Relationships between subjective and objective indicators of training load in female handball players

Abstract

This study investigated the relationships between subjective and objective indicators of training load in female handball players. Twelve female handball players (age: 20.1 ± 1.2 years, height: 164.3 ± 4.2 cm, and weight: 61.8 ± 4.1 kg) belonging to the first division of a university league were included in the study. The training load was investigated over a nine-week period of the competition phase. The subjective load indicator was the session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE), and the objective load indicators were total distance, Player Load™, and heart rate-based training load (HRTL). We observed 20.5 ± 2.3 sessions for each player. The sRPE demonstrated significant relationships (p < 0.05) with all objective load indicators, with correlation coefficients r = 0.73 ± 0.09, 0.73 ± 0.08, and 0.75 ± 0.10 for total distance, Player Load™, and HRTL, respectively. All the relationships were very strong (0.7 < r < 0.9). These results reveal the potential validity of sRPE use in handball and suggest that the sRPE is an indicator that reflects the characteristics of both biomechanical and physiological load indicators.