Future of goalkeeping in handball
For Leynaud, the main challenge is “to improve constantly; the closer and faster handball gets, it is a huge challenge compared to the past. In that context, it is great for me to help my goalkeepers to become the best, but you always need to be honest as a coach.”
Bobby White’s session was more theoretical, focusing on the “coaches’ toolbox” from a pedagogic point of view, to design specialised training sessions. For the team captain of Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games, the event “puts the goalkeeper position more in the spotlight, it helped develop the coaches, as it fostered the understanding of how learning and motivation work, how to get the most out of your training sessions when you only have one hour per week, and to maximize the development of goalkeepers. In football and handball, goalkeeper training faces the same challenges: the availability of training times, space and coaches.”
One of the guests at the EHF Goalkeeper Summit was Portuguese Pedro Sequeira, who was re-elected as chairman of the EHF Methods Commission in September. For Sequeira, even more specialisation will imprint the future: “We need to show the handball community that it's not possible to have one coach doing everything. Some years ago, we started with special programmes for assistant coaches, followed by goalkeeper coaches, and I'm sure that in the future we will have other specialisations, like the analyst, the observer, physical condition, so this is our path.”