Perception of fatigue and well-being in international beach handball players in official competition

Official beach handball competitions usually take place over four to five consecutive days. The aim of this study was to describe the internal load of the international beach handball player during an official competition by assessing her perception of fatigue as well as pulse monitoring during night rest. Ten players of the Italian national team were assessed through questionnaires and by means of a device that monitored their pulse rate during night rest during the competition at the Mediterranean Beach Games in Heraklion-Greece 2023-. The RPE data during the first day reported a mean of 4.8 +/- 2.5 and on the last day of the competition a mean of 6.2 +/- 2.2. In the Hooper Well-being questionnaire (TC) the items of fatigue (4.1 +/- 0.9/5.5 +/- 0.7), muscle soreness (4.0 +/- 0.8/5.5 +/- 0.9) and stress level (4.5 +/- 0.8/5.5 +/- 0.7) showed a trend of increasing records as the days of competition passed. The Hooper index shows this trend towards a deteriorated state of well-being (20.5 +/- 0.4), with a significant difference between the first and last day's recordings of maximum heart rate (F=9.580; pbonf =.009**; YI2=.444). This study provides information to the coaching staff on the fatigue control of the players during the official competition.