Edited by: Antonino Bianco, University of Palermo, Italy
Reviewed by: Manuel Gómez-López, University of Murcia, Spain; Patrik Drid, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
This article was submitted to Exercise Physiology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Sports and Active Living
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Fatigue is a physiological and psychological phenomenon experienced to different extents in any kind of physical activity (Ament and Verkerke,
As sport performances are often executed under fatigued conditions, different functional tests have been proposed. As one of the assessment tools, the Upper Quarter Y Balance Test (YBT-UQ) is a test requiring both shoulder and core stability while performing arm movements in three different directions in a closed kinetic chain position (Gorman et al.,
The primary purpose of the present study was to analyse whether there are pre- to post-fatigue differences in throwing velocity. The secondary purpose was to analyse whether there are decreases in upper quarter mobility and stability performance as assessed through the YBT-UQ. With reference to the relevant literature (Thorlund et al.,
All participants played in a regional youth selection team of the Handball Association Niederrhein who had a comparable training regimen in terms of quantity (3–4 times per week) and similar playing level (
Characteristics of the study participants.
Age [years] | 14.8 ± 0.7 (14.0–16.0) |
Body height [cm] | 180.4 ± 6.4 (162.5–191.5) |
Body mass [kg] | 70.3 ± 7.9 (58.4–88.5) |
Body mass index [kg/m2] | 21.6 ± 2.2 (19.1–26.2) |
Non-throwing arm length [cm] | 91.6 ± 4.1 (81.5–99.0) |
Throwing arm length [cm] | 92.3 ± 3.9 (82.5–97.0) |
Training experience [years] | 7.0 ± 2.6 (3.0–11.0) |
Throwing arm [L/R] | 2/22 |
The testing took place at a regular training session in the evening. Testing personnel was made up of experienced raters who were familiar with every testing station. The players were randomly and equally assigned to the three groups for the three testing stations (anthropometric assessment; YBT-UQ; throwing velocity) (
Schematic description of the study design. AL, arm length; YBT-UQ, Upper Quarter Y Balance Test.
Based on a metronome paced with 60 bpm, a push-up to failure protocol (Salo and Chaconas,
Upper limb length was measured from the seventh cervical spinous process to the distal tip of the middle finger with the shoulder being in a 90° extension (Teyhen et al.,
The throwing was executed pre- and directly post-fatigue. A target net (SG 500L; size: 3 m × 2 m) was attached to both handball goals. Throwing velocity was assessed using a “Stalker Pro” radar gun (Applied Concepts Inc., TX, USA). The radar gun is able to measure velocities from 0 to 480 km/h with an accuracy of 0.16 km/h in a 0.01 s time interval. The working frequency of the “Stalker Pro” is 35.1 GHz with a low disturbance threshold. The radar gun was positioned behind the goal net in the height of 1.20 m facing through the hole of the goal net to secure the Doppler effect. One tester was constantly positioned behind the camera and registered the values while a second one noted down the values into the score sheet of the individual athlete. During throwing the contralateral leg was positioned at the 7-m line while the throwing arm held the ball. The contralateral foot was allowed to touch the bench that was positioned in front of the 7 m line. The participants were not allowed to fall over the bench after the throw. All athletes used a standard ball size 2 and glue or resin was allowed to simulate a game- or training-like situation. Each player had three consecutive trials immediately following each other and only the best trial (fastest velocity) was counted. As throwing onto the goal is usually only executed with the throwing arm, only this arm was tested.
The YBT-UQ was executed with a Y Balance Test Kit (Move2Perform, Evansville, USA) with two adapted YBT-UQ test protocols (pre- and post-fatigue condition) together with columns to assess the maximal number of push-ups executed, the 60% value of the maximal push-ups and number of sets performed until failure. A standardized verbal instruction was given to all participants prior to the tests and one of the experimenters demonstrated the test procedure before the start. The participants placed their dominant hand at the center of the junction and reached out to the furthest point of each direction with the free hand in medial, superolateral, and inferolateral direction without a break and while maintaining the stabilization with the arm tested. Trials were stopped if the participants did not maintain three-point contact or touched the floor with the mobile arm or hand (Gorman et al.,
Data are presented as group mean values ± standard deviations. After data were tested for normal distribution (i.e., Shapiro-Wilk test with
After determining the maximal number of push-ups (equals 100%), all players performed a first set of push-ups until task failure. Six out of 24 players achieved the minimum of 60% or higher from the maximum and performed a second set of push-ups until failure (
Relative number of push-ups until fatigue-related task failure. Note: The metronome-paced (60 bpm) push-ups were performed until the number of repetitions in a set was lower than 60% (indicated by the dotted line) of the number of repetitions during the first set (i.e., 100%).
