Effects of Elastic Band Plyometric Training on Physical Performance of Team Handball Players

Featured Application The elastic band presents a new material for plyometric training with load-like weight machines, but it is less expensive and simple to implement. This kind of training is able to activate all relevant muscles and requires little time. Handball coaches should consider including in-season loaded plyometric training for upper limbs to improve handball performance. This project investigated the effect of incorporating 8 weeks of biweekly upper limb loaded plyometric training (using elastic bands) into the in-season regimen of handball players. Participants were randomly allocated to a control group (CG) (n = 15, age = 18.1 +/- 0.5 years, body mass = 73.7 +/- 13.9 kg), or an experimental group (EG) (n = 14, age = 17.7 +/- 0.3 years, body mass = 76.8 +/- 10.7 kg). The measurements obtained pre- and post-intervention included a cycle ergometer force-velocity test, ball throwing velocity in three types of throwing, one-repetition maximum (1-RM) bench press and pull-over, and anthropometric estimates of the upper limb muscle volumes. The EG improved in absolute muscle power (W) (Delta 23.3%; interaction effect p = 0.032 more than pre-intervention), relative muscle power (W center dot kg(-1)) (Delta 22.3%; interaction effect p = 0.024), and all three types of ball throwing (Delta 18.6%, interaction effect p = 0.019 on a jumping shot; Delta 18.6%, interaction effect p = 0.017 on a three-step running throw; and Delta 19.1%, interaction effect p = 0.046 on a standing throw). There was no interaction effect for the 1-RM bench press and pull-over performance. The upper limb muscle volumes remained unchanged in both groups. We concluded that adding biweekly elastic band plyometric training to standard training improves the muscle power and throwing velocity. Accordingly, such exercises should be adopted as a part of a pragmatic approach to handball training.