Purpose:
Beach handball is a physically demanding sport. The aim of the study was to establish the relationships between anthropometric characteristics and overarm ball speed, a key performance factor.

Methods:
Overall, 11 male players from the Spanish beach handball national team were recruited. Throw speed was assessed in 3 throw types: standing throw (ST), standing throw after two steps (RST), and jump throw with a run-up and self-spin (RSST). Pearson correlation was used to determine the correlation between variables. Magnitudes were evaluated qualitatively with magnitude-based inference, and the effects of anthropometric variables on the throw tests were analysed with stepwise multiple regression.

Results:
Maximal throw speed was 25.64 ± 4.14 m ∙ s^–1 for ST, 23.71 ± 4.24 m ∙ s^–1 for RST, and 24.83 ± 5.49 m ∙ s^–1 for RSST. Large positive correlations were found between throw speed and middle, ring, and little finger lengths (P4 polygon) (r = 0.66 and 0.61 for ST and RSST, respectively). Very large (r = 0.77) and large (r = 0.68) correlations were observed between ST and RST, respectively, and elbow breadth. These results were likely positive for ST: P4 (76/24/0), elbow epicondyle distance (EED) (91/9/0); and for RST: EED (79/21/0); and possibly positive for RST: P4 (68/32/0). ST and RST were predicted by P4 in 44% and by combining P4 and finger span FS1 in 68%.

Conclusions:
ST and RST ball speed in beach handball was related to specific hand/elbow anthropometric characteristics which can be easily measured.