## 2 Materials and Methods
### Team Handball Game-Based Performance Test (GBPT)  
In the GBPT, the subjects performed one warm-up heat (around 70% of maximum efficiency) to become familiar with the test, and eight test heats. The test heats in the GBPT included team handball-specific movements in offense and defense, transitions from offense to defense and defense to offense, as well as active recovery. In defence, the subjects had to touch padded roll mats (Figure 1B) with both hands (like tackling a rival offensive player in a team handball match) while sprinting, starting at the 6 m line and finishing at the 9 m line. The right-handed players had to touch the left roll mat twice and the right roll mat once at the 9 m line, while the left-handed players did the opposite. In offense, the subjects had to touch squared (0.5 \(\times\) 0.5 m) touching fields on the floor (Figure 1B) with at least one foot while sprinting, starting at 12 m and finishing at the 9 m line. During sprinting, they had to catch and pass the ball. The right-handed players had to touch the right squared touching field twice and the left squared touching field once, while the left-handed players did the opposite. All running distances in offense were standardized by the squared touching fields on the court and in defence by the positions of the padded roll mats (Figure 1B). In heats #2, #3, #4, #6, and #8, all subjects had to finish the offensive actions with a jump shot. In the jump shot, the right-handed players had to jump with maximal take-off from the left foot on the right squared touching field and throw as fast as possible to the lower left corner of the goal, while the left-handed players did the opposite. In heats #3 and #6, the subjects had to perform a fast break by sprinting as fast as possible from defence to offense (after touching the padded roll mat at the 6 m line), catching the ball at 12 m, and finishing with a jump shot at 9 m in offense. The right-handed players had to touch the right squared touching field at take-off, while the left-handed players did the opposite. In heats #4 and #6, the subjects had to perform a fast retreat by sprinting as fast as possible from offense to defence immediately after the jump shot. To measure the time between the first and last contact on the padded roll mats (defence time) and squared touching fields (offence time) as well as the time between the 9 m line in defence and the middle line (10 m-fast break time), the middle line and the squared touching field in offence (20 m-fast break time) and the 9 m line in offence and defence (fast retreat time), we used three hand stopwatches (Hanhart Stratos 2, Hanhart GmbH, Guttenbach, Germany). Due to the different accelerations after the jump shot, we decided not to use the fast retreat time for subsequent evaluations. The breaks between offence and defence as well as defence and offence (20 s), between two defensive or offensive actions (15 s), and between two heats (40 s) were controlled by the Multi-Timer-Ultimate software (Multi-Timer-Ultimate 3.1, Wallroth, Berlin, Germany). All breaks started immediately after finishing the offensive or defensive actions, and the last three seconds of the breaks were counted through an acoustic countdown (\"3, 2, 1, go\"). To determine the ball velocity and jump height during the jump shots, the videos of all jump shots were recorded using a high-speed (200 frames per second) video camera (VVC-GC-PX100 BE, JVC, Yokohama, Japan). Subsequently, the Tracker Video Analysing Software (Tracker 4.59, [PERSON], Aptos, CA, USA) was used to calculate the 2D-position of the centre of the ball and to determine the flight time. A team handball goal was used for calibration (4-point calibration, 2 \(\times\) 3 m). Flight time was defined as the time between the last floor contact of the jump foot at take-off and the first floor contact of the landing foot. Ball velocity was determined by calculating the linear velocity of the ball 2D-positions after ball release (15 frames).