Injury and psychological characteristics in handball players

Abstract

Objective. The aim of this study is to relate sports injuries suffered by players of handball and certain psychological characteristics of these. Methods. We studied 100 handball players with a mean age of 23.92 years with an average experience in their sport of 13.58 years. We evaluated the psychological characteristics of athletes and the injuries they had suffered. This study is a descriptive-correlational cross-sectional design in which all variables were assessed at the same time. Results. The results indicate that the handball players with high levels of stress have more muscle injuries and those with high scores on motivation and mental ability also have high number of injuries (moderate, tendinitis, contusions). Finally, those who score high in building team have fewer bruises that have mean scores. Conclusions. The results of this study affirm certain tenets of the model of stress and injury to Williams and Andersen, for example the fact that stress is positively related injuries. Furthermore, the results concerning motivation and team cohesion are very attractive to deepen them and try to better identify these relationships. It is possible that the high-performance sports competition is very different from the competition of athletes in training, or sports fans, at least in the behavioral consequences of the levels of motivation and cohesion. Designs are proposed for future research.