During the recent U17 World Championship, the International Handball Federation (IHF) chose to experiment with a rule that could change the game as we know it.
Would handball benefit from more two-way players? Perhaps that was IHF’s reasoning when, ahead of the U17 Worlds in October, they decided to test a new rule – one that prevents defensive “specialists.”
On IHF’s website, the rulebook for the U17 World Championship stated:
“Court players may only be replaced when the team is in possession of the ball, i.e. using defence specialists or making regular offence/defence substitutions are not allowed (however, in the case of an injury, Rules 4:10-11 of the Rules of the Game shall be applicable).”
No more defensive specialists?
In other words, teams were no longer allowed to bring on defensive specialists when the opponents had possession. The question now is how this will move forward – will the rule eventually be introduced at all levels, or did the test fall flat? Could such a rule help create more two-way players, or will it make certain player types disappear altogether?
Per Johansson, head coach of Győri, is clear about his stance:
– I think offence/defence substitutions should be banned at young ages. For so many years I’ve seen all these child prodigies who have basically never played defence but scored ten to twelve goals per match since they were ten years old. At the level I’m at now, almost every early child star has problems defending, and as coaches at this level we have to put an extreme amount of effort into developing those skills. That’s why I think this is a good step, he says.
GoHandball has reached out to IHF for a comment.