2025, Vol. 12, Issue 6, Part A

Handball is a high-intensity contact sport that places substantial demands on neuromuscular control, particularly for dynamic knee stability, landing mechanics, and balance. Poor neuromuscular control can lead to increased risk of injury due to deficits in muscle coordination during landing and movement transitions. Perturbation-enhanced neuromuscular training (PENT) aims to improve reactive muscle responses by enhancing the ability to detect and adapt to unexpected perturbations, thereby promoting readiness for rapid transitions during gameplay. This study evaluates the effect of PENT on landing error scores and dynamic balance in youth handball players. Forty male and female players aged 15-24 years were assessed using the Landing Error Scoring System (LESS) and Y-Balance Test before and after a 4-week PENT program. Results demonstrated statistically significant improvements in both LESS and balance scores within the experimental group (p<0.05), while the control group showed improvement only in LESS. These findings support PENT as an effective training method to enhance functional performance in youth handball players.