The Effect of Diurnal Variations on Change-of-Direction and Linear Dribble Deficit in Male Handball Players

The present study aims to determine the effect of time-of-day on linear and change‑of‑direction Dribble Deficit in elite male handball players. Sixteen elite male handball players from a Serbian Super League club participated in this study (mean ± SD: age 25.4 ± 5.8 years, body mass 94.0 ± 7.4 kg, stature 193.5 ± 7.5 cm). All participants completed four physical performance tests without a ball (change-of direction Zig-Zag test, 5-m, 10-m and 20-m linear sprints) and four tests with a ball (change-of direction Zig-Zag and 5-m, 10-m and 20-m linear sprints) at two separate testing sessions in the morning (8:00-9:30am) and in the evening (6:00-197:30pm). Dribble Deficit parameters for change-of-direction and linear sprint did not differ significantly between the morning and evening sessions (p = 0.309–0.757). To conclude, in elite male handball players, the Dribble Deficit for both change‑of‑direction and linear sprint tasks remains almost unchanged from early morning to early evening which is important for coaches to organize training sessions.