Original articles   

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2001 June;41(2):229-35

Copyright © 2002 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Relationship between isokinetic strength of the internal and external shoulder rotators and ball velocity in team handball

Bayios I. A., Anastasopoulou E. M., Sioudris D. S., Boudolos K. D.

From the Laboratory of Sports Biomechanics Department of Physical Education and Sport Science University of Athens, Greece

Background. The pur­pose of ­this ­study was to exam­ine the rela­tion­ship ­between the rota­tion­al ­strength of shoul­der and ­ball veloc­ity in ­team hand­ball ­players ­from var­i­ous lev­els.
Methods. Three ­groups of ­young ­healthy, ­male sub­jects ­took ­part in the experi­ments: one ­group of 15 hand­ball ­players, the ­best of League A1 scor­ers, ­another ­group of 12 hand­ball ­players, the ­best of League A2 scor­ers and a ran­dom sam­ple of 15 phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion stu­dents. Each sub­ject was test­ed on a Cybex II iso­ki­net­ic dyna­mom­e­ter. The con­cen­tric ­action of the inter­nal and exter­nal rota­tion of the dom­i­nant shoul­der was exam­ined at 60, 180 and 300 deg/sec. Ball veloc­ity was exam­ined in ­three ­types of ­throw: (a) on the ­spot, (b) ­with a ­cross-­over ­step, and (c) ­with a ver­ti­cal ­jump. Statistical anal­y­sis was per­formed ­using the Pearson prod­uct-­moment cor­re­la­tion and one-way anal­y­sis of var­i­ance.
Results. The dif­fer­enc­es of ­peak ­torque val­ues of the inter­nal and exter­nal shoul­der rota­tion ­between the ­three ­groups ­were not sta­tis­ti­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant. The dif­fer­enc­es ­between ­groups regard­ing ­ball veloc­ity in all ­types of ­throw ­were sta­tis­ti­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant (p<0.001). The rela­tion­ship ­between IR and ER rota­tion of the shoul­der and ­ball veloc­ity was not sta­tis­ti­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant, ­except the ­jump ­shot.
Conclusions. The ­main find­ing of ­this ­study was ­that ­peak ­torque of IR and ER of the shoul­der was not a ­good indi­ca­tor of throw­ing veloc­ity at any ­type of ­throw, ­except the ­jump ­shot, in all sub­jects, regard­less of ­their throw­ing abil­ity.