The RYT App represents a digital space for self-development for talented players and their support network. It will assist young players to boost their knowledge and acquire practical skills to better deal with the daily challenges of their competitive lifestyle spanning sporting, educational, and private spheres.
The app will help players dealing with the current demands of competitive youth handball to start preparing for the future demands of professional handball. The EHF strongly believes – with the belief backed up by scientific research – that awareness, knowledge, and skill development off the court benefits on-court performance.
The RYT App provides Europe’s handball talents with 20 compact, tailored training sessions in the areas of dual career, mental fitness, media, anti-doping, and sports law, with nutrition soon to be added. The sessions have been created by a team of some of the world’s handball players and internationally recognised experts.
The micro-training sessions include tips and tricks from professional players, expert guidelines and techniques, videos, articles and self-applicable templates, practice drills and quizzes. The sessions are designed to be completed in 10 to 15 minutes, making them easily embeddable in a young athlete’s lifestyle.
One key aspect of the app is gamification. Following the RYT philosophy of young players being able to build on or ‘increase’ their talent, the EHF created a virtual token for the app, called ‘Talent’. Investment in your talent is rewarded: by working on their skills and completing the training sessions, young players can collect these tokens and use them to get access to the Ambassador Sessions.
The Ambassador Sessions are virtual live Q&As between world handball stars, topical experts, and talented players. The live online format encourages youngsters to share, speak out, and ask their questions. Supported by a topical expert, the group can discuss and reflect upon the most relevant challenges in their on and off-court life.
Sessions so far have featured ambassadors including Andrea Lekic, Vid Kavticnik, Kari Aalvik Grimsbo, Luka Stepancic, Carlos Prieto and Nerea Pena.
The RYT App is intended to be a steadily growing source of talent resources. New training sessions and training areas will be added regularly, with nutrition set to be added in summer 2024.
The app is freely accessible on the App Store (iOS) or Play Store (Android), and was first released during the RYT Camp for girls in Vienna in December 2023.
Next to the RYT App and “Ambassador Sessions”, in April 2024 EHF will launch a set of EHF expert workshops called “Train the Trainer”. These workshops will aim to empower national federations and clubs under the umbrella of European handball, to implement the RYT activities in their handball systems, with the first one taking place on 19 April, followed by the ones on 26 April and 15 May.
The RYT App (available in App Store and Google Play Store) represents a digital space for self-development for talented players and their support network. It will assist young players to boost their knowledge and acquire practical skills to better deal with the daily challenges of their competitive lifestyle spanning sporting, educational, and private spheres.
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/respect-your-talent/id6447637598
Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eurohandball.respectyourtalent
