Playing position, height, weight, and preferred throwing arm do not differentiate between more and less effective 7- metre throwers at the highest level of international handball

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate what characterised the best 7 m throwers in elite handball. The 7 m throwing records of 95 males and 104 females who collectively took 12,033 7 m throws at the 43 major championships (European Championship, World Championship, and Olympics) from 2007–2024 were studied. This was done to assess whether some characteristics set the best throwers apart from those who were less successful. A multinomial logistic regression found no significant differences between the 7 m throwers on a range of characteristics. These findings indicate that the variability within each characteristic is as great as the variability between characteristics. What makes the different 7 m throwers efficient from the 7 m line does therefore appear less important than the fact that something makes them efficient from the 7 m line.