Interfering factors in the impact magnitudes during jump throw landing in handball

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the impact magnitude in the lower limbs during the landing phase in handball jump throw as well as to relate the impacts with the body weight (BW), jump height (JH) and the knee flexion angle (KA) and hip flexion angle (HA) during landing. Nine handball athletes, aged 22.2 ± 1.4 years took part in this study. A triaxial accelerometer was used to analyze the knee and ankle impacts. Kinematics parameters were investigated using a three-dimensional system. Descriptive statistics, analysis of variance and linear multiple regression set at 5% were used. The highest impact magnitudes occurred in the anteroposterior axis of the knee (28.24 g) as well as in the ankle (59.81 g) with 71% of the knee impact explained by HA and BW while 45% of the ankle impact were explained by HA and KA. Results allow for the conclusion that hip flexion had the highest influence on the lower limb impact whereas there was no observed influence of jump height. Therefore, correct landing technique can minimize the overload applied to the athlete’s joints.