Performance Profiling in Handball Using Discriminative Variables and its Practical Applications

Performance profiles of teams performance highlight areas of weaknesses and strengths for coaches to inform their decision-making on how to spend their limited training time with athletes. This study used a stepwise discriminative analysis approach comparing one successful team’s (TEAM) performances through five consecutive seasons against a) other top four teams (TOP4) and b) teams with a final rank between 5th and eight (LOW) in a semi-professional league. The predictive model created was used to set forth a performance profile for the selected team. A total of 95 matches of the TEAM’s matches from the last five seasons are in the analysis. The objective was to create a performance profile with relevant performance indicators selected based on the discriminant analysis results of the selected TEAM and discuss its practical applicability. For matches against other TOP4 teams, the predictive model created consisted of three variables; legal stops, blocked shots and 9 m shots, classifying 72.6% correctly. The LOW ranked teams model had six variables and correctly classified 94.4% of cases (assists, blocked shots, legal stops, the goalkeeper saved shots, 2-minute exclusion, and shot efficiency). The selected variables are presented in Table 4, with medians and a 95% confidence interval of the median as a team performance profile. The profile provides the coaches with two models containing values that can serve as a reference for this team’s performance. The profile of this TEAM’s performances during the last five seasons generally aligns with the variables associated with success in other studies in female handball.