Youth coaches course focuses on training of young female players

From 18 to 21 August the European Handball Federation and its Competence and Academy Network (CAN) organise the 14th edition of its annual youth coaches course in the Polish city of Gdansk.

As the seminar takes place in one of the hosting cities of the 2013 Women's 17 EHF EURO which takes place at the same time (15 to 25 August), the course will particularly focus on training methods for young female players.

Presenters include EHF Lecturers Monique Tijsterman (NED) and Wojciech Nowinski (POL) as well as Czech EHF Master Coach Martin Tuma.

More than 60 participants have signed up for the course including youth coaches from countries such as India, Morocco, Qatar and Japan.

"For us that is a clear sign that handball institutions outside of Europe are starting to look beyond their own borders, focusing on what is being coached in Europe," said EHF CAN Coordinator Helmut Höritsch.

The list of participants also includes several female European younger age category national team head coaches whose teams took part in the qualification for the Women's 19 and the Women's 17 EHF EURO events.

These coaches (18 overall) were invited by the EHF's Women's Handball Board (WHB) with seven of them (Finland, Great Britain, Poland and Slovakia from Women's 19 teams and Austria, Lithuania and Latvia from Women's 17 teams) accepting the invitation.

This invitation is just one of several initiatives the WHB has taken to further develop the area of women's handball in Europe.

"We are very interested in initiating opportunities for women involved in handball, in order to expand their knowledge and expertise and to increase the number of competent women in key positions," said WHB Coordinator Alenka Cuderman.

"Our ultimate aim is to support and strengthen women's handball and to promote female leadership."