Shooting Performance and Fly Time in Highly Trained Wing Handball Players: Not Everything Is as It Seems

Purpose: To (1) assess the usefulness of countermovement jump (CMJ) testing to predict handball-specific jumping ability and (2) examine the acute effect of transiently modified jumping ability (ie, flight time) on shooting efficiency in wing players. Methods: Eleven young highly trained wing players performed 3 CMJs and 10 typical wing jump shots with 3 different modalities: without any constraint (CONTROL), while stepping on a 14-cm step (STEP), and wearing a weighted vest (VEST, 5% of body mass). Flight time and the associated scoring efficiency during the jump shots were recorded. Results: There was no clear correlation between jump shot and CMJ flight time, irrespective of the condition (r =.04-.18). During jump shots, flight time was most likely longer (effect size [ES] = 1.42-1.97) with VEST (635.4 +/- 31 ms) and STEP (615.3 +/- 32.9 ms) than CONTROL (566 +/- 30.5 ms) and very likely longer with VEST than with STEP (ES = 0.6). The correlation between scoring efficiency and jump-shot flight time was not substantial either in each modality or for all shots pooled. The difference in scoring efficiency between the 3 jumps with the longest vs shortest flight times was either small (VEST, 48% vs 42%) or nonsubstantial (2 other conditions). Conclusions: The use of CMJ as a predictor of handball-specific jumping ability is questioned given the dissociation between CMJ and jump-shot flying time. These results also show that transiently affected flight time may not affect scoring efficiency, which questions the importance of jumping ability for success in wing players.