Learning in China for the future

As part of the IHF’s continued commitment to developing handball at all levels in PR of China, a first virtual IHF Coaching Course took place last week.

The week-long course started on Monday 25 October and saw a total of 141 experienced coaches – a mix of provincial team coaches and experienced talent centre coaches – from across China take part.

Following a request from the Chinese Handball Association (CHA), the focus of the analysis during the course were the recent men’s and women’s Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 handball competitions. 

Within these competitions, topics were selected focusing primarily on individual and co-operative elements in attack and defence.

At the request of CHA President Wang Tao, additional focus was directed towards the 2021 China National Games which has shown improvement in recent years thanks to specially-adapted rules for the Chinese game which include 1.5 ‘goals’ for shots from distance in front of the 9m line, fast-breaks and in-flight goals.

The IHF Coaches Course opened with Paul Landure from the IHF Commission of Coaching and Methods (CCM) discussing various topics relating to ‘Tendencies in Attack’, while IHF Analyst Jochen Beppler discussed ‘Cooperation with Line Players’ on the second day.

Global handball superstars Mathias Gidsel (DEN) and Anna Vyakhireva (RUS) were then under the spotlight on Wednesday 27 October, with Landure delivering a discussion on them ahead of Dietrich Späte, Chairman of the IHF CCM, talking about ‘Tendencies in Defence’.

The following day, Späte discussed attack 7-against-6 and the empty goal strategy with Landure then discussing the other end of the empty goal strategy – defence 6-against-7.

On the penultimate day, Beppler looked at the speed factors in the modern game, with Landure and Späte then spending the remainder of that day and the final day – Monday 1 November – by looking at both the team and individual aspects of handball at the 2021 China National Games.

The whole week was rounded off by a discussion between the IHF experts and the participants before a closing ceremony.

President Tao stressed the need for and importance of feedback from the IHF on China’s development as well as the commitment of the CHA and all handball stakeholders in China to close the gap between the Asian nation and top teams, with a long-term development programme looking towards 2035.

Youth training will then be the focus of a two-week course this month.

For more information about the IHF’s work in China visit here.