Handball
Discover what makes handball ace Cristina Neagu's throw simply unstoppable
Why are Cristina Neagu's shots so effective? A groundbreaking documentary seeks answers with the help of technology and scientific innovations.
When she started playing handball, Cristina Neagu paid close attention to every detail her first coach, Maria Covaci, explained to her. She learned every move and repeated every exercise dozens of times. She never stood in line waiting her turn but wanted to throw again and again, arriving early at practice and staying late in a bid to improve. "She didn't leave anything to chance," says Covaci.
Throughout the impressive career that has followed, Neagu has scored countless goals that were applauded, admired and praised. They have been called spectacular, breathtaking, precise and unstoppable. These goals helped her to be named the world's best player on four occasions – a record in both the men's and women's game. They also impressed coaches, opponents and team-mates alike.
Neagu demonstrates her power
© Mihai Ștețcu/Red Bull Content Pool
The top scorer at the 2010 European Championship, the 2015 World Cup and the Champions League in 2015 and 2018, Neagu has also scored goals that will live long in the memory. One such goal was at the 2022 European Championships when she became the top scorer in the history of the tournament with 303 goals. Another was when she recorded the tournament's most powerful shot at 129kph at the 2020 European Championships. Then there's her 1,000th Champions League goal when she became only the third player in history to reach that milestone.
These are goals that her opponents also remember, especially the goalkeepers who tried to stop them, like Denmark's Sandra Toft: "They are proof of how hard Cristina Neagu shoots at goal. I remember one ball hit me in the face and I had a concussion for five months," she explains.
But what lies behind all these performances and the goals that have made history? Why is her shot so effective and difficult to block? These are the answers we find in the documentary at the top of the page. The science behind Cristina Neagu's unstoppable shot takes a detailed look at the mechanics behind her goals with the help of technology, specialists, coaches and players who were her team-mates and opponents.
Data analysis showed just why Neagu has such a devastating shot
© Mihai Ștețcu/Red Bull Content Pool
The result is an innovative documentary for Romanian sport, but also for the world of handball. In a sport where every detail counts and can make a huge difference, technology, science and data analysis can no longer be absent from the lives of modern teams and athletes, who need the most accurate information possible to be competitive and maximise their performance.
Over the course of 20 minutes, we discover a detailed process of measuring Neagu's physical and technical abilities, then analysing this data, as well as a series of interviews with relevant world handball personalities. Names such as Stine Oftedal, Katrine Lunde, Sandra Toft, Ambros Martin and Tomas Ryde talk about how they have perceived her game over time and what makes her such a valuable player.
The first stop on this scientific foray behind the scenes of Neagu's game took place in Austria, at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center (APC) in Salzburg, where athletes have access to specific analysis, testing and training to help them better understand how they can improve with the help of technology and a multidisciplinary team of experts.
Neagu at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center in Salzburg
© Joerg Mitter/Red Bull Content Pool
Focusing before the test
© Joerg Mitter/Red Bull Content Pool
Testing her vertical jump
© Joerg Mitter/Red Bull Content Pool
It wasn't all hard work at the performance centre
© Joerg Mitter/Red Bull Content Pool
Neagu spent two days at the performance centre, where several aspects of her game were measured: first, through a series of functional tests that analysed different types of movements and body position when shooting and jumping, as well as the explosive force in her legs, number of steps per second and the strength in her back and core muscles.
"It was a hard and tiring day, we did some very interesting exercises that I've never done before that were also very hard. I'm curious to see what will come out and what results we'll have," said Neagu after the first day of testing.
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"I found that she has tremendous back strength, not only in the group of athletes I compared her to, but also compared to male athletes who are the same weight. She was at the top," said Dr Thomas Stöggl, Director of Research and Development at APC and Professor in the Department of Sport at the University of Salzburg. He analysed the data and compared it with other sportswomen and athletes who had undergone similar tests, and his findings are contained in the documentary.
