The 5th EHF Scientific Conference ‘Handball for Life’ will take place in Cologne on November 21 and 22. The event is organised in cooperation between the EHF, the Union of University Handball Teachers and the German Sport University Cologne. 

The English-language conference is to be attended by professional and scientific experts from across Europe, who gather to further their knowledge about medical aspects of the sport and to reflect on diverse topics in professional handball. 

The focus of the 2019 conference is on grassroots handball, “to underline that interest in sport should be initiated at a very young age and it does not necessarily need to end when we get older.” Other topics will include various aspects of coaching, medical treatment, injury prevention, rehabilitation, nutrition, and mental health, relating to both indoor and beach handball. 

The EHF Scientific Conference was launched in 2011, as an initiative of then EHF Methods Commission Chairman Frantisek Taborsky. Now, the conference has reached its fifth edition, with the previous event held in 2017, concentrating on players’ health as well as the social environment in amateur and professional handball. 

The conference falls under the umbrella of the EHF Competence Academy & Network (CAN), which is responsible for initiating and managing educational courses and licensing for coaches, delegates and referees in European handball, both beach and indoor. 

More information on the EHF CAN activities can be found on the official website.