The teaching of offensive skills against different defensive scenarios in handball: analysis of coaches’ perspectives in different categories

Abstract

Abstract As it is observed that the selection of teaching approaches takes an important role in youth players’ development, investigations regarding teaching handball at this age reveal a gap due to this theme. This study aimed to identify and analyze the coaches’ preferred offensive skills through different defensive scenarios and how they are taught in youth handball teams. Twenty-two Brazilian coaches from teams U-12, U-14, U-16 and U-18 were interviewed (semi-structured interview). Data analysis was performed through the Collective Subject Discourse and presented according to the teams and defensive systems faced. The coaches’ discourses showed an increasing expectation throughout the age groups, and the expectation the players can deal with different situations based on their analysis. In addition, it was also found that teaching approaches are based on a technocratic way with further attempts to transfer the learned skills to the game context for all age groups. Therefore, it is suggested that greater attention must be paid while choosing skills and teaching approaches at each stage of the sports training process, in a way to stimulate youth players to deal critically and autonomously with game situations.

Keywords

• Handball
• offensive phase
• teaching
• youth players
• game context