## 4 Discussion  
This study is the first investigation that analyses the physical demands of beach handball players during an official competition (Arena Handball Tour(r)). For this analysis, GPS devices have been used [44] with the intention of comparing the physical demands between the first and second sets of the matches. The analysis of variance revealed a reduction in the distance covered at high intensity during the second set. However, the internal load shows no difference between the first and second sets. Likewise, the cumulative load of a congested period of matches did not show a significant effect on \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c r r r r r} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**First Set**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Second Set**} \\ \hline Activity Profile & & & & & \\ \hline Total Distance (m) & 471.39 & \(\pm\) & 103.68 & 426.47 & \(\pm\) & 112.85 * \\ Distance Zone 1 (m) & 0.66 & \(\pm\) & 0.57 & 0.51 & \(\pm\) & 0.41 \\ Distance Zone 2 (m) & 251.37 & \(\pm\) & 69.81 & 232.84 & \(\pm\) & 61.65 \\ Distance Zone 3 (m) & 66.79 & \(\pm\) & 17.95 & 56.83 & \(\pm\) & 21.63 * \\ Distance Zone 4 (m) & 140.42 & \(\pm\) & 33.27 & 121.27 & \(\pm\) & 43.82 * \\ Distance Zone 5 (m) & 12.05 & \(\pm\) & 11.10 & 14.89 & \(\pm\) & 14.28 \\ V\({}_{\text{MEAN}}\) (km-h-1) & 2.54 & \(\pm\) & 0.56 & 23.3 & \(\pm\) & 0.50 * \\ V\({}_{\text{MAX}}\) (km-h-1) & 14.63 & \(\pm\) & 1.71 & 14.91 & \(\pm\) & 2.30 \\ Heart Rate & & & & & & \\ HR\({}_{\text{MEAN}}\) (b.p.m.) & 168.92 & \(\pm\) & 14.48 & 171.22 & \(\pm\) & 16.33 \\ HR\({}_{\text{MAX}}\) (b.p.m.) & 190.30 & \(\pm\) & 10.24 & 191.84 & \(\pm\) & 12.77 \\ HR Zone 1 (v) & 4.08 & \(\pm\) & 9.19 & 2.52 & \(\pm\) & 6.67 \\ HR Zone 2 (\%) & 8.74 & \(\pm\) & 12.48 & 9.13 & \(\pm\) & 16.01 \\ HR Zone 3 (\%) & 18.24 & \(\pm\) & 14.28 & 17.03 & \(\pm\) & 15.60 \\ HR Zone 4 (\%) & 35.16 & \(\pm\) & 18.84 & 31.04 & \(\pm\) & 17.02 \\ HR Zone 5 (\%) & 17.41 & \(\pm\) & 14.04 & 21.54 & \(\pm\) & 15.60 \\ HR Zone 6 (\%) & 16.37 & \(\pm\) & 23.57 & 18.74 & \(\pm\) & 23.07 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
* Significant differences between first and second set (\(p<0.05\)).  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Activity profile and heart rate values of women beach handball players during a tournament. Figure 4: Evolution of the Countermovement Jumps (cm), Abalakov jump (cm), and handgrip (kg) values during the six matches of the tournament in women’s beach handball players. the jumping ability and upper-body strength of beach handball players. Previous studies that have investigated the kinematic and physiological demands in beach handball during match simulations have described the determining variables in simulated or unofficial matches [8; 9; 45]. In contrast, the data obtained in the present investigation were collected in official matches of a national competition in Spain. Therefore, the interpretation of the results must be analyzed with caution due to the differences between the internal and external load required in an official competition and that of training matches or unofficial matches. The total distance covered by the players was 1004.49 \(\pm\) 258.11 m, 1.34% lower than that reported by [PERSON] et al. [8] with 1018 \(\pm\) 222 m. Depending on the set, the results showed 471.39 \(\pm\) 103.68 m covered during the first set and 426.47 \(\pm\) 112.85 m during the second set. These results were superior to the data obtained by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [9] with a mean of 369.7 \(\pm\) 158.4 (m), and by [PERSON] et al. [45] with 332.2 \(\pm\) 134.7 (m) travelled in the first set and 281.2 \(\pm\) 87.7 (m) in the second set, and lower than those achieved by [PERSON] et al. [8] with 614 \(\pm\) 145 (m) in the first set and 504 \(\pm\) 130 (m) in the second. The differences in the distances covered may be due to the heterogeneity in the study samples or the differences in the playing surfaces that present a variable and non-standardized depth, the mechanical properties of sand being one of the determining variables of the performance in the players [46].