Neagu showcases her remarkable power
© Joerg Mitter/Red Bull Content Pool
This was followed by a 3D analysis of several handball-specific throwing techniques, which took place in a laboratory at the University of Salzburg, where the player was connected to more than 50 sensors. Here, too, she scored well, revealed Stöggl. "Her figures are among the best I've seen in other scientific laboratory studies, especially among sportswomen."
Measuring every detail in the jump
© Joerg Mitter/Red Bull Content Pool
The third round of measurements took place in Bucharest's Sala Polivalentă and used technology from Kinexon, a sports analytics company that provides real-time statistics and collaborates with numerous NBA and Bundesliga football and basketball teams, as well as the European Handball Federation. During the European Women's and Men's Handball Championships, Kinexon provides real-time data on throwing speed, pass accuracy, height of jumps and sprint speed, collected through a chip worn on the players' equipment and sensors placed in the handball.
On the floor of the multi-purpose Hall, Neagu simulated various shots as she has done so many times in important matches played in the Champions League or in Romania's national championship. This time, however, there were no fans in the hall, but a monitoring system that collected information from sensors worn by the athlete and those attached to the ball. With their help, Kinexon specialists measured various aspects of her game such as jumping, speed or accuracy for the three types of throws (from the jump, from the feet and from seven metres) and compared them with other data from international handball.
"Her ability to float in the air as much as possible, get as close to the goal as possible, and then place the ball at the right time are among the factors that make her throws so dangerous," says Michael Elmer, a sports science consultant at Kinexon.
The effectiveness of long-range shots
But there's another thing that defines her, says data analyst Julian Rux, also consulted in the documentary. It's efficiency, which is especially evident in long-range throws. Rux gives several examples, including the last major tournament, the 2022 European Championships, where Neagu had a 51.6% shooting percentage from beyond 8.5 metres, with only two other players managing a slightly better percentage.
Generating power
© Mihai Ștețcu/Red Bull Content Pool
Ready to launch
© Mihai Ștețcu / Red Bull Content Pool
Taking flight
© Mihai Ștețcu/Red Bull Content Pool
Ready to unleash
© Mihai Ștețcu/Red Bull Content Pool
"Everything we've seen in the physical tests - how high she can jump, how strong her back is, how much she can float in the air to shoot at the goal at the right time - all contribute to these excellent numbers in terms of long-range shots," concludes Rux, founder of the Handballytics platform and lecturer at the EHF Master Coach courses, where he teaches advanced statistics.
The perspective of her opponents
The data and analysis provided by the experts are complemented by a series of interviews with players and coaches, leading handball personalities who have experience of the game at the highest level and who talk about the mark Neagu has left on the sport.
"She has a shot that no one else does," says Stine Oftedal, a multiple world and European champion with the Norwegian national team. "She has the kind of power, speed and accuracy that I think every one of us is a little envious of. Her shot is just amazing."
"When Cristina was 17, she was seen by our great Vasile Stângă, who said: 'Cristina Neagu could play in a boys' team and she could play very well'," recalls her first coach, Covaci.
Reviewing the stats
© Mihai Ștețcu/Red Bull Content Pool
This combination of scientific and human perspectives contribute both to the uniqueness of Neagu's game and to our understanding of her performance. Because what makes her so special is precisely the fact that it cannot be defined by a single dimension. It's technique, speed, honed skill, precision and strength; but it's also the way they are brought together on the court and executed at crucial moments in matches.
There is specific, quantifiable data, but there are also aspects that can't be measured, that have to do with intuition, understanding of the game, motivation and passion. There is external strength, but also mental and internal strength, and that is what defines great champions.
Beyond statistics, physical performance and records, what sets Neagu apart is her ability to always score when the team needs it, concludes Rux. "She has proven that over the last 15 years. Her countless records and achievements support the fact that she is the greatest scorer in women's handball history, and possibly the greatest player in history."