Abstract
Researchers have highlighted a considerable range of variables influencing athlete development and sport skill acquisition. Over the past decade, a small evidence base has been developing that highlights the potential importance of seemingly innocuous variables related to one's hands, such as hand dominance and the relative length of the second and fourth digits known as the 2D:4D ratio. This study compared 2D:4D digit ratio and handedness among handball players selected to advance in a National talent development system with those not selected. Participants included 480 (240 females and 240 males) youth handball players being considered as part of the talent selection program for the German Youth National team. Hand dominance (self-report) and digit ratio (from electronic images) were compared to normative data using standard t-tests. There was a greater proportion of left-handers in males compared to the normal population but not for females. There was also a lower digit-span ratio in the females but not males. Further, there were no differences between those selected for the next stage of talent development and those not selected on either handedness or digit ratio. These results add support for general effects for both digit ratio and handedness in elite handball; however, these factors seem inadequate to explain talent selection decisions at this level.
