4 Examples of strength training in handball and other ball sports | Strength training for handball & other ball sports

4 Examples of strength training in handball and other ball sports

The influence of strength training for ball sports is often underestimated. But there is a lot of potential here. We'll show you how you can approach strength training in handball and give you more examples of effective strength training for other sports such as badminton and basketball.

spized | Training tips

February 23, 2024 |

Whats’ on this page

1. Handball strength training to get better in duels

1.1 Hypertrophy training for handball players

1.2 Which exercises are suitable for this?

1.3 These five basic exercises best cover most muscle groups for handball strength training:

1.4 What repetitions and maximum strength for handball strength training with dumbbells?

2. Volleyball strength training - how to make your calves stronger for beach volleyball

2.1 What are the benefits of proprioceptive training for beach volleyball?

2.2 How do I train my proprioception?

3. Strength training basketball - jump higher for dunks

4. Plyometric training for higher jumps in basketball

4.1 Start your basketball strength training with this series of exercises

4.2 What repetitions apply to the plyometric basketball strength exercises?

5. Badminton strength training - how to compensate for imbalances

6. How can I counteract imbalances in badminton strength training?

7. Strength training for ball sports prevents injuries and increases your performance

Handball strength training to get better in duels

Clearly, handball is a very physical sport. There are many duel situations in every game. Lighter players in particular have disadvantages. For example, they have great difficulty getting into the circle and can usually only succeed from a distance. How can this problem be solved?

"Build up mass, preferably muscle mass and not fat".

This will help you build up more muscle mass for better assertiveness in handball duels.

Hypertrophy: Hypertrophy is the increase in size of tissue or organs due to an increase in cell size. It is therefore not about the multiplication of cells. Their number remains the same, they just get bigger.

Hypertrophy training for handball players

In hypertrophy training, it is important that a large part of your skeletal musculature is addressed. Skeletal muscles include all muscles and muscle groups that are responsible for voluntary and active body movements. For example, the muscles that move your arms and legs.

Which exercises are suitable for this?

More complex exercises with the free weights are best. This is because several joints are moved simultaneously and therefore many muscle groups are used at once. Squats are a good example: they activate the ankle, knee and hip as well as the associated muscles.

Training with the free weights focusses even more on intermuscular coordination. With a knee extension machine, on the other hand, you mainly train the quadriceps.

During free weight training, a large part of your core muscles are used for stabilisation due to the free weight. The exercises are therefore usually also stabilisation exercises. A perfect exercise would be a free squat with weight, for example.

These five basic exercises best cover most muscle groups for handball strength training:

Squats
Deadlift
Bench press
Shoulder press
Rowing

You can also perform other strength exercises such as pull-ups, free dips, lunges or the incline bench.

Important: If you become too tired towards the end of your strength training for handball and you risk no longer being able to perform the exercises properly, you can use more equipment. However, you should always aim to perform the complex exercises exclusively with free weights.

65-85% of the 1 RM
6-12 reps
3-5 sets
1-2min rest

To build muscle, you need more calories than you burn

There are many ways to track your calorie consumption, such as sports watches where you enter your age, weight, gender, height, etc. Based on your data, your activity and sleep are tracked. Your activity and sleep are tracked based on your data. The data is usually not 100 per cent valid, but it can give you an orientation. There are also apps that you can use to calculate your calorie intake. The most accurate way to do this is to weigh your food yourself. If you realise that you are not gaining weight despite the extra calories in the app, you should add even more calories.

The following rules of thumb help to ensure a good calorie intake during strength training:

Eat approx. 1.8g/kg body weight protein
a maximum of 30% of your total calorie intake should come from unsaturated, vegetable fats
the rest of your calories should come from carbohydrates and protein (approx. 55%; protein approx. 15% depending on total requirements)

In principle, the following applies:

When strength training, you should always eat enough (healthy) food so that you are in calorie surplus and consume enough protein. You will soon realise that this is usually not so easy in a "normal" everyday life. You definitely need a meal plan. What helps very well are calorie-dense shakes with healthy ingredients. If they also taste good and are easy to drink, that's perfect. Here we have a tried and tested recipe for a power shake (it's easy to prepare, just put everything in the blender and you're done):

250ml milk
40g oat flakes
100g strawberries
1 banana
2 EL Peanut butter
1,5 scoops Whey

Nutritional values: 950kcal, 90g carbohydrates, 60g proteins, 40g fat

Volleyball strength training - how to make your calves stronger for beach volleyball

We have addressed a very common problem experienced by good volleyball players who get calf problems when switching to beach volleyball. These problems are particularly noticeable after the first few weeks of training in spring. The causes lie primarily in the deeper muscles that move the lower ankle joint. This is because they are increasingly activated on the sand and uneven ground to compensate. This can quickly lead to overloading.

Targeted strength training for beach volleyball can help here. The key is called "proprioceptive training".

What are the benefits of proprioceptive training for beach volleyball?

