Handball and CrossFit

Hi,

Following the great expansion of the CrossFit in the gym of all of the the world, also in the team-sport's training, this methodology is becoming a common practice. This is the reason why I would like to share my opinions with you on this topic. I hope to receive your comments on this hard issue.

The CrossFit is a training methodology from the United States, made to "mold" the Marines with very hard training, characterized by the total absence of recovery. Indeed, the basic concept of the CrosFit, is the High Intensity and the no recovery time. Looking also at the official Website of CrossFit (http://www.crossfit.com/), it is evident that another peculiarity of this sport, is the variability of the training: exercises, repetition, series, ecc... change everyday. All the training structure change everyday.
Classic exercises of the CrossFit are the squat, snatch, power-clean, push-up, pull-up, jump, kettlebell, medicine ball, etc... In some training are included also run, swim and row.

Once listed the general characteristics of the CrossFit, now we can make some thoughts about the possible application of these training to handball. First of all, if we look at the definition of training, we can immediately understand  that the CrossFit, in some of its characteristics, doesn't follow the principles of team sport training. The fact that the training of one day is totally different respect of the yesterday one, and the one that will be tomorrow, go against the basic concept of "increment load with a systematic organization".

If we consider the handball performance model, we can see that the recovery phases are very important. One of the aim of the training should be the optimization of these recovery phases, to prepare the player to the successive high intensity action. In my opinion, the CrossFit, not providing recovery time, doesn't "teach" to the player to "manage" his energy. I think that CrossFit is highly non-specific for handball training.

Regarding the recovery concept, I think that the "Tabata" method is very interesting. This method is used in the CrossFit and consist of 4' or 8' of 4 exercise repeated with the scheme 20''of effort and 10'' of rest. This methodology reflects in a better way the performance model of the handball player.

However, personally, I like very much the great part of exercises used in the CrossFit: push-up, pull-up, jumps, kettlebell, dumbbell, barbell, etc... I think that these exercise are perfect for the strength development of the handball players. These tools, permits the administration of handball strength exercise that provide "movements freedom", being in this way highly specific for this sport.

Finally, I would like to underlined the fact that, not yet being published scientific studies on the CrossFit effects on athletes, all the words reported in this post are personal opinion about this topic. I hope to receive your comments and opinions.

Greetings