Following successful delivery at three sites last December the South American nation of Chile received a further three Handball@School (H@S) courses earlier this month.

 

Six months ago the courses were delivered in the central cities of San Carlos and Ovalle and northern city of Arica, but this time, the southern cities of Talca, Villarrica and Valdivia were able to receive the course which aims to create, and equip, coaches with the necessary skills to deliver handball coaching at schools, create a sustainable programme of delivery and expand the reach of handball throughout each nation. It aims to achieve this through a specially-designed course which enhances handball appreciation, tactical understanding and playing skills acquisition through a step-by-step basis.

 

In partnership with the Chile Handball Federation, the IHF ran the updated Handball @ School course in Chile from 2-12 June, gathering around 139 participants, with over 100 successfully passing the IHF D Licence Coaching course, the first step of the certification process to become a qualified handball coach.

 

Talca (2-4 June) saw 48 participants in attendance with 39 obtaining the D Licence, Villarrica (6-8 June) had 60 people in attendance with 44 gaining the coaching qualification and Valdivia (10-12 June) saw 31 people attend with 25 passing the course, all overseen by IHF H@S expert and member of the programme’s working group, Maria Luisa Dias Estriga.

 

“In the last few years, the Chile Handball Federation has started a national programme for handball development at school, attempting to spread out the new IHF H@S philosophy,” said Estriga.

 

“In all of the newly-targeted cities – Talca, Villarrica and Valdivia – there is a lack of handball clubs where young people can try, and learn, handball, but the number of schools developing handball as an extracurricular activity is rising, as well as the inter-school competitions.

 

“This is very encouraging for the development of future generations of handball players, fans and supporters.”

 

During three full days of intense work in each venue participants were engaged in theoretical and practical proposals for handball teaching and curricular development, according to the new IHF H@S philosophy.

 

“As is always, it’s a great challenge to change the teachers’ or coaches’ beliefs, assumptions and practices, especially within a short time,” continued Estriga. “Our main strategies are to provoke critical reflection and game-play analysis based on recorded local inter-schools’ competitions and other mini-handball games with local young people.

 

“A clear understanding about learners’ game-problems, level of playing competence, lack of skills and  decision-making difficulties is essential to guide and to challenge them with the new H@S philosophy.

 

“So, as a result, rather than teaching skills in isolation, disconnected from learners’ understanding of the handball game (traditional skill-based perspective) the H@S approach presented encourages educators to stimulate game understanding, decision-making and tactical discovering which is combined with skills development within a game-like context and through modified game forms (such as mini-handball) aimed at increasing engagement, excitement and fun.

 

“In the end, the motivation, feedback, enthusiasm and commitment of the participants to put this new approach into practice was impressive,” she concluded.

 

Upon completion of delivery on site, the H@S Working Group challenges all on the programme to share their experiences on a long-term basis in order to track their future achievements, developments and barriers encountered in applying the new handball teaching concepts and instructional strategies to continue the mutual learning environment.

 

For further information about handball in Chile, visit www.balonmonchile.cl.