Two of the top lecturers from the handball world at the EHF Grassroots Convention are three-time EHF Champions League winner Carlos Prieto from Spain and Alex Gehrer, EHF Beach Handball expert from Germany. Prieto was a professional player in Spain, Germany, Slovenia, Switzerland and the USA – and for the past few years his focus has been on education as the founder of the Share & Play project.
Share & Play is a programme where social handball takes the centre stage. It is designed to be played in a more inclusive way, simplifying some of the rules of traditional handball, making it easier to learn and encouraging important parts of the game. “The programme has already worked with more than 1,000 young people who have boosted their physical and cognitive skills, as well as improving their social awareness. Maths, first aid and other subjects are also integrated into the various activities”, says Prieto, who underlines that “the project has been designed by professional athletes and sport sector experts and has an extensive handball community already.”
Prieto’s idea among everything is that “Kids need to know that beyond playing on the court, handball offers social skills for life like respect, team spirit and togetherness.” His presentation will include ideas on how to start playing handball at school, with simple games and training sessions, how to give the pupils a perspective in handball and how to learn playfully.
As Prieto is the expert for “handball on solid ground”, Alex Gehrer explains, how you can make beach handball become more attractive for young children – maybe even as the first step in handball. EHF Beach Handball Commission member and Gehrer's colleague, Frowin Fasold – the girls’ national team coach for Germany – wrote the book Beach handball for beginners last year. In 2019, the duo produced a video for the EHF to show the framework for mini beach handball for children aged under 10, and Ultimate beach handball for players older than 10.
“We have changed some rules and the size of the balls to make beach handball easier to understand and to play and to reach a new target group,” says Gehrer. “It is all about simplifying beach handball.”
The size of the court and the goals is the same as for regular beach handball, to make use of existing infrastructure. “We want to show the perfect start for kids and beginners to get familiar with beach handball, and how to organise the game with kids and beginners,” says Gehrer.
