Introduction: A large percentage of injuries reported in handball are related to the lower limb, especially the most severe which is the ACL tear, which forces handball players from the playing field and even to quit the sport. The cause of such an injury is related to internal and external risk factors, among which the poor core stability as an internal risk factor is related to predisposing the athlete to injury in the future, and it also shows the connection of this area with the performance of the lower limb. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between the performance of the lower limbs by the scores of the LESS and core stability in male handball players.
Methodology: The statistical population of the current study consisted of 26 handball players from Sanandaj city who participated in the first and Premier league club level competitions of the country. landing error scoring system test (LESS) was used to evaluate lower limb performance, and McGill test was used to evaluate core stability. Finally, by entering the collected data into SPSS version 22, data analysis was performed by Pearson correlation test with a significance level of 0.05.
Results: Based on the results of data analysis, the relationship between the total score of LESS and the total record of core (sig: 0.000, PC: -0.799), Flexors (sig: 0.000, PC: -0.738), Extensors (sig: 0.006, PC: -0.525 ), the Lateral plank (sig: 0.021, PC: -0.452) was significant and also the LESS scores from the Lateral with the record of Flexors (sig: 0.000, PC: -0.670) and Extensors (sig: 0.001, PC: -0.600) were significant and From the Frontal, it was observed that there was no significance (sig: 0.111, PC: -0.320).
Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, the poor core stability can have negative effects on the performance of the lower limbs, and despite this weakness, athletes may face the risk of lower limb injuries in the future. Therefore, it is recommended to strengthen the core stability in the planning of team and even individual training of handball athletes.