Trends of the fast game in men’s EHF European handball championships

Abstract

The aim of this study was to measure the effect of fast play on a handball team’s performance by assessing ranking in three European Men’s Championships (Euro 2018, 2020, 2022) as a dependent variable. The independent variables indicating fast play were the ranking of the team in the tournament, total fast breaks (TFB) per match played, successful fast breaks (SFB) per match played, total fast throw-offs (TFTO) per match played, and successful fast throw-offs (SFTO) per match played. Analyses for each tournament included descriptive statistics, correlation analyses between team ranking and TFB, SFB, TFTO, and SFTO per match played, and hierarchical regression analyses to identify whether the independent variables could predict team ranking in a tournament. TFB and SFB per match played were statistically significant predictors of tournament placement for all three European tournaments examined. Euro 2018 scored the highest team ranking prediction for both TFB and SFB. However, TFTO and SFTO per match played were not significant predictors of tournament placement in all three tournaments. In conclusion, the TFB and SFB per match played were statistically significant predictors of tournament placement.