This form of training improves your proprioception, i.e. your self-perception. Certain receptors allow you to perceive your joint positions and changes in your body's position in space. With good proprioception, you have better balance and are more stable even on wobbly or uneven surfaces. You also reduce the risk of injury and can optimise your strength and speed on such surfaces.

How do I train my proprioception?

Strengthen your self-awareness with balance exercises such as the one-legged stand or standing balance on a wobbly surface. The "wobbly surface" can be a folded towel or a soft foam mat (soft pad). You can also train on a wobble board. You can also increase the intensity of the exercises by closing your eyes.

There are also variations for strength training: simply do your normal leg exercises such as squats, lunges and split squats for volleyball strength training on unsteady ground. You should start without weight or only with very light weight to get used to the new form of training and feel your way around. Don't be impatient. Take small steps rather than trying to do too much too quickly.

Start with just a few exercises to avoid overloading.
Start with 2-3 exercises per training session. You can achieve a great effect with just 10-20 minutes.
It is best to integrate volleyball strength training into your warm-up.

Strength training basketball - jump higher for dunks

Have you been playing basketball for a while, but are you dissatisfied because you can't jump as high? With targeted basketball strength training, you have the opportunity to optimise your jumping height and get fit for dunking. The solution is called plyometric training.

Plyometric training for higher jumps in basketball

Before we talk about specific training formats for basketball, you should realise once again what limits you when jumping:

your body weight: the better your strength to body weight ratio, the higher you can jump.
the maximum strength and speed you can develop: You must be able to accelerate your body mass vertically. To do this, you need to produce a high level of power and be able to maximise it in the shortest possible time.
Stiffness of your Achilles tendon (stretch-shortening cycle, DVZ): The jump to the basketball hoop is usually performed from the movement with a stepping step. This stretches the calf muscles and Achilles tendon. The energy is stored like a tensioned spring. As soon as the muscles are contracted, they release this energy again, making them all the faster and stronger. The stiffness of your Achilles tendon is crucial for strength and speed.

These exercises increase in intensity and slowly introduce you to intensive plyometric training:

Drop from a 45cm box and land in a controlled manner (increase the height to 60cm, one-legged landing from 45cm, one-legged landing from 60cm)
No counter movement jump with barbell (depending on 1RM, first with bar, then go up to 30% 1RM): = Squat Jump, controlled descent to a position from which you feel strong for the jump. Important: This varies from person to person and depends on the strength-to-length ratio of your muscles, which expresses the ratio of the maximum force that can be generated as a function of muscle length.
Counter movement jump with barbell: In the CMJ, the starting position is the upright standing position, the downward movement is dynamic in the sense of a lunge. This jump is more demanding, especially with an additional load, and you can achieve greater jump heights. The landing should be very controlled before you start the next jump.
Drop catch jump with barbell: In this jump, many CMJs are performed in succession. The focus is on catching the landing very quickly and jumping straight back up again.
Drop jump: Classic drop jump using body weight only, in which you drop from 45/60cm boxes and jump up again with very little contact time with the ground.

What repetitions apply to the plyometric basketball strength exercises?

3-5 series with 6-10 repetitions are suitable for the jumping exercises. It is important to maximise explosive movements.

If you want to work even more intensively on your jumping power, you can find our jumping power exercises here.

Badminton strength training - how to compensate for imbalances

If you play badminton frequently, you only use one side of your body when hitting. The heavier the sports equipment you play with, the more intense this imbalance becomes. This results in imbalances not only in badminton, but also in other impact sports such as tennis or squash.

These imbalances develop over a period of years with many hours of training. Your body adapts extremely well to the sport-specific load. Many athletes can still perform at their best despite imbalances. A good example is tennis pro Rafael Nadal. However, you should not allow the extent of the imbalances to become too great. The greater the imbalance, the more likely it is that injuries will occur. Rafael Nadel is a negative example here too.

How can I counteract imbalances in badminton strength training?

To reduce or compensate for imbalances, you can integrate various unilateral exercises into your training. What does this mean? You do the exercises with one arm/leg instead of both arms/legs.

Another alternative would be to do bilateral exercises in front of the mirror, paying attention to symmetry. Then you can even out the side difference a little.

You will probably also unconsciously push harder with your strong side than with your weak side when doing squats or bench presses with the barbell. This usually happens unconsciously. But unfortunately, you are reinforcing the imbalances.

These exercises will help you:

Do Bulgarian split squats instead of squats or bench presses with dumbbells instead of barbell training. You will then realise relatively quickly how much weaker you are on one side.

Tip: If you want to find out more, you can have a strength analysis carried out and compare the sides very closely.

If, for example, you decide to take countermeasures during training to prevent injury and compensate for imbalances, you can always train one more set with the weak side. So you start and end with the weak side.
Check your progress after 6-8 weeks, either in a new diagnostic test or by testing yourself to see how many repetitions you can now do with both sides in selected exercises.

Strength training for ball sports prevents injuries and increases your performance

Strength training can help you jump higher in basketball, be more resilient in beach volleyball and less prone to injury in badminton. We have used three examples and specific exercise suggestions to show you what you can do. All exercises can of course also be applied to other ball sports and integrated into your existing training plan.