OHI Research Group Launches New Injury Reporting Form for Senior League

Olympic Handball Ireland is proud to announce the launch of a new injury reporting form, now in use across the Senior League — marking a major step forward in handball research and player welfare.

This work is part of a wider project led by the OHI Research Working Group, funded by Sport Ireland, which aims to better understand injury trends in Irish handball and create meaningful solutions.

Why this matters:
Handball has long been known for its pace, contact, and intensity — but also its injury risk. In fact, handball recorded the second-highest injury rate at the 2012 London Olympics, as noted by Sport Scientist Peter Higgins, who is leading the project in collaboration with Shaw Lane and fellow OHI researcher Domenico Crognale.

With support from Sport Ireland, the project is now underway to collect and analyse local data from the Irish league — beginning with this new form.

“The goal is to understand what injuries are happening, when they occur, and to whom,” says Higgins. “We’re working towards reducing risk across the sport.”

A National Project Rooted in Community

The OHI Research Working Group, which also includes Benedetta Coco and Andrea Ongaro, was formed to ensure that all research activity remains athlete-centred and grounded in the real-world needs of handball in Ireland.

Importantly, while some members are affiliated with academic institutions, such as UCD, the group operates independently under the Olympic Handball Ireland banner — a strategic move to promote inclusivity, agility, and direct alignment with the sport's grassroots.

Project Goals

The Sport Ireland-supported project focuses on three core goals:

1. Track injury trends across the Irish handball community.

2. Align injury monitoring with emerging international best practices (as recently highlighted at the EHF Scientific Conference).

3. Create training and education tools for coaches and players — including instructional videos planned for release in 2025.

The new injury report form — now in trial with Senior League coaches — is central to this work. The form is helping to build a first-of-its-kind dataset on handball injuries in Ireland, enabling evidence-based decisions for player safety.

Want to Use the Form?

If you’re a coach or club representative and would like access to the injury reporting form, please contact Peter Higgins directly at PeterH@olympichandball.org.

Together, by building this knowledge base, we can help make handball in Ireland safer, smarter, and stronger for all.