While you watch the World Championships here’s a couple of suggestions to supplement your viewing with a little audio.
Following this past summer’s Men’s Pan American Championships I interviewed the Head Coach for that event, Christian Latulippe, both before and after the event. In the first interview, we discussed his previous experience coaching the U.S. Women’s team and coaching club handball in France. In the 2nd interview we discussed some of the issues affecting the sport’s development in the U.S. With Latulippe now announced as the Women’s national team coach these discussions are worth revisiting.
Interview with Christian Latulippe (8 June 2012): Link
Interview with Christian Latulippe (27 June 2012): Link (Development discussion starts after 26:00 minute mark)
Rugby Mag has an interesting discussion regarding issues and conflicts between grass roots development and national team support in that sport. It’s always amusing to me how almost every discussion that occurs in rugby circles has a direct Team Handball parallel. Seriously, just replace “rugby” with “team handball” as you listen and see how often the discussion still makes perfect sense. A new parallel that I hadn’t heard before was the lack of organized competition between Canadian and American rugby clubs. The first part of the podcast discusses an inner city rugby program and documentary file. The most relevant discussion from a Handball/Rugby context starts at around the 42:00 mark.
Rugby Mag Podcast (Jan 2013): Link