Master Coaches‘ Theses – Part 1. 1. The Efficiency of Counter-attacks and Fastbreak Systems in Modern Handball- Botond Bako / HUN 2. Analysis of the Final Stages of the Matches of the 10th Men’s European Handball Championship in Serbia in 2012- Attila Farkas / HUN 3. The Analysis of the Technical Activity of the Centre Back Against Set- Defence- Vlagyimir Alekszandrovics Golovin / HUN 4. The Changes in and the Importance of the Pivot-play in the Past 10 Years- István Gulyas / HUN 5. The Handball Knowledge Transfer through the Meme Theory. The “New” Approach of the Further Education of Handball Coaches and Preparation of Players in the 21st Century- János Györfi / HUN 6. The Methods of Power-training and its Possible Application for Younger Age Categories- István Juhász / HUN THE EFFICIENCY OF COUNTER-ATTACKS AND FASTBREAK SYSTEMS IN MODERN HANDBALL Hungarian Men’s Division 1 Championship Play-off, Top Tier, 2011-12 Men’s Champions League Final Four, Cologne, 2012 London Olympic Games, Men’s Tournament, 2012 Bako Botond Hungarian Handball Federation, Hungary I. ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION – In order to point out certain strategic and tactical principles in handball, it is important to have a thorough knowledge of international tournaments, and to analyse the characteristics of these events. Detailed and accurate professional analyses are needed if we want to become acquainted with the various strategies and to determine the main trends followed and applied by the majority of teams, not only in general but also with regards to counter-attacks and fastbreak systems. Thus we can observe how many goals are scored from counter-attacks and fastbreaks, taking into consideration the total number of attacks. We can also find which forms of fastbreak prove to be the most efficient and how many passes are usually needed to complete successfully these offences. METHODS – To determine the strategies applied by various teams, I have set certain hypotheses. I have analysed the video recordings of several matches, making detailed statistics. Then I summarized and interpreted the data and finally found the answers to my hypotheses. The results of the statistical analyses confirm some clear and accurate principles. RESULTS – Having analysed the matches I have found which fastbreak systems are mostly preferred, how many goals are resulted from counter-attacks and fastbreaks, and how many passes are needed to most efficiently complete a fastbreak. KEYWORDS: statistical analysis, extended fastbreak by maintaining moving direction, by changing position, double pivot formation, by combined movements 1 CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................... 3 Chapter 2: A brief history of handball ............................................................... 3 Chapter 3: Curriculum Vitae .............................................................................. 6 Chapter 4: Hypothesis .......................................................................................... 7 PART II: ON COUNTER-ATTACKS ................................................................... 7 Chapter 1: Individual counter-attack ................................................................. 9 Chapter 2: Extended fastbreak involving several players .............................. 10 Chapter 3: Extended fastbreak involving the whole team .............................. 12 Chapter 4: Improvement of the rules of the game ........................................... 12 Chapter 5: The role of the fast throw-off.......................................................... 13 Chapter 6: The improvement of retreating to defence .................................... 14 PART III: THE EFFECTS OF FASTBREAKS AND COUNTER-ATTACKS ON OFFENSIVE PLAY ......................................................................................... 14 PART IV: THE GENERAL ASPECTS OF COUNTER-ATTACKS AND FASTBREAKS ........................................................................................................ 15 PART V: THE ROLE OF THE GOALKEEPER IN COUNTER-ATTACKS AND FASTBREAKS .............................................................................................. 16 PART VI: THE SUBJECT OF THIS STUDY ..................................................... 17 Chapter 1: Means and methods of the study .................................................... 17 Chapter 2: Study guidelines ............................................................................... 17 PART VII: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ........................................................ 18 Chapter 1: The analysis of direct and indirect fastbreaks .............................. 21 Chapter 2: An analysis of fastbreak systems .................................................... 26 Chapter 3: The efficiency of fastbreaks with regards to the number of passes .............................................................................................................................. 55 PART VIII: CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................... 56 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................... 57 APPENDICES ......................................................................................................... 58 2 PART I: INTRODUCTION Chapter 1: Introduction Handball is a dynamic and exciting team game with a constant alternation of attack and defence, resulting in spectacular shots on goal and breathtaking saves. But where does this beautiful game come from and how did its rules develop? Who and how many players played it before its present form and rules took shape? These questions are the first to arise to which we must find an answer. After all, how can we evaluate anything if we only know its present? Everything that has a present can only be understood totally and evaluated through its past. This is also the key to the emerging future. This provides us with the bases to come to conclusions about future tendencies. Certainly, these tendencies are impossible to be determined with total security, yet we must keep the ability to change and to be changed in ourselves in order to promote development. If our ancestors, after all, had not possessed these abilities, if they had only been playing handball in accordance with the already determined rules – without being open to take into consideration any new practical requirements –, well then the game would certainly have already vanished in the haze of the past. It is possible that handball will once only be history for future generations who will be smiling at this „ancient” ball game. Let us learn from our past and be aware that we are part of a process with demands of change and we are the ones to carry out these changes. Chapter 2: A brief history of handball If we go through the origins and history of handball, we can see that the game has come a long way of development, resulting in the court of 20 by 40 metres and two teams of 7 players each who are involved in physical contact with the purpose of getting the ball into the opponent’s goal. Handball has by now developed into a universal and entertaing game which satisfies the demands of modern man. 3 Handball is based on the same basic forms of movement – jumping, running and throwing –, which were indispensable for our ancient ancestors to sustain their lives. It happened in the era of antiquity that the first organized games emerged whose purpose was to pass and catch a ball precisely and to get it behind a line. We must mention Homer who, in his famous epic poem Odyssey, refers to a certain ball game called „urania”. In the Middle Ages, noblemen already built so-called ball houses which provided home to, among others, some primitive forms of handball. These were, however, just the first attempts to create a new game. In the Modern Era, a spectacular development of the game began. The reason for this was that many considered football too rough and „shoe-consuming”, but gymnastics still required some playful supplementary activity which contains loosening and skill-improving elements. In most recent times, around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, three very similar hand-played ball games were created in three distinct regions. Hazena (Vaclav Karas, Kristof Antonin) made its debut in Prague, haandbold (Holger Nilson) is linked with the name of a Danish school master, and last but not least torball which was developed in Germany. These three games can be considered as the real forerunners of present-day handball. Their rules, however, differed significantly from the ones known today. If we just have a quick look, for example, at the rules regarding the goalkeeper, we can see that the dimensions of the goal and the goal-area, as well as the goalkeeper’s possibilities to move around the court were all different from the present ones. It is interesting, though, that the Czech game hazena was so popular and wide-spread in Bohemia – and later in Czechoslovakia – that it had been played right until the end of the 20th century (until the time when Czechoslovakia ceased to exist) parallel with modern handball. In Hungary the game was introduced in 1921, when Dückstein Zoltán translated the rules of handball played on a large field and the game became known in Hungary as „palmball”. In those days the game was played outdoors, on a football