La pallamano italiana : quale futuro?........ma ci siamo!! (di Paolo Baresi )

Mi sto muovendo ,anche in questo periodo del anno, tra i campi di pallamano italiani e ,tra una partita e l' altra, ascolto le sensazioni,le percezioni della base,del movimento pallamano storico italiano. Davvero siamo in questo stato di morte dolce e lenta,come qualcuno vuole definire? AlLa realtà dei fatti , ed anche osservando gli ultimi eventi, la situazione pare davvero questa! Eppure, ascoltando gli amici che stanno sui campi ogni giorno, ho ritrovato in questo ultimo periodo energie residue, passione e voglia di provarci ancora! La pallamano italiana non è ancora morta! Sta mostrando colpi di coda , voglia di esserci, voglia di innovazione e di visione positiva. C è un desiderio grande del movimento, su un cambio di passo. Incontro regolarmente tecnici, anche molto giovani e molto capaci, che vogliono far parte della pallamano italiana 2.0,vogliono innovare, studiano, si confrontano, condividono ipotesi e materiale , si "aprono" all'interazione. E vedo allenatori meno giovani riscoprire il gusto di andare in palestra , di progettare , di sperimentare percorsi virtuosi ,anche se sporadici e legati ad iniziative individuali. Ma ci siamo!! C' è ancora voglia di coltivare il sogno! Abbiamo bisogno di un team leader che raccolga queste energie ,le coordini, riesca a fare buona sintesi di queste competenze e dia la benzina giusta al movimento! Abbiamo bisogno di un "pusher" che alimenti questa passione, che amplifichi le motivazioni di questi "pazzi furiosi". Abbiamo bisogno di una squadra di giovani dirigenti che rimettono al centro la pallamano nei territori, il reclutamento dei piccoli atleti con progetti chiari, trasparenti e con le giuste coperture economiche. Abbiamo bisogno di dare le giuste priorità ai club ,a gli allenatori , ai dirigenti. Ma Ci siamo! Ci siamo se ricominciamo a parlare , e se ne sente parlare sempre più nei palazzetti, di merito, di competenze , di eccellenze ,di organizzazione a disposizione dei CLUB CHE FANNO LA PALLAMANO IN ITALIA. Ci siamo, se si torna a sentir parlare di Trasparenza e di credibilità del movimento , di responsabilità individuale! Abbiamo raggiunto, forse, il minimo storico in quantità e qualità , ma abbiamo ancora vivo il nostro sogno! DOBBIAMO SVOLTARE ,POSSIAMO SVOLTARE, ABBIAMO LE COMPETENZE INTERNE AL NOSTRO MOVIMENTO PER FARLO. La pallamano italiana ce la farà! Viva la pallamano italiana!

Nota del blogger:Cari pallamanisti lasciate pure i vostri commenti e idee sotto l' articolo. Aspettiamo con impazienza. Grazie.

What future for Italian handball ? We are here to stay ! ( by Paolo Baresi )

Even at this time of the year, I have been spending time across Italian handball courts.That gave me the chance to listen to the mood of the handball community and see with my own eyes what is going on. Are we sure we are as Italian handball on that sweet, slow death path as somebody calls it? Unfortunately the answer would be ..yes , if you take into consideration the latest facts and events.But at the same time by talking to friends who are working so hard daily on the court, I have realised that there are still some energy, passion and a never give up attitude which says loud and clear that " Pallamano is not dead yet ! " Italian handball is eager for innovation, a change of direction.I meet regularly with coaches, very young coaches too who wants to study, they want innovation and interaction in order to succeed.On the other hand, I have seen more mature coaches going back to the court eager to experiment, to find new way to improve the game. Though it is up more to individual initiatives at this stage. We are in need of a new leader who could pick up all this energy and then lead properly the handball community. We also need a new team of young handball officials whose priority would be to grow the sport at grassroot levels across Italy. That should be done by proper clear planning, transparency and with enough economic funds. We have to give the right priority to clubs, coaches and officials. We are here to stay if in the arenas we are going to talk more and more about meritocracy,skills and structures available for clubs. We are here to stay if we are going back to talk about transparency,credibility of the sport and of individual responsability. Mind you! We might have reached the bottom of the barrel when it comes to quantity and quality but our dream is still alive and kicking! In a nutshell, we have to change direction, we can do it , we have the right skills to do it. Italian handball can make it! Viva Italian handball!

Crashing away ( by Luca Del Bianco )

Some people know about my handball background, others do not. I was born in a family where handball was a daily bread and butter. My dad was one of the handball pioneers in Rimini, circa 1970. He was involved with the club ( HC Rimini), organising one of the very first outdoor tournaments , spreading the handball message across the local community. Who still remember the epic derbies between HC Rimini and La Rapida first played on the outdoor court behind the football stadium and then in the Flaminio arena? Those were the days of unforgettable battles which made handball very popular in town. Now, I have just watched the umpteenth defeat of a national team on live streaming. Honestly after the first 20 minutes of the match, the end was nigh..I thought to myself " Luca hang on , perhaps things could change in the second half ".. and so I kept on watching the second half of the match until I could not stand anymore witnessing the modest,inexperienced and fragile women's national squad, being " buried " by a much stronger , more experienced Serbian team. By the way, Serbia did come to the match without many important players.If you do not believe me google and check by yourself the info. To go back to my introduction, in the 70s, 80s and early 90s, nobody would have predicted the upcoming crash of Italian handball, in terms of results, popularity, number of players and the birth of that amateurish top men league. So after my ranting, what can be done to save this sport? I have not got a clue, as the lack of new ideas, people with management and business skills and passion are really rare.

