The first meeting of the new IHF Children’s and Youth Handball Working Group took place virtually on Friday, 8 March, with the participation of IHF President Dr Hassan Moustafa and IHF General Director Amal Khalifa.

During the meeting, the main objectives of the IHF Children’s and Youth Handball Working Group have been underlined: the establishment of new structures for children’s and youth handball as well as for talent training.

The members of the new Working Group who attended the virtual meeting, e.g. IHF CCM Chairman Mr Dietrich Späte, Ms Vanessa Patucca-Bourgeais, Dr Nabeel Taha Al Shehab, Dr Milan Petronijevic, Mr Alain Dessertenne, Mr Samir Makhlouf and Mr Paul Landuré had several topics on their agenda, from the status and goals of the new IHF Children’s and Youth Handball Working Group from the IHF’s perspective, to a presentation of the new IHF Coaching Education and Licence Structure, and discussions about upcoming topics and the next steps, including an introduction to Baby Handball presented by Ms Vanessa Patucca-Bourgeais who successfully implemented the “BabyHand” project in the French Handball Federation.

One of the working group’s main focus will be the creation of a worldwide development concept for children’s and youth handball as well as a network of experts from all continents who are specialised in children’s and youth handball as well as in related fields to join forces in this important endeavour.

Due to the importance of handball development from a very young age, the number of teaching units required to obtain an IHF D Licence has been increased considerably in order to further improve the education of coaches and teachers who will work on the basic training of future handball players. This also entails an update of the structure of the very popular Handball at School Courses. The establishment of the new course programme is one of the working group’s first and most important tasks. 

The second meeting of the new IHF Children’s and Youth Handball Working Group is planned to take place in May, this time with the physical participation of all members at the IHF Head Office in Basel, Switzerland.