{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,17]],"date-time":"2026-02-17T19:33:38Z","timestamp":1771356818829,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":25,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,26]],"date-time":"2024-01-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1706227200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Beach handball is a fully developed sporting discipline on all five continents which has attracted the attention of researchers in the last decade, resulting in a proliferation of different studies focusing on players but not on referees. The main objective of this cross-sectional research was to determine the physical demands on elite male beach handball referees in four different competitions: U18 male; U18 female; senior male; and senior female. Twelve elite federated male referees (age: 30.86 \u00b1 8 years; body height: 175.72 \u00b1 4.51 cm; body weight: 80.18 \u00b1 17.99 kg; fat percentage: 20.1 \u00b1 4.41%; national or international experience) belonging to the Technical Committee of the Royal Spanish Handball Federation were recruited for this the study. The physical demands required of referees in official matches were measured by installing a GPS device. The sampling frequency used to record their speed and distance was 15 Hz. A triaxial accelerometer (100 Hz) was used to determine their acceleration. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) between competitions with post hoc comparisons using the Bonferroni adjustment was used to compare among categories. A higher distance covered in zone 1 and speeds of 0 to 6 km-h\u22121 were recorded. Most accelerations and decelerations occurred in zones 0 and 1 (zone 0: 0 to 1 m\u00b7s\u22122; zone 1: 1 to 2 m\u00b7s\u22122). The lack of differences (p &gt; 0.05) between most analysed variables suggest quite similar physical demands of the four analysed competitions. These results provide relevant information to design optimal training plans oriented to the real physical demands on referees in an official competition.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s24030827","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,30]],"date-time":"2024-01-30T12:06:58Z","timestamp":1706616418000},"page":"827","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["A Global Positioning System Used to Monitor the Physical Performance of Elite Beach Handball Referees in a Spanish Championship"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"24","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7499-1471","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alejandro","family":"Mart\u00ednez-Rodr\u00edguez","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition and Food Science, Alicante Institute for Health and Biomedical Research (ISABIAL), University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain"},{"name":"European Institute of Exercise and Health (EIEH), University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0017-0184","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Javier","family":"S\u00e1nchez-S\u00e1nchez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Universidad Europea de Madrid, Faculty of Sport Sciences, 28670 Madrid, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9489-3249","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jorge","family":"L\u00f3pez-Fern\u00e1ndez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Universidad Europea de Madrid, Faculty of Sport Sciences, 28670 Madrid, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5083-0422","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daniel","family":"Lara-Cobos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beach Handball Section, Italian Handball Federation, 00135 Roma, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9079-1827","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Juan Antonio","family":"S\u00e1nchez-S\u00e1ez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Grupo de Investigaci\u00f3n GDOT\u2014Gesti\u00f3n Deportiva, Ocio y Tecnolog\u00eda, Faculty of Sport, Catholic University of Murcia, 30107 Murcia, Spain"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"S\u00e1nchez-S\u00e1ez, J.A., S\u00e1nchez-S\u00e1nchez, J., Mart\u00ednez-Rodr\u00edguez, A., Felipe, J.L., Garc\u00eda-Unanue, J., and Lara-Cobos, D. 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