Game position’s specific morphological charateristics of Brazilian male handball players

Abstract

The aim was to analyze Brazilian male handball athletes’ morphological characteristics by playing position and championship classification. Were measured 134 male handball athletes (24.5 ± 4.4y) from the ten teams participating on the Liga Petrobrás 2006. Anthropometric characteristics (body mass, four lengths, four breadths, four perimeters and nine skinfolds) were compared between the offensive positions. In the four better positioned teams, it was verified that wings were inferior to backcourts, pivots and goalkeepers in body mass, lengths, breadths and perimeters, while goalkeepers were superior to the other positions in triceps skinfold. In last positioned teams, it was verified in body mass superior values for backcourts and pivots in relation to wings, bigger values for backcourts in lengths, and superiority of backcourts and pivots to wings and goalkeepers in breadths and perimeters. The differences found in better positioned teams are similar to those found in European high level athletes.