Women's handball goes science

The topics range from 'ways to improve coaching methods' to 'sprint performance and anaerobic power in adolescent female team handball players'.

Exercises to prevent knee injuries are being discussed and so is the 'goalkeeper's effectiveness in the seven-meter throw'.

With a plethora of oral and poster presentations, all of them in one or the other way dealing with the main topic 'women and handball', the second edition of the EHF Scientific Conference is expected to attract around 100 participants when the two-day event starts in Vienna on 22 November.

"To have the second scientific conference dealing specifically with 'women and handball' was a wish expressed by many institutions within the EHF such as the Women's Handball Board, the Executive Committee and the EHF President himself," says conference organiser Helmut Höritsch.

"We are pleased about the high interest from all sides and are very much looking forward to welcoming 100 participants from 30 countries in Vienna on Friday and Saturday.

"The input we received from huminaties as well as natural sciences and also from the practical approach towards training and the game is something we need for the further development of women's handball," says Höritsch.

"And it is something we will be able to draw upon in the future."

Combining science and sport

Following two key notes, one by EHF Competitions Commissions member, Carmen Manchado, the other one by EHF Honorary Member, Frantisek Taborsky, for the first time a medical symposium touching on topics such as injury prevention and prophylactic training will be held.

The conference will be opened by EHF President Jean Brihault.

"The EHF is convinced that there is no discontinuity between abstract approaches and their concrete and practical implementation on court," says Brihault.

"Sport in general and handball in particular needs to step its roots in the fundamental soil of scientific knowledge in order to progress in a controlled and responsible way towards the higher levels of performance in full respect of the individual performance.

"Science needs to confront itself with the realities of the world around it, with the possible practical outcomes of its findings, with the dangers a misguided appropriation of its conclusions can produce.

"It is therefore essential that a forum should be made available to all those concerned in the long chain of intellectual and practical responsibilities in the field of handball so that we work in common, mutual understanding, and a clear preoccupation with the respect of the individual should prevail."

The conference will be held in two separate rooms allowing every participant to choose the most valuable topics for his respective field.

Of the 40 teachers that form the European Union of University Handball Teachers 25 will be present at the conference. Furthermore there will be eight EHF Lecturers attending. Members of the Women's Handball Board and the EHF Executive Committee will be present as guests.

Following the conference 'The EHF Scientific Conference 2013 Book of Articles' will be published. It will include the entire articles of the medical mini-symposium, of all oral and poster presentations, as well as five additional articles that have been submitted but will not be presented.

The conference programme and all abstracts can already be downloaded here.

Follow the conference on Twitter

For the first time there will be extensive social media coverage throughout the conference. Updates on the event will be posted on the EHF CAN Facebook page and on the EHF Media Twitter account.

Twitter walls at the venue will allow everyone to view what is being posted and to get involved in the online discussions through the official hashtag, #ehfSC.

Participants are encouraged to be active online in the build-up and during the event and by doing so spreading news of the conference to a wider audience.