The International Handball Federation (IHF) is proud to announce the launch of its ‘1st IHF Children’s Handball Symposium’.

The symposium, a part of the IHF Virtual Academy, will take place in May 2021 across eight interactive Zoom webinars every Tuesday and Friday from 14:00 to 15:00 CEST and promises all those in attendance ‘everything you need to start playing handball now’. 

The practice-oriented webinars, which will also be streamed live on the IHF Facebook page, will focus on the introduction of the IHF’s ‘Handball at School’ (H@S) methodology and the practical aspects to be considered during the teaching process for children aged 5 to 12 years old, with the final webinar featuring the IHF Handball at School Working Group discussing the most requested topics made by participants during the first webinar.

The overall goal of the symposium is to promote handball activities across the IHF’s member federations which bring joy to the youngest players and expand the participants' databases of games and exercises for their daily work. 

It is free to attend and open to all: coaches, referees, delegates, physical education teachers, parents and children with all of those who log-in to zoom with their email and full name and attend all eight webinars receiving a certificate of participation. No registration is needed.

Lecturers include Dr Ilona Hapkova (IHF H@S Chair, IHF Expert), Dr Patricia Sosa Gonzalez (IHF H@S Lecturer), Dr Pablo Greco (IHF H@S and CCM Lecturer), Dr Gerard Lasierra (IHF H@S Working Group Member), Dr Milan Petronijevic (IHF H@S Lecturer), Dr Nabeel Taha Al Shehab (IHF H@S Working Group Member, IHF Expert) and Craig Rot (IHF H@S Working Group Member, CCM Lecturer).

Schedule: 1st IHF Children’s Handball Symposium 

Tuesday 4 May: Getting Children Started in Handball (Dr Ilona Hapkova)
Friday 7 May: Planning the First Practice (Dr Patricia Sosa Gonzalez)
Tuesday 11 May: Building the Foundation through Handball (Dr Pablo Greco)
Friday 14 May: Handball as an Interactive Sport (Dr Gerard Lasierra)
Tuesday 18 May: Scoring the First Goal (Dr Milan Petronijevic)
Friday 21 May: Winning the Ball on Defence (Dr Nabeel Taha Al Shehab)
Tuesday 25 May: Teaching in the Real World (Craig Rot)
Friday 28 May: Next Steps in Handball: After the Pandemic – Panel Discussion (IHF Handball at School Working Group Members)

As usual, live interpretation of the webinars in Arabic, French, and Spanish will be available with participants being able to ask the lecturers questions via the Zoom chat and Q&A functions.

The ‘1st IHF Children’s Handball Symposium’ follows on from the success of the debut edition of the ‘IHF Children’s Handball Week’ – which can be viewed on the IHF Education Centre YouTube channel – which took place last August and further underlines the commitment from the IHF to make handball accessible to all.

For further information, visit the IHF Education Centre here.