In terms of throwing performance, fatigue resulted in a significant decrease in throwing velocity (−3%,
Variables of throwing and Upper Quarter Y Balance Test performance separated by fatigue.
Throwing velocity [km/h] | 84.5 ± 7.2 | 82.3 ± 6.6 | −3 | 0.022/0.32 |
MD [% AL] | 109.5 ± 8.9 | 107.6 ± 8.0 | −2 | 0.148/0.23 |
IL [% AL] | 109.2 ± 11.6 | 108.2 ± 12.28 | −1 | 0.637/0.08 |
SL [% AL] | 84.8 ± 11.8 | 80.4 ± 10.8 | −5 | 0.017/0.39 |
CS [% AL] | 101.2 ± 8.3 | 98.7 ± 7.5 | −2 | 0.026/0.31 |
MD [% AL] | 111.6 ± 9.5 | 110.2 ± 8.5 | −1 | 0.298/0.16 |
IL [% AL] | 110.5 ± 10.6 | 110.1 ± 9.3 | 0 | 0.757/0.04 |
SL [% AL] | 89.1 ± 10.2 | 79.9 ± 11.2 | −10 | <0.001/0.87 |
CS [% AL] | 103.7 ± 7.2 | 100.0 ± 7.3 | −4 | 0.001/0.52 |
To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine the effect of fatigue on throwing and YBT-UQ performance in healthy young male handball players. The main result of this study was that fatigue produced significantly lower throwing velocity and YBT-UQ reach distances.
In accordance with our hypothesis of fatigue-related decrements in throwing performance, we found that throwing velocity was significantly lower after the upper-body fatigue protocol. Based on the results, the present level of fatigue impaired the testing scores. The present results are in line with findings of previous studies. For example, Niederseer et al. (
Partly in line with our assumption of fatigue-related impairments in upper quarter mobility/stability, the YBT-UQ values for the throwing and non-throwing arm were significantly decreased after the fatigue protocol for the superolateral reach direction and for the CS. This finding goes in line with Salo and Chaconas (
The YBT-UQ test was executed following the fatigue protocol and the throwing task. The performance for the superolateral but not for the medial and the inferolateral reach direction was significantly impaired following the fatigue protocol. A possible reason might be that the superolateral reach direction was the last one being tested in the sequence of the three reach directions leading to the longest hold-up time in the weight bearing one-arm push-up position which could have negatively affected the recovery process. Furthermore, the superolateral reach direction most closely resembles the overhead throwing technique (Wilson et al.,
There are a few limitations with this study that need to be addressed. First, we investigated male adolescent handball players, which limits the transferability of our findings to younger (children) and older (adults) players as well as to female players of different ages. Thus, future studies are advised to include individuals from other age groups and of both sexes. Second, our finding of fatigue-related impairments on throwing and YBT-UQ performance is limited to the push-up protocol that was used to induce upper-body fatigue. Future studies should investigate whether this can be transferred to a more real-sports scenario (e.g., throwing protocol). Third, we did not apply electrophysiological measurements and therefore can only speculate on the underlying mechanisms of the observed performance decrements. Especially, with respect to the fatigue-effects on the superolateral reach direction, the application of surface EMG might have provided deeper insights and should be additionally used in future studies.
The present study investigated the effects of fatigue on throwing and YBT-UQ performance in young, male handball players. We found that fatigue of the shoulder girdle induced by repetitive push-ups until failure lead to deteriorations of throwing velocity and YBT-UQ reach distances (i.e., superolateral reach direction; CS). Because handball is characterized as a game with a high number of low and high intensity intervals, a lower level of fatigue and reliance on glycolytic pathways or a higher tolerance of fatigue is desirable (Michalsik,
Previous studies have shown that healthy young adults showed worse results in throwing performance and YBT-UQ in fatigued conditions. The present study indicates that this detrimental effect is also present in well-trained adolescent handball players. Therefore, coaches should develop training programs with the goal of either delaying the demonstrated fatiguing effects or establishing a higher fatiguing tolerance. Further, our finding of fatigue-related decrements in throwing shoulder stability and mobility performance indicates that practitioners should develop sophisticated substitution strategies to avoid this performance-diminishing level of local fatigue during game situations.
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Ethikkommission des Instituts für Psychologie der Fakultät für Bildungswissenschaften der Universität Duisburg-Essen. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants' legal guardian/next of kin.
TM and JB designed the research question and analyzed the data. JB planned and supervised the testings and wrote the main part of the manuscript. JB, MH, and NW conducted the testings and data collection. TM and MH reviewed the manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The authors would like to thank the handball players who participated in this study and their coaches.