Handball Training: Throwing Power, Shoulder Care, Jumps and Conditioning

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August, a few weeks before the season. The gym smells of resin and floor polish, a back-court player is doing band work for his shoulder against the wall bars, two wings race through a ladder, and the coach is setting up cones for a fast-break drill. Handball training has to build a lot at once: a hard, accurate throw, a strong jump, quick feet for cutting and defending, a body that can take contact, and the engine to keep doing it for 60 minutes. This page is about the work you do before the games: off-season and preseason, for club players, high schoolers, college club teams and adult league players.

General information, not a personal training plan. Young players, players coming back from injury and anyone with a health condition should work with a qualified coach, athletic trainer or physical therapist. Back to the handball hub.

What a handball game asks of your body

Researchers filmed elite players match by match over five to six seasons. Women playing a full match covered about 4.7 km at a higher share of their aerobic capacity (about 79%), while men covered about 3.9 km but did more high-intensity running and had much more physical contact: men received about 35 tackles a game in attack, and made 37 high-intensity actions such as shots, breakthroughs and fast breaks, compared with 28 for women. In other words, handball is stop-and-go running plus repeated sprints, jumps, throws and collisions. Training should cover all of it.

Throwing power

Shot speed wins games, and it’s very trainable. In a lab study, elite men released a 7-meter throw at about 21 m/s (roughly 47 mph) and elite women at about 19 m/s (43 mph), with almost the same technique. A 2023 meta-analysis of conditioning for throwing velocity found resistance training gave the biggest gains in elite players, while core training and small-sided games helped more in youth players. In elite men, the strongest link to throwing speed was full-body power: their best clean and jerk predicted shot speed better than arm strength alone.

What that usually looks like in practice: two or three strength sessions a week in the off-season (fewer in season), built around legs, hips and trunk as well as upper-body pushing and pulling, and plenty of throwing with good technique. The throw starts in the legs and passes through the trunk to the arm. Under-18s should learn lifting technique first with qualified supervision; the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says supervised resistance training is safe for kids and teens and recommends 2–3 sessions a week for at least 8 weeks.

Shoulder care for throwers

Building a faster throw only helps if the shoulder can take it. Two habits stand out in the research:

• A shoulder warm-up, three times a week. The OSTRC Shoulder Injury Prevention Programme from Oslo is about 10 minutes of internal-rotation stretching, external-rotation and shoulder-blade strengthening with bands, and kinetic-chain and upper-back mobility. In 660 elite players it cut the risk of shoulder problems by 28%. Interestingly, follow-up studies found it didn’t change the strength and range-of-motion numbers it targeted, and an 8-week band program for external rotation alone didn’t make youth players stronger either. Researchers think the benefit comes from the whole routine, so do the whole routine.
• Build throwing load gradually. In 679 elite youth players, a week where handball hours went up by more than 60% compared with the previous four weeks went with almost twice the rate of shoulder injuries. The first week back after a break, a sudden tournament or a jump from school team to club team are the classic spikes. The International Olympic Committee’s consensus on load says the same for all sports: sudden jumps in load raise injury risk.

Shoulder pain that keeps coming back isn’t something to train through; see our handball injuries page for warning signs.

Jump training

Jump shots, blocks and goalkeeper saves all need a big, quick jump, and plyometrics (hops, bounds, box jumps, drop jumps) are the classic way to build it. A 2024 meta-analysis of 20 studies and 563 handball players found plyometric training clearly improved jump height, short sprints, repeated sprints with direction changes, agility and muscle power, and programs longer than 8 weeks improved sprinting more. A 2026 meta-analysis that looked only at plyometrics on their own confirmed bigger jumps, but not faster straight-line sprints, and found the clearest jump gains in under-18 players. So jump training works best as one part of a program, with sprinting and strength work alongside it.

Landing is the other half. Handball’s ACL injuries happen in the first split second after landing on one leg, so the Norwegian and German prevention programs drill soft, balanced landings with the knee over the toes, on two legs first and then one. Start low and controlled, then add height and speed; quality beats quantity.

Agility and footwork

Attackers fake and cut; defenders shuffle, step out to a shooter and drop back. Agility work (cone drills, ladder footwork, mirror drills with a partner, 1-on-1 attack-and-defend) builds both. The youth warm-up tested in 120 Norwegian clubs trained running, cutting and landing technique, balance and strength, and halved the share of players with knee and ankle injuries, so it’s a sensible way to start every practice. Many teams use an agility ladder for quick feet in the warm-up and a few plyometric boxes for jumps.

Conditioning

• Off-season: build an aerobic base (steady runs, bike, intervals) and strength; keep throwing light and technical.
• Preseason: shift to repeated sprints with direction changes, fast-break runs and small-sided games, which train fitness, decision-making and throwing at once.
• In season: keep strength alive with shorter sessions and protect freshness for games. In a German first-league team tracked with sensors, weekly load varied a lot between players, especially in weeks with two games, and backs and wings carried very different loads. Players who play fewer minutes may need extra conditioning to stay fit.
• Rest: the AAP recommends young athletes take at least 1–2 days off a week from their main sport and about 3 months off a year in 1-month blocks.

A sample training week (off-season, adult or older teen)

Day	Focus
Monday	Shoulder warm-up + full-body strength (legs, hips, pull, push) + light technical throwing
Tuesday	Aerobic intervals or bike; mobility
Wednesday	Shoulder warm-up + plyometrics and landing drills + agility ladder and cone work
Thursday	Rest or easy activity
Friday	Shoulder warm-up + strength (power focus) + throwing for speed, with a cap on hard throws
Saturday	Small-sided games or repeated sprints with direction changes
Sunday	Rest

This is an example, not a prescription; adjust it with your coach. Recovery between sessions matters as much as the sessions themselves (see handball recovery), and what you eat to fuel this work is on our handball nutrition page.

Training gear many players use

A resin-friendly ball for wall throws and partner work, like the Kempa Gecko (sizes 0 to 3); a light band set like the THERABAND Resistance Bands for the shoulder routine; a soft Yes4All plyo box for jump and landing work; and an SKLZ Quick Ladder for footwork. Check the ball size for your age group: the IHF uses size 3 for men 16 and older, size 2 for women 14 and older and boys 12–16, and size 1 for younger players.

More ideas in our speed training equipment and resistance bands guides. Soccer players have their own version of this page at soccer training.

Handball training: FAQs

How do I throw a handball harder?

Get stronger and more powerful through the whole body, and practice good throwing technique. A 2023 meta-analysis found resistance training was the most effective way to raise throwing speed in elite players, and in youth players core training and small-sided games helped too.

What shoulder exercises do handball players do?

The best-studied routine is the OSTRC Shoulder Injury Prevention Programme: about 10 minutes of internal-rotation stretching, band work for the rotator cuff and shoulder blade, and upper-back and full-body mobility, three times a week in the warm-up. A PT or athletic trainer can teach it and adjust it for you.

Does plyometric training improve handball performance?

Yes for jumping: meta-analyses of handball players found clear gains in jump height, and some found better agility and short sprints too. On its own, plyometrics didn’t clearly improve straight-line sprinting in a 2026 review, so combine it with sprint and strength work.

How much do handball players run in a game?

In one long-running study of elite handball, women covered about 4.7 km per full match and men about 3.9 km. Men did more high-intensity running and much more physical contact; women worked at a higher share of their aerobic capacity.

Should kids lift weights for handball?

Supervised strength training is safe for kids and teens, according to the AAP, when it’s taught by a qualified adult with the focus on technique. Start with body weight and light loads, and let growth and skill set the pace.