Isabel Fragoso

Attributes of Top Elite Team-handball Players

Abstract Massuça, LM, Fragoso, I, and Teles, J. Attributes of top elite team-handball players. J Strength Cond Res 28(1): 178–186, 2014—Researchers in the field of excellence in sport performance are becoming increasingly focused on the study of sport-specific characteristics and requirements. In accordance with this, the purposes of this study were (a) to examine the morphologic-, fitness-, handball-specific skills and psychological and “biosocial” differences between top elite and nontop elite team-handball players and (b) to investigate the extent to which they may be used to identify top elite team-handball players. One hundred sixty-seven adult male team-handball players were studied and divided in 2 groups: top elite (n = 41) and nontop elite (n = 126). Twenty-eight morphologic-, 9 fitness-, 1 handball-specific skills and 2 psychological-based and 2 “biosocial”-based attributes were used. Top elite and nontop elite groups were compared for each variable of interest using Students t-test, and 5 logistic regression analyses were performed with the athletes performance group (top elite or nontop elite) as the dependent variable and the variables of each category as predictors. The results showed that (a) body mass, waist girth, radiale-dactylion length, midstylion-dactylion length, and absolute muscle mass (morphologic model); (b) 30-m sprint time, countermovement jump height and average power, abdominal strength and the class of performance in the Yo-Yo Intermittent Endurance Test (fitness model); (c) offensive power (specific-skills model); (d) ego-based motivational orientation (psychological model); (e) socioeconomic status and the energy spent (for week) in handball activity (biosocial model); significantly (p < 0.05) contributed to predict the probability of an athlete to be a top elite team-handball player. Moreover, the fitness model exhibited higher percentages of correct classification (i.e., 91.5%) than all the other models did. This study provided (a) the rational to reduce the battery of tests for evaluation purposes, and (b) the initial step to work on building a multidisciplinary model to predict the probability of a handball athlete to be a top elite player.

Obesity, academic performance and reasoning ability in portuguese students between 6 and 12 years old

Obesity has been linked to several physiological and psycho-social diseases, decreases in cognitive function, poor levels of scholastic achievement, low socioeconomic status and delayed onset of maturity. This study investigates the association between obesity and both academic performance and reasoning ability in 394 male and 398 females students between the ages of 6 and 12 from Lisbon, Portugal. It also assesses how this relationship may be influenced by chronological age, maturity and socioeconomic status. The results suggest that: 1) reasoning ability is independent of socioeconomic status and level of maturity; 2) no differences in reasoning ability exist between groups of different BMI; 3) academic performance is moderated by chronological age in boys, and by maturity in both genders; 4) obesity is not associated with academic performance. It is concluded that reasoning ability and academic performance are not associated with obesity, and that inter-individual differences in academic performance in boys may be explained by differences in their level of maturity.

Study of portuguese handball players of different playing status. A morphological and biosocial

The development of sport has guided sports sciences researchers to the study of excellence in sport performance. In accordance, this study aims to evaluate the relation between some morphological and biosocial factors and sport level and tactical position in handball players of Portuguese leagues. A total of 187 male handball athletes (age, 23.48±5.12 years) participated in this study. The sample was divided into five groups (Top elite, Moderate elite, Sub-elite, Moderate trained, Junior elite) for comparison. Morphological evaluation of participants comprised the study of 11 anthropometric measures, adipose mass and fat-free mass. To evaluate biosocial dimensions, participants completed the Portuguese Biosocial RAPIL questionnaire (adapted to handball athletes). Results showed that top elite athletes were taller, heavier, had higher fat-free mass, less fat mass, higher socio-economic status and higher weekly energy expenditure. These findings can be a useful tool to promote real changes in training methods, specifically in relation to the weekly energy expenditure in training (i.e., training volume).