These ghosts: The hidden world of Italian handball ( by Max Dovere)

I have realised the strange way some emotions make you see a different reality from the one offered by people who are supposed to grow it and make it an efficient one. It is a powerful force coming from the past and reaching the future through the country history and its champions. Unfortunately the two realities do not intertwine, rather they are both aliens in the very same body : handball. I have been living in Rome for the last few years and I have witnessed important handball clubs disappearing from the scene after the initial enthusiasm. What are the reasons ? Laziness , tiredness ? Maybe is there a lack of support from the national authorities? I do not have an answer, but I know for sure that in Rome, the Italian capital city, there has been a huge effort to save handball from disappearing from the local sport scene. But then doubts start to come up when I hear stories, like the one where a parent rang the federation to enquire about handball teams in Rome where his kids could play our beloved sport. Do you know what was the answer? " In Rome handball does not exist". So if that is true, where I have been playing and with whom I have been training with all these years?? With ghosts? Teams such as Virtus Roma, The German School, SS Lazio, Roma Trionfale, Roma Handball.. Do not exist according to the federation! Local sport authorities are eager to open to handball but because we do not exist we cant do anything about it. We have got SS Lazio which has been playing in the top Italian league for years.Even though they have been through hard times. There is also another team made up of foreigners who would like to play in the serie B league. Two other teams which are devoted to grass roots playing activities and other two teams who have been playing in the EHF Masters competitions. What do these teams have in common is the hard-core passion for handball, the enthusiasm and the " never surrender " kind of attitude towards the authorities which deny their mere existence on the Roman handball scene. By the way, Nice, has been the host of the European Master Games, where Italian handball has been represented by Roma Handball team. The club is lead by two historical figures : the coach Tonino Santucci and the ex player, Giorgio Alfei. Giorgio says that even though the club has gone through ups and downs, they have ben playing handball at European level in the Masters category since 2005 ( Barcelona ). Anywhere they went, they had fun, created great memories and left a good image of Italy. Again the very same question comes up : how come we are an actual reality in Europe but we do not exist and we are not acknowledged by our own federation?

The Netherlands : how the "Handball Academie Dames" was born

The Netherlands has become in recent years a force to reckon with in women handball. But how did they come to that? Well the local federation together with the Dutch Olympic Committee, sat together and start off the "Handball Academie Dames"in September 2006. The first group of promising talents was made up of 25 young players coming from across the country.A specific day to day program tailored to each player was created, where they would play play handball and study as well. On Friday's evening players would go training with their own team and at weekend they would play in the local league. Across the years there were quite a few young talented players moving to the national team like Lois Abbingh and Laura Van der Heijden. In 2008, a team from the "Academie" played in the Dutch Women Handball League.After that the federation decided to let the team compete on the international stage where eventually they reached the 2011 Challenge Cup semifinal. Certainly the NHV,besides the "Academie", has developed the game at grassroot levels through other two important initiatives: the "Handball Scholen" which are certified by the federation itself and the "Handball Talent Centra" which instead are certified by the "Handball Scholen". In a nuthshell, Dutch women handball would not be one of the emerging nations if the federation would not have created a detailed development plan which included the above mentioned Handball Schools and Handball Talent Centres.

Good Luck Mat!!

This summer will see Matome Rampyapedi one of the most talented South African handball players moving to the German team TV Aldekerk which plays in the 4th German division. Matome will be initially playing with the B team and possibly being able to move the A team later on. During his one year German “Adventure”, Matome will be also working as a coach for the local Landessportbund. We wish all the best to Mat! Hopefully we will be seeing other young talented South African players moving overseas and compete one day in the German Bundesliga! Useful links: http://www.tv-aldekerk.de/ https://www.facebook.com/matome.rampyapedi?fref=ts Twitter: @matome_lefty

Meet The New South African Handball Generation by Matome Rampyapedi

Two weeks ago the South African senior national teams, both ladies and gents, had a friendly outing to their neibouring country, Mozambique. This was initially supposed to be a tournament between SA, Mozambique and Angola, but the Angolan team pulled out of the tournament late after confirming that they would be part of the event. This then left only SA and the hosts only in the tournament. This trip was a very important one for the SA national team because both the squads had been revamped and so it served as a good test for both the teams. It seems both coaches of the national teams had the same idea in picking the players as teams were relatively “young” compared to recent years. And interesting enough, even the coaching staff were revamped; the ex-coach for the male senior side, Rapule Thebyane was now given the honour to coach the ladies, while the now retired and long serving former captain of the senior national side, Kgomotso Motetsoe had been given the next best level of leadership as head coach for the male senior national team. Both teams played two matches, on the court, and one beach handball match. The men team drew their first match but lost the second one. In my opinion,the team played very well considering that more than 60% of the team was new in the green and gold. And the ladies lost one and won their second match. This was a huge pointer for the team, you could see it in their faces after the match was dusted, they hadn’t won any international match in a long while and things were finally coming together after the drought. The biggest challenge came when the teams had to play beach handball.I am saying this because none of the players had ever played any sort of handball outside the court and now they had to do it wearing the national colours. But they showed character and both teams beat the Mozambique squads at the beach, even after they were taught the rules 30 min before they played! But all in all, this was a good outing for the South African guys and girls.I am hoping the teams will get more matches and training camps so that they will really gel and grow from this point on.