only 27 were considered appropriate for the review, and quality scores were obtained that ranged from 10 to 26 points, out of a maximum of 28. The most frequent injuries in handball players are located in the lower limbs (thigh, knee and ankle), and in the shoulder in the upper limbs. Regarding the playing position, the players who play over the 6-m line are the most affected by injuries, while the women players have a higher probability of injury. Most injuries occur during competition.

Current trends in the analysis of the physical fitness of athletes are based on subjecting the athlete to requirements similar to those found in competition. Regarding physical fitness, a thorough study of the capacities that affect the development of team sports in different ages and gender is required since the demands are not equivalent. The objective of this paper was to characterize the physical-physiological demands of athletes in an aerobic and anaerobic test specific to basketball players, as well as the evolution of the variables according to age and gender. The research was carried out in 149 players from different training categories (n = 103 male; n = 46 female). The athletes performed two field tests that evaluated both aerobic capacity and lactic anaerobic capacity. Each athlete was equipped with an inertial device during the tests. Sixteen variables (equal in both tests) were analyzed. Three of them evaluated technical-tactical aspects, four variables of objective internal load, six kinematic variables of objective external load (two related to distance and four related to accelerometry) and three neuromuscular variables of objective external load. The obtained results show significant differences in the variables analyzed according to the age and gender of the athletes. They are mainly due to factors related to the anthropometric maturation and development inherent in age and have an impact on the efficiency and technical and tactical requirements of the tests carried out and, therefore, on the obtained results in the tests.

The design of teaching tasks determines the physical and physiological demands that students are exposed to in physical education classes. The purpose of this study is to quantify and compare, according to gender and teaching methodology, the external (eTL) and internal (iTL) load resulting from the application of two programs that follow different teaching methodologies, i.e., a Tactical Games Approach (TGA) and Direct Instruction (DI), to teach school football. The Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPEs) recorded in the assessments were also studied. A total of 41 students in the fifth year of primary education from a state school from Spain participated in the study (23 boys and 18 girls), aged from 10 to 11 (M ± SD, 10.63 ± 0.49 years) and divided into two class groups. All the sessions were monitored with inertial devices that made it possible to record physical activity and convert the information into kinematic parameters. The results indicated that the students who followed the TGA method recorded higher iTL values (heart rate) and spent more time performing high-intensity activities. Boys recorded higher eTL, iTL, and RPE values than girls. There was an evolution in the RPE between the assessments, with both groups presenting a more efficient RPE in the posttest. The TGA method favors student physical fitness and health, thus, this method is recommended when planning physical education sessions.

The assessment of tactical-technical knowledge of football is essential to develop optimal and integral teaching processes for students. Therefore, the aim of this study was to design and validate an instrument so that teachers, coaches, and researchers can observe and codify both the tactical behaviors and technical skills performed by the students in the game of football. The design and validation of the instrument were carried out in four phases: a) review of the literature and previous instruments; b) design of the Instrument for the Measurement of Learning and Performance in Football (IMLPFoot). It assesses all the offensive and defensive play actions, with and without the ball, as well as their three components (decision-making, technical execution, and final result); c) sample selection of experts (N = 12); and d) quantitative (Likert-type scale from 1 to 10) and qualitative assessment of degree the pertinence, unambiguity, and importance of each of the 33 items included in the IMLPFoot. Aiken’s V coefficient was used to determine content validity. Likewise, internal consistency was calculated using Cronbach’s α coefficient. The results showed demanding levels of validity (V ≥ 0.77), internal consistency (α = 0.983), inter-rater, and intra-rater reliability. Therefore, it is a valid and reliable instrument that makes possible a complete assessment of football in physical education classes and/or in the sports context (out-of-school football).

González-Espinosa, S, Antúnez, A, Feu, S, and Ibáñez, SJ. Monitoring the external and internal load under 2 teaching methodologies.J Strength Cond Res34(10): 2920–2928, 2020—The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare the physical demands produced by the implementation of 2 sport teaching methods during a class and their relation with the learning achieved by the students. Two intervention programs were used to teach the sport of basketball, one based on the direct instruction (DI) method and the other on the tactical-game approach (TGA). The intervention programs were administered to 4 groups of students, 2 for each methodology, with 88 students participating in the study. A total of 10 practical sessions were given, as well as a pre-test and post-test. The practical sessions and the tests were recorded with an inertial system for monitoring and recording physical activity and movement in real time. Differences were found between the methodologies in the teaching sessions in the variables m·min⁻¹, acc·min⁻¹, PL·min⁻¹, and HRmax (p< 0.000). In the assessment tests, there were also differences between both methodologies in the walk and sprint variables (p< 0.005). The results obtained from the analysis of the sessions using each methodology show that the TGA method obtained better results in the variables of external and internal loads than the DI methodology. The TGA methodology permitted a greater development of the students' physical fitness. Moreover, performance in play was not associated with the achievement of higher values in the results of external and internal load in the tests. The students trained with the TGA methodology recorded better performance indicators in the game. These results lead us to recommend physical education teachers to use a student-centered approach in their lessons because it improved both the students' physical fitness and their sports performance.

Análisis del proceso formativo en jugadores expertos: validación de instrumento / Analysis of expert players’ training process: validation of tools