The effect of competitive exercises with numerical deficiency on the psychological toughness and handling and shooting skills of the Diyala Education Handball Team

Abstract

Handball is characterized by quick and precise movements and a variety of offensive and defensive techniques. This is due to the development of the field of sports training science and the deep understanding of what this science includes to the highest level. The importance of this study lies in the use of competitive exercises with a numerical deficiency, which is one of the important conditions in handball, requiring players to exert maximum physical and skill effort to develop it. The importance of mental strength in psychological preparation has a significant and effective impact on improving athletes' abilities and levels of preparation, which helps athletes and teams achieve high levels of performance in competitions. The research question is: When a team suffers from a shortage of players, its defensive and offensive performance will be affected, and mistakes may be made in various match situations, leading to the loss of the match. The researcher followed the experimental method with a single-group design, and the research sample consisted of (18) players from the secondary school handball team in Diyala Governorate. After completing the field experiments, the researcher concluded that competitive exercises with a numerical deficiency were similar to real competition conditions, which helps increase players' motivation to perform and helps develop handball players' mental strength, in addition to their ball control and shooting skills.