Over 40 Mass Participation Programme co-ordinators from the district Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture (DSRAC) took part in a handball coaching course at the Indoor Sports Centre in Joza this week.
Over 40 Mass Participation Programme co-ordinators from the district Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture (DSRAC) took part in a handball coaching course at the Indoor Sports Centre in Joza this week.
The coaching course is one of the initiatives from a business deal between the Eastern Cape government and Lower Saxony, a region in Germany to fund and support recreational, sports, arts and cultural developments in the province.
The co-ordinators were engaged in intensive exercises on and off the handball in the event which started on Monday and finished yesterday.
The course started in 2001 as an annual programme and this year, unlike previous years, the duration of the course has stretched from one to five days.\
German handball coaches, Linda Wein and Jurgen Warnholtz were sent by the German Olympic Committee to present the course. "Handball is not well known, so we aim to teach the teachers of handball the rules on how to play and the technicality in the sport. We aim to have the programme longer so we can build structures for the sports, like active clubs and leagues," said Wein.
In Germany the sport of handball follows soccer as the second most popular sport, with established clubs playing in professional leagues of different ages and gender categories. Wein said that the lack of popularity in the sport follows the country's racial background. She concluded, "It's great to see that the participants are interested and engaged and we are impressed and confident in them."
