Not a normal job, but a sheer passion
Let’s just start with the basics. The beginning. Everything has one. Every player fell in love with handball at one point. In my case, it is not a normal job. It is also the amazing feeling that being on the court provides, the rush of adrenaline when you are trying to best your opponent. Yes, one must be competitive, but one should not forget the DNA of handball: enjoying yourself.
I am not saying that handball is not a job, but when you go to work with such a pleasure, it hardly feels like one. It is a job and pleasure merged in one feeling, which can be hard to pinpoint and describe at the same time. At some parts of the season, it can feel like a job, but when you get to the closing stages of an important competition, you do realise that every sacrifice you made was worth it.
And this boils down to a single ingredient: the sheer passion for handball, which is, well, hard to describe. It is everything.
I have already told you I grew up in a handball family and it was basically written for me to take up the sport. You have your ups and downs, but that comes only later, with experience and many, many games played. With wins and losses. Because every time you are there, you learn something.
When I was little, I spent a lot of time in the arenas, because I realised I enjoyed handball. It was a match made in heaven, everything was so nice back then. I totally fell in love – I think this is the right word – with it and never looked back. And then I started to become a student of the game.
Time after time, I watched tapes, everything I could get my hands on. It did not matter if it were men’s handball or women’s handball, I just wanted to watch, learn and become even better. I cannot tell you how much handball I watched, but I think everybody can see what I have learnt during those moments.
Life is funny in that respect, because I watched a lot of players and tried to learn a lot from them. But one of my favourites was Anita Görbicz. She was truly one of the best to ever play handball, with some amazing creativity and a solution for every problem that arose on the court. This is why I say life is funny, because when I moved to Györ in 2017, I had the chance to play with her.
Between 2017 and 2021, I had the chance to share the court with one of my idols from my childhood and it was an amazing feeling. Bonus points for winning everything we could imagine together and then some. Yeah, only handball can give you those feelings in times that you cannot think of. Pretty amazing, right?