For the second time, Matthias Kornes from ballgewinn.de was a guest in Ankara, at the Turkish Handball Association (THF). In Türkiye, there is a big future project underway. In order to build a base of children and youth players, the THF has started a mini handball project. Trainers have begun setting up children's training groups at nearly a hundred locations across the country. The target group are seven to eight year old children. Exactly the target group that handball needs elsewhere, including in Germany.
The credo is to start from the bottom. The coaches must offer at least one hundred training sessions a year with their new groups of children. The federation provides the logistics, such as balls and goals, as well as the training content and methodology. And the THF has sought advice from abroad. Ina Knobloch, Julian Bauer and Matthias Kornes gave suggestions in theory and practice at the second mini trainer seminar.
"It was an exciting time again," reports Kornes, "the exchange with colleagues on site is interesting. The project is also remarkable. In many places people keep talking about the need to invest in the offspring and children, which is where the... should be the best coach - the Turkish association does it." Turkey, which has so far achieved top performances primarily in basketball and volleyball, wants to catch up with European competition in handball in the long term.
The second seminar focused primarily on deepening the training content. For Kornes, the focus was “deceptions.” "In detail, it's about how children can be taught the basic move to the goal, how they learn to perceive opponents and space and develop play actions that allow them to get past the defender to the goal," explains Kornes. His e-book “Feinting like Lightning” also became the basis for his lecture in Ankara. According to Kornes, “content, methodology and adaptation to the specific local conditions” were the main focuses of the seminar delivery.
It was an extremely well organized four highly intensive days in Ankara - which calls for continuity. The project will continue for a long time, as Murat Bilge, the leader and driving force behind the initiative from the THF, also emphasized. "Who knows," said Bilge with a smile, "maybe we've already seen tomorrow's Olympians here?" There is no doubt that something is happening in handball in Türkiye.
Interested in the e-book “Feinting Left Lightning? Info on ballgewinn.de/e-books
Fotos: THF