## 4 Discussion  
The primary aim of this study was to examine the influence of chronological age, training age, and anthropometric variables (height, body weight, and body mass index--BMI) on key motor performance components such as sprinting, agility, and vertical jump among handball athletes. The findings revealed that both age and training duration were significantly associated with certain motor performance parameters. In contrast, structural variables such as BMI did not exhibit a meaningful effect on performance outcomes. While height emerged as a significant factor in sprint performance, more complex motor abilities such as agility and vertical jump appear to be shaped by a wider range of physiological and neurological factors. A strong correlation was observed between chronological age and training age, indicating that as athletes become older, they are more likely to accumulate greater sports experience, which may, in turn, contribute to improved motor performance. This result is consistent with previous findings highlighting the combined influence of age and athletic experience on the development of motor skills [17; 18; 19]. Therefore, chronological age should not be regarded solely as an indicator of biological maturity but also as a determinant of athletic development. Moreover, the moderate correlations observed between chronological age and height, body weight, vertical jump, agility, and sprint time suggest that physical capacity may increase with age [20; 21]. However, this increase is not uniform across individuals and appears to be moderated by personal factors. Thus, the impact of age on motor performance should be interpreted in relation to genetic background, training methodology, and environmental influences. The significant relationships found between training age and variables such as agility and vertical jump highlight the importance of consistent training in the development of these motor skills. These findings align with prior research indicating that motor learning and neuromuscular adaptation are closely linked to training history [6; 13; 22]. Hence, training age plays a critical role in enhancing agility and explosive strength. The regression analysis of sprint performance identified height as the only significant predictor, whereas BMI did not contribute meaningfully. This finding supports the literature suggesting that sprint ability is associated with dynamic components such as technical skill [23], muscle-tendon elasticity [24], and the direction of ground reaction forces [16; 25]. Consequently, sprinting should be analyzed not only through structural metrics but also through biomechanical and technical dimensions. The regression model for agility performance was not statistically significant, and structural variables such as height and BMI were not found to be effective predictors. This outcome indicates that agility is not solely a physical attribute but also includes cognitive and coordinative components such as decision-making, directional changes, and balance [26; 27; 28]. Therefore, agility should be assessed as a multifactorial skill integrating both physical and cognitive domains. Similarly, the regression analysis for vertical jump performance was not statistically significant, with neither height nor BMI contributing as meaningful predictors. Vertical jump ability, as reported in the literature, is more closely related to relative strength, muscle fiber composition, and technical proficiency [23; 29]. As such, assessments of explosive power should be grounded in functional and technical indicators rather than purely structural ones. The BMI variable did not show significant associations with any of the motor performance components in either correlation or regression analyses. This suggests that BMI is an inadequate indicator for performance assessment and that more detailed measures of body composition, such as fat percentage and lean muscle mass, would be more appropriate [29; 30; 31].