The acute effects of static stretching operations on handball throws

The sportsmen warm up under usual conditions before a contest or match. After warm up, they practice static stretching exercises to widen zone of action. The findings of resent researches have showed that static stretching exercises done after warm up can lead to a decrease in performance. The aim of this study is defined to analyze how in handball, a sport field, static stretching exercises after warm up will affect the speed of a ball throwed away from 7 meters.12 players of Hendek Spor-one of the teams of Turkish Handball Women Super League- are included in the study. Their mean age is 21,4±3.6.In the first day, all of the players underwent a simple run as intense as an aerobic practice of 5 minutes for a general warm up and then it was time for shot attempts of 7-meters after walking for two minutes to take a rest. In the second day, they were made to practice static stretching exercises lasting for 30 seconds after a genral warm up and then they went on with 7-meters throws following after a passive rest. All the handballers were asked to practice 7-meters throws by using their dominant hands.The maximum speed of the ball after it bounced off hand was ascertained with the help of radar. Its volume was determined KM/clock. After descriptive statistical methods (arithmetic average ±standard deviation;min/max) were applied in the statistical analysis of 7-meters throws belonging to the players, the difference between static stretching and general warm up protocols was figured ut with Wilcoxon Test. All of the statistical analysis were performed using SPSS 16.0 program at significance level of 0.05The 7-meters throws- following general warm up- performance of the 12 female subjects included in this study was confirmed as 62.5 ± 3.21 km/c and their endurance performance following static stretching was confirmed as 59.5 ± 1.38 in the light of the data. The statistical difference in static stretching operations carried out during and after the general warm up was confirmed. According to the data, static stretching operations decrease the 7-meters throw performance in handball.Keywords: Warm up, Static Stretching, 7-meters Throw