Handball Canada: News- National Teams Program Details

National Teams Program Details

March 1st, 2008

The National Teams committee wants to take a moment to give you more information about how the National Teams program works. Strategically, the National Teams committee oriented their activities around the two developed provinces in the country ( Alberta and Québec). However, the committee will also invite other provinces to conduct training camps or will send national team coaches to scout players in some of their tournaments outside of Alberta and Quebec.

East-West Concept

The East and West Concept was initially introduced to promote a better development of National Team players through a more strategic use of funds, in order to provide more international training opportunities. Therefore every month or every two months, an activity will be conducted in the East and in the West. For example, in February, the National Teams committee sent a coach to Regina to scout Athletes from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta and British-Columbia. In April, a training camp will be run in Edmonton for people in Alberta and West provinces and in the Montreal Area for people in Québec and eastern provinces.

By using this method, we avoid costly centralized camps with only Canadian players and little international competition. This expense eliminated the costly travel necessary to bring several players from West to East, or vice-versa.

The committee has decided that it will be way more efficient to select players from the East and the West and send them on a preparation tour in Europe or Central America or South America. Using this principle, the money contributed by each athlete allows gives them the opportunity to travel and play international games, greatly benefiting their development. Additionally, we plan to send between 22 and 28 players to Europe, where everybody can play one match a day, which provides good internal competition and an opportunity for everyone to prove themselves in game situations. We tested the system with the Junior Women in December in Spain and France and the coaching staff was very pleased with the formula.

Additional training

Outside of those training camp, the National Teams committee strongly recommends that their players practice handball 4-5 times a week and workout 2-3 times a week. As far as handball, the training can be offered by provincial structures, club teams in Canada or in Europe. As far as the workout, athletes can follow provincial structures, club teams or be on their own in a local fitness center. Workout programs will be done by Michel Portmann on the men’s side under the supervision of Stefan Rusimov and Cindy Garneau on the women’s side under the supervision of Christian Latulippe.

The finances

Now the hard part, as you may already know, the Canadian Team Handball Federation doesn’t receive any funding for the National Teams from the Canadian Olympic Association. To get back in the good grace of the Olympic Association, National Teams need to be in the top 8 in the World. Therefore, at the moment the athletes are responsible for the costs of the program. On a Non Pan-Am Championship year it will cost 2500$ to participate in the preparation tour. On a Pan-Am Championship year, it will cost 2000$ for the preparation tour and 1600$ for the Pan American Championship. Participation to a training camp will cost 40$ for a weekend or 20$ per day. For the latter players are responsible for their transportation and lodging. Please note that other provinces beside Alberta and Quebec can host a training camp, if they can guarantee the participation of 20 athletes.

Conclusion

This is certainly not ideal to make athletes pay to represent the Canadian flag. However right now this is the only way we have to provide an opportunity to Canadian handball players to compete at the international level. We truly hope that the players, the clubs, and the provinces will work hard to promote and develop our amazing sport.

In ten days, the junior women’s national team will be in Argentina to compete for a spot at this summer Junior World Championship.