Handball Practice 9 - Basic offense training for players aged 9 to 12 years

3. Roles/tasks of the coach

It is mainly the personality and the behavior of the coach that makes the training a success. Therefore, it is important to observe certain behavioral rules to guarantee a successful training. The coach's social skills have an impact as important as his expertise. Especially when training youth teams, the coach serves as a role model and may influence the development of the young players.

A coach should:

- describe the training and its objectives to his team at the beginning of the training unit.

- always speak loud and clear.

- talk from such a position that all players can hear his instructions and corrections.

- recognize and correct mistakes and give advice when correcting.

- mainly correct what is part of the training objective.

- point out and compliment on individual progress (give the player self-confidence).

- support and permanently challenge the players.

- always be a role model – during training and games, but also outside the court.

- come to training and games well-prepared and in a timely manner.

Especially when training youth teams:

- The coach should react to different physical preconditions. This is especially important when training athletics. The difficulty level should always match the players' level of performance. For heterogeneous groups, you might have to present a less difficult version for physically weaker players.

- Motivate the players to hang in, even if they face certain difficulties in the beginning.

4. Training units
4.1 Improving passing precision during running movements

Description:

The objective of this training unit is to improve the passing precision during running movements, in particular. Following warm-up consisting of combined running moves and passing variants and a short game, the players practice passing while running at full speed during the ball familiarization phase. The goalkeeper warm-up shooting and the subsequent series of shots also focus on playing passes while running at full speed. A second series of shots combines double passes on a defined running path with quick passes in direction of the goal. Finally, the players practice playing precise passes under pressure in a small group game and a closing game.

The training unit consists of the following key exercises:

- Warm-up/Stretching (individual exercise: 10 minutes/total time: 10 minutes)

- Short game (15/25)

- Ball familiarization (10/35)

- Goalkeeper warm-up shooting (10/45)

- Offense/Series of shots (10/55)

- Offense/Series of shots (15/70)

- Offense/Small groups (10/80)

- Closing game (10/90)

Training unit total time: 90 min.

Key:

Cone

Attacking player

Defense player

Large vaulting box

Ball box

Small vaulting box

Small vaulting box, upside-down

Equipment required:

- 2 large vaulting boxes

- 2 small vaulting boxes

- 9 cones

- ball box with sufficient number of handballs

TU 1-1 Warm-up/Stretching (10/10)

Course:

- The players each get a number which they should memorize.

- The players crisscross the entire half of the court and pass a ball in the given order (1-2-3-4... – the last player passes back to 1).

- After a while, the players get a second ball (of another color/design) which must be passed in the same order, as a bounce pass, however.

- After a while, the players get a third ball (of another color/design) which must be passed in the same order, with both hands over the head, however.

- Once coach whistles, the passing order is reversed.

Afterwards, the players perform stretching/mobilization exercises together.

TU 1-2 Short game (15/25)

Setting:

- Position two large vaulting boxes diagonally and use cones to define the shooting line.

Course:

- Two teams play against each other.

- By playing quick passes (A and B) and moving in a well-coordinated manner (C), the team in ball possession tries to put a player in a good shooting position (D).

- The team scores if the shooting player hits one side of the vaulting box.

- The shooting player and the defending players are not allowed to step into the defined area around the vaulting box.

- Following each shooting attempt, the other team gets the ball and starts an attack on the opposite vaulting box.

- As soon as one of the teams has scored two (three) times, remove one of the intermediate parts of the vaulting box.

- The team that takes down their vaulting box first wins the game.

Following a shooting attempt, the players should adjust immediately and start an attack on the opposite vaulting box.

TU 1-3 Ball familiarization (10/35)

Setting:

- Position a ball box with lots of handballs on the center line and an empty ball box on the goal line.

- Define the feeding/receiving positions with cones.

Course:

- passes to (A), starts to sprint (B), and receives a return pass into his running path (C).

- Without slowing down, if possible, and within a three-step limit (no dribbling), passes the ball to (D).

- keeps on running (E), receives a return pass (F), and puts the ball into the empty ball box (G).

- lines up behind (H) after the return pass (C), lines up behind (J) after the pass (F), and lines up behind (K) after putting the ball into the box (G).

- As soon as passes the ball back to , starts the course with a pass to .

The players should increase their speed gradually over several rounds and catch and pass the ball while running. If applicable, stop the time in the second round and define a target time, i.e. specify how much faster (seconds) the players should do the third round.

TU 1-4 Goalkeeper warm-up shooting (10/45)

Course:

- passes the ball to (A) and receives a return pass (B).

- shoots at the goal as instructed (hands, top, bottom) (C).

- Afterwards, starts the same course.

- The players shoot at the right and left side of the goal alternately.

- Change the feeder/receiver after each round.

The passes should be played in such a way that there is a smooth rhythm for the goalkeeper.

TU 1-5 Offense/Series of shots (10/55)

Setting:

- Define the starting positions with cones.

Course:

- starts to sprint without a ball (A) and receives a pass from into his running path (B).

- While running, passes to (C).

- keeps running towards the goal (D), receives a return pass from (E) into his running path, and shoots (F).

- As soon as passes to (E), starts the course on the other side (G) with a pass from and a double pass with .

- Change both feeders/receivers after a full round.

The players should catch the ball while running and immediately (max. three steps) pass it to the next player.

TU 1-6 Offense/Series of shots (15/70)

Setting:

- Use two cones to define each running path (it should form an “8”).

- Put two more cones on the floor to define the running path for the subsequent action (see figure).

Course:

- and start simultaneously; their running path around the two cones should form an “8” (A).

- While running, they alternately play double passes (B and C) with the feeders/receivers ( and , and , respectively).

- When the coach whistles, and run around the cones in the back without a ball (D).

- The coach passes a ball to one of the players (E). and keep running towards the goal and pass to each other (F) until one of them is in shooting position (G).

- As soon as the coach has whistled, one feeder/receiver each starts running the “8 path”. A new player becomes the second feeder/receiver and the course starts over.

The players should run the “8 path” smoothly (A). Also, they should not interrupt their running moves when they play and receive a pass.

On command, the players should run around the cones (D) and keep passing the ball as fast as they can (E, F) until one of them is in shooting position and eventually shoots at the goal (G).