world class handball player. We need to develop
and increase the work force of home grown
coaches (>500 coaches Level 1; > 200 coaches
level 2, >60 level 3) who are able to develop
potential talent. There needs to be access to the
appropriate number of hours to train, currently most
UK players train 2 hours a week, this needs to be
increased to between 12-18 hours, including
physical development strength and conditioning.
There needs to be clear guidance on the
development phases for players as they progress
from core skills into the more complex technical and
tactical skills along with playing experience
to compete at the top level, and this may not
necessarily be related to chronological age but
more about handball training age. There may also
be a need to look at reviewing the competition
structure within the UK and how it develops
GB player.
For more information on
British Handball visit
http://britishhandball.worldhandball.com
http://www.sportfocus.com/webpro/handball/
http://www.scottishhandball.com/
LB: In the short to medium term it will be difficult for the
UK to have a highly developed mass participation
“cradle to world class” handball development
programme, it might be something to strive towards
but it will take 20 years of systematic growth of not
only sports development but also of facility
development within the UK for this to occur.
Therefore in the short and medium term there needs
to be a creative approach to developing the best
talent within the sport and to attract new talent at the
crucial development stages of 14-20years of age.
Sporting giants has shown that there are a huge
number of talented athletes who are just not getting
picked up within their first sports, and therefore
Handball needs to look creatively at its talent
programme working in partnership with key clubs
and other sports to provide a focused and
innovative development programme to fast track
any potential and assist them to become potentially
Sport IQ : September 2008 43