Four IHF C Licence courses took place in the People’s Republic of China in April 2025, with 140 licences awarded to the coaches enrolled in the courses.

As with all IHF coaching courses, the programme included both theoretical and practical components, with the participants being assessed to determine whether or not they are qualified to receive their certificate.

The four courses took place between 2 and 25 April in four cities in China – Shenzen, Chuzhou, Xuzhou and Qingdao and from the 148 coaches enrolled, 140 received their licences.

All courses were led by IHF CCM Lecturer, Jorge Dueñas de Galarza.

All the courses contained several intermediate to advanced handball and sport science topics, alternating the theoretical courses with the practical ones. The coaches entered a practical session, where they were introduced into some games for tactical approach, as well as basic concepts of handball, such as ballhandling, passing and reception.

Then, over the next days, the courses were more in-depth about the basics of handball, both in different attacking and defensive setups, with pros and cons for using each system during a match.

Organised in groups of three or four, the coaches had to prepare a training session, between 12 and 15 minutes, with different topics, such as the attacking phase, the defensive phase or fast breaks and defensive transition.

There were also special pointers delivered in individual situations, such as one-on-one or the two-on-two relationships, as well as inferiorities and superiorities which can be found in the game of handball.

The experience of the coaches present was wide, with national team coaches, as well as coaches from top-level teams in the People’s Republic of China, while Dueñas noted that the level of the training sessions was satisfactory, due to the skill of the players involved.