Handball Injuries in Elite Asian Players

3 Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the injury incidence and mechanism of injuries in elite Asian handball players using descriptive questionnaire. On the whole, during the last year, 63 injuries were recorded. The incidence of injuries per 1000 hours of competition was found to be 20.7 while per 1000 hours of training .96 injuries happened. The results showed that acute injuries (82.54%) was significantly much higher than chronic injuries (17.46%) (X -26.683, P=0.000). According to findings 15% of the injuries were severe. The 2 highest incidence of injuries (41%) was in left and right backs. The findings also show that there is a meaningful difference in the incidence of injuries made to different parts of the body in handball players (X -37.07, P=0.00) 2 in a way that majority of the injuries happened in the ankle (23.8%), knee (15.9%) and shoulder (11.1%). Based on results 65% of the injuries in handball are of the non-contact kind while 35% were the consequence of players' contact with their opponents (X -5.730, P=0.00). The main machanism leading to injuries included, plant 2 and cutting (28.5%) and blocking (22.2%) (X -18.810, P=0.00). Also the results of analysis showed that 65% of 2 the injuries in handball happen in the second half of the game whiles the remaining 35% happened in the first half. These results showed that the incidence of injuries in elite Asian handball players is quite high and prevention should focus on ankle and knee injuries. In addition, In order to decrease injuries that arise from plant and cutting movement, there seems to be a need for teaching appropriate techniques to athlete and also doing balance-promoting training.