Methodological Agreement between Body-Composition Methods in Young Soccer Players Stratified by Zinc Plasma Levels

Es factible pensar que la evaluacion de la composicion corporal puede estar influenciada por el estado de maduracion y los niveles plasmaticos de zinc, especialmente en atletas jovenes, que regularmente realizan un alto volumen de entrenamiento fisico. Por tanto, es importante aclarar el impacto de estos factores en la evaluacion de la composicion corporal de los atletas, ya que errores en su analisis pueden conducir al desarrollo de una equivocada prescripcion de entrenamiento, ademas de una dieta determinada, y por lo tanto afectar el rendimiento deportivo. El objetivo de esta investigacion consistio en: (1) comparar los diferentes metodos de evaluacion de la composicion corporal en futbolistas jovenes estratificados por los niveles plasmaticos de zinc; (2) comparar los dos metodos de referencia utilizando el espesor de los pliegues cutaneos en ninos (ecuaciones de Slaughter y Lohman), teniendo en cuenta el nivel de maduracion. En este estudio transversal, cincuenta futbolistas jovenes (13,3±0,7 anos) fueron sometidos a un perfil bioquimico de sangre, bioimpedancia electrica (BIA), absorciometria de rayos X de energia dual (DXA), medidas antropometricas (masa corporal, estatura y pliegues cutaneos de espesor (ST)) y radiografia de mano-muneca. La evaluacion de la composicion corporal se realizo por: DXA, ST (ecuaciones Lohman y Slaughter) y BIA (ecuacion Houtkooper). El nivel de zinc identifico dos grupos: deportistas normozincemicos e hipozincemicos, determinados por un punto de corte de 11,0 mmol/L. Se observo una diferencia significativa en los datos descriptivos de todos los participantes despues de la estratificacion del estado de zinc solo para la concentracion de zinc en plasma; se observaron correlaciones significativas entre los metodos de evaluacion (porcentaje de grasa: r= 0,34 a 0,98 y p <0,001 a 0,013; masa libre de grasa: r= desde 0,95 hasta 0,9998 y p <0,001), y disminuyeron las correlaciones al estar involucrada la impedancia electrica. Los resultados a traves de los metodos Bland y Altman mostraron un acuerdo mas cercano al comparar DXA y ST. El metodo ST fue mejor que el BIA para evaluar la composicion corporal (en los jugadores jovenes de futbol), cuando no estaban disponibles los escaneos DXA. La comparacion de los modelos basados en ST mostro que la mejor asociacion de valores DXA se obtuvieron para la ecuacion Slaughter, seguidos por la ecuacion Lohman utilizando la edad osea en lugar de la edad cronologica. Los niveles de zinc en plasma parecen no influir en la evaluacion de la composicion corporal, lo que amerita mas estudios.

Biological Maturation Assessment Methods in Adolescent Soccer Players Considering Zinc Status

The purpose of this study was to compare different methods of maturity evaluation and their relation with performance-related physical and anthropometric variables in young soccer players, with different plasma zinc status. A total of 53 healthy male young soccer players (age: 13±1 years; body mass: 48±10 kg; stature: 160±10 cm) participated in this study. Variables from physical fitness (stature, ST; fat-free mass, FFM; handgrip strength in the dominant hand, DHS), testosterone and zinc plasma concentration were measured. Biological maturity was evaluated by sexual maturity (development of: pubic hair, PH; genitals, GD; axillary hair; AH), bone maturity (TW3 method; BA), and testosterone plasma concentration methods. We observed that: (i) the frequency of hypozincemics and normozincemics children stratified by BA-CA, PH and GD were similar in each category; (ii) the BA allowed the identification of differences between the three categories, in at least two performance-related variables (FFM and DHS, p<0.0001); (iii) the AH method was able to discriminate only for DHS (p<0.0001); and (iv) the testosterone method was not able to identify differences between the four maturation categories with regard to ST, FFM, and DHS. Results suggested that Zinc deficiency did not influence the results obtained for the maturation categories defined by the different assessment methods. The assessment of biological maturation by BA seems to be the most effective for the stratification of performance-related and anthropometric variables in young soccer players. Nevertheless, the AH method should also be considered as a fair option to be used in field studies and practice.