The first IHF Online Symposium presented by the IHF Virtual Academy will be held from 26 June to 25 July, with a total of 20 live seminars to be presented by top coaches and IHF Lecturers. 

The IHF Virtual Academy has been designed to provide entirely online solutions for training and licensing programmes offered for free by the IHF during the confinement period, particularly for trainers, referees, delegates and educators. In line with that, the first Online Symposium is designed primarily for coaches and referees, although participation in the open live seminars is open for all handball enthusiasts from around the world. 

To participate, registration via the IHF Education Centre is necessary. The primary language for all seminars will be English, with simultaneous translations offered in Spanish, French and Arabic. Users will be able to ask lecturers questions via a chat function.  

The full programme of lectures in the first Online Symposium is as follows: 

FIRST SESSION

Friday 26 June 

13:00-14:30 CEST: Jochen Beppler, IHF analyst – Learn to create spaces in an attack

15:00-16:30 CEST: Ramon Gallego, IHF PRC Chairman – Progressive line: Rules 8:3 and 8:4. Guidelines and criteria of the PRC. 

Saturday 27 June 

13:00-14:00 CEST: Angel Sabroso, Oscar Raluy, Matija Gubica and Boris Milosevic, IHF referees – Tasks, positions and movements around the pivot zone and other situations

15:00-16:30 CEST: Mats Olsson, IHF CCM member – Goalkeeper coach education: Basic concepts in a different way

SECOND SESSION

Friday 3 July

13:00-14:30 CEST: Mads Hansen, Martin Gjeding, IHF referees – Whistling before six passes. Direct passive play

15:00-16:30 CEST: Jorge Duenas, IHF CCM member – Tactics and defensive strategies

Saturday 4 July

13:00-14:30 CEST: Paul Landure, IHF CCM member – Coaching a flexible defence is a necessity to succeed at the highest level

15:00-16:30 CEST: Bjarne Jensen, PRC member – Passive play in handball today

THIRD SESSION

Friday 10 July 

13:00-14:30 CEST: Jochen Beppler, David Gröger, German Handball Federation – Restart of preparation in special situation (corona crisis)

15:00-16:30 CEST: Dani Ariño, Sergi Cedrún, IHF fitness coaches; Maria Muller-Thyssen, IHF physiotherapist; Ari Magriña, IHF sports nutritionist; Lucia Rodriguez, psychologist and mental coach – IHF referees: How to deal with confinement and going back to competition. Different times, different practices: the whole world is changing. Learn to adapt to the new reality

Saturday 11 July 

13:00-14:30 CEST: Julie Bonaventura, Charlotte Bonaventura, Ignacio Garcia Serradilla, Andreu Marin, IHF referees – High rhythm and speed in modern handball. Flow

15:00-16:30 CEST: Arthur Yapo, physical preparation coach for PSG men’s professional team – Restart of preparation in special situation (corona crisis)

FOURTH SESSION

Friday 17 July

13:00-14:30 CEST: Ramon Gallego, IHF PRC Chairman; Dietrich Späte, IHF CCM Chairman – Provocations and overreactions in modern handball. A very negative tendency

15:00-16:30 CEST: Seong-Ok Oh, IHF analyst and head coach of Republic of Korea women’s youth national team – Training of feints in one-on-one situations 

Saturday 18 July

13:00-14:30 CEST: Patrice Canayer, Montpellier HB head coach – Technical and tactical details not well adapted in some specific game situations

15:00-16:30 CEST: Per Morten Sodal, PRC lecturer – Offensive fouls according to PRC and CCM criteria

FIFTH SESSION

Friday 24 July 

13:00-14:30 CEST: Rafael Guijosa, IHF lecturer – Reflections on collective defence: How to build a compact defensive system

15:00-16:30 CEST: Tono Huelin, PRC lecturer and IHF Rules Working Group member – Empty goal and Last 30 seconds rule according to PRC and CCM criteria

Saturday 25 July

13:00-14:30 CEST: Yerime Sylla, IHF lecturer – Playing seven against six: more than positioning on court

15:00-16:30 CEST: Ramon Gallego, IHF PRC Chairman; Dietrich Späte, IHF CCM Chairman – Game and rule development: new ideas/proposals 

Click here for the full programme of the first IHF Live Online Symposium. Registration for the symposium is available here.