In a milestone project in the academic certification of education in sport, 13 EHF Master Coaches have successfully graduated with a master’s degree from the University of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria.
A sort of ‘classroom atmosphere’ could be sensed in the EHF Office in Vienna on 2 November 2017. A meeting room had been turned into a space for preparation, and also in the lobby of the EHF Office, various people, including several well-known handball coaches, could be seen, wandering around – visibly deep in thought.
It was the day on which 13 EHF Master Coaches had the opportunity to receive a master’s degree from the University of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria.
It was another high point in the partnership between the European Handball Federation and the Spanish university.
In a nutshell, this aspect of the partnership allows handball coaches, who are in possession of the Master Coach diploma within the EHF RINCK (coaching) Convention (after having attended either national courses certified by the EHF or EHF courses), to enter the final stages of the new postgraduate master degree – MSc. EHF Master Coach.
They then need to complete and pass a final project, i.e. master’s thesis, to gain a master’s degree.
The previously attended Master Coach course will be acknowledged by the university in line with the European Bologna system.
The topics chosen by the first Master Coaches to enter the new master’s degree covered all aspects of modern handball.
Gregor Cvijic, the coach of Slovenian VELUX EHF Champions League participants RK Gorenje Velenje, analysed the game in the context of seven attackers on six defenders.
Dragan Djukic, who has been coaching Montenegro’s men’s team since 2016 and HI lead them to the EHF EURO 2018 in Croatia, focused on the preparation for the game.
‘How to develop intelligent and creative players’ was the topic chosen by Tiago Oliviera from Portugal. He developed a set of around 40 training exercises.
All the candidates were to go on to successfully defend their theses and became the first successful graduates of this new academic master’s degree.
The jury was composed of Prof. Miguel Betancor, the well-known basketball referee and academic director of the programme, Pedro Sequiera from the EHF Methods Commission and Carmen Manchado from the EHF Competitions Commission.
The project’s coordination lies with Helmut Höritsch, the coordinator for the EHF Competence Academy & Network (CAN) and senior manager for education and development.
„This unique project in Europe will secure education, certification and employability in handball,“ he said.
ALL REPORT YOU CAN FIND ON LINK http://www.ehfoffice.at/businessreport2017/academic-masters.php?sid=can
