The Effect of Biomechanical Characteristics of Compound Offensive Skill Speed on Shooting Accuracy Index for Junior Handball Players

Abstract

Successful handball shooting emerges from the coordinated interaction of approach speed, whole-body momentum transfer, release position, movement time, and target control. Applied video analysis can quantify selected features of this complex offensive sequence.

Purpose: To describe selected biomechanical characteristics of a compound offensive shooting task and examine their reported relationships with compound-skill performance and the shooting-accuracy index in junior handball players.

Methods: A descriptive correlational design was used. The source population comprised 10 players from the Al-Diwaniyah Specialized Handball School in 2025; three players were excluded, leaving seven participants. Two Galaxy S25 Ultra cameras recorded the task at 240 frames/s from lateral and posterior views. Kinovea-2025. was used to obtain launch speed, hip height at ball release, and movement time. The task consisted of ball pickup, chest pass and reception, a feint around a mannequin, shooting, and returning to the start, repeated with six balls. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations were reported.

Results: Published means were 13.68 for compound-skill performance, 4.58 m/s for launch speed, 1.39 m for hip height at release, 4.16 s for movement time, and 2.65 points/s for the shooting-accuracy index. The reported correlations of compound-skill performance were r = -0.63 with launch speed, r = -0.75 with hip height, r = -0.82 with movement time, and r = -0.72 with the accuracy index.

Conclusion: The published data indicate substantial inverse associations between compound-skill performance and the selected biomechanical outcomes. Because the sample was small and the source tables contain internal inconsistencies in several units, dispersion values, and p values, the findings should be interpreted as exploratory and should not be treated as causal.