Effects of Home Confinement on the Intensity of Physical Activity during the COVID-19 Outbreak in Team Handball According to Country, Gender, Competition Level, and Playing Position: A Worldwide Study.

This study investigated effects of home confinement on physical activity (PA) in Team Handball during the COVID-19 outbreak. A total of 1359 handball players participated (age: 23 ± 6 years). Participants from Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa answered an online version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) considering "before" and "during" confinement. COVID-19 home confinement has had a negative effect on PA (vigorous, moderate, walking, and overall). The largest decrease was in the sum parameter "all PA" (MET (metabolic equivalent of task)-min/week, ηp2 = 0.903; min/week, ηp2 = 0.861). Daily sitting time increased from 2.7 to 5.0 h per weekday (p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.669). For gender, continent, country, level of handball league, and playing position, no significant differences (group and interaction effects) were observed. The largest change in PA behavior was in walking (minutes per day: ηp2 = 0.755), with males displaying the greatest decrease (from 62 ± 11 to 30 ± 14 min per weekday; d = 2.67). In terms of magnitude, difference between genders was greatest for sitting time (difference in d = 1.20). In conclusion, while COVID-19 measures were essential to preserve public health, PA was compromised and sedentary behavior increased because of these public health measures regardless of gender, playing position, and competition level.

Perceptual training effects on anticipation of direct and deceptive 7-m throws in handball.

We examined the effectiveness of perceptual training on the performance of handball goalkeepers when anticipating the direction of both direct and deceptive 7-m throws. Skilled goalkeepers were assigned equally to three matched-ability groups based on their pre-test performance: a perceptual training group (n = 14) received video-based perceptual training, a placebo training group (n = 14) received video-based regular training and a control group received no training. Participants in the perceptual training group significantly improved their performance compared to both placebo and control groups; however, anticipation of deceptive throws improved less than for direct throws. The results confirm that although anticipating deception in handball is a challenging task for goalkeepers, task-specific perceptual training can minimise its effect and improve performance.