Kindergarten handball is growing up

“Competition” is not a word that you will hear from coaches in kindergarten handball.

“The idea came to me 25 years ago, when I wanted my daughter – who was not really into sports – to do some kind of activity. It is all about letting your children develop in a safe environment, about letting them have fun and explore this sport,” says Vanessa Patucca-Bourgeais, one of the pioneers of BabyHand.

She started the activity at the club of Saint-Raphaël Var in the south of France, but meanwhile the French federation has more than 15,000 registered children playing kindergarten handball.

The successful growth has not gone unnoticed with other national federations and the EHF, who dedicated a webinar to kindergarten handball last year.

And kindergarten handball will also be one of the topics at the topics at the EHF Grassroots Convention in Munich on 14 January on the fringes of the Men’s EHF EURO 2024.

“We adapt handball for children, but we still want our activity to have a link with the sports. We have balls, we have goals, but we want it to be fun, which is why sometimes some of our teachers come from outside the handball world,” Patucca-Bourgeais says.

“I tried to have proper handball coaches with me during sessions, but they were really focused on the technique, which is not what we want.”

To let children between three and five just have fun, any idea of competition has been banned. But played on a half-court, sessions of kindergarten handball produce an impressive level of noise and energy.

Patucca-Boiurgeais worked as youth coach, trainer for coaches, leader, and volunteer at international events in France. She also was with professional club St. Raphaël Var for 12 years. Does the French federation support her BabyHand initiative as it might spot the potentially next Nikola Karabatic or Grace Zaadi between the young children?

“Not at all. Some of the kids will try BabyHand and then leave handball, and they might come back to it at a later point in their life. Some of the children I coached when they were three or four have now become impressive 14-years-old players, and they might have a career in the sport, but that was not the first goal,” says Patucca-Bourgeais, who is the president of the Development Commission for the Clubs at the Ligue Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur of the French Handball Federation.

Several European federations have already shown interest in the French project and consider introducing their own kindergarten handball activities – or have already started doing so. The EHF also supports the project.

“Parents these days are trying to give their child an activity from a very young age, and kindergarten handball is definitely there for them,” Patucca-Bourgeais says.

“It helps a child to be open towards his surroundings, to develop physically – but in a very fun way. Kindergarten handball is truly suitable to play for children at the age where they discover the world. We are not trying to teach them a sport, we are showing them a game that develops their motor and coordination skills.”

The concept can easily be transferred to other countries. Having worked at Saint-Raphaël, Patucca-Bourgeais crossed paths with several professional players from abroad who set up their own kindergarten handball activities when they got back to their native countries.

“I know Heykel Megannem did it in Tunisia, and Jan Stehlik in Czechia. Those are just little seeds that we plant and that are about to blossom around the world.”

More info – including programme and registration – on the EHF Grassroots Convention is available here.

Images courtesy of FFHandball / BabyHand