The Malta Handball Association has organised an EHF Level 1 Course in Coaching Handball in September. Mr. Allan Lund, an EHF Lecturer from Denmark conducted the ten day intensive course. All 17 participants, mostly coming from the local handball family, successfully completed the course. Maltahandball.com took some time to interview Mr. Lund.
Maltahandball – Mr. Lund, welcome to Malta Handball. What are your first thoughts with regards handball in Malta? Allan Lund – You know it is not the first time I am here, and I see a lot of interesting people and a lot of motivation, so I think hand ball in Malta has a future. How bright it is will depend on all of you.
Maltahandball – You were here in 1998, have you seen any improvement? Allan Lund – This is clear, that time (in1998) handball was new, the Federation (Association) was extremely new and there has been a lot of positive influence from outside and I can see a big difference with the people I am working with now. (course participants)
Maltahandball – You have been coaching a lot of teams around the world, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Briton. How difficult is it to teach Handball in small countries like Malta where handball is not so popular? Allan Lund – The question is that it is not difficult, the biggest problem is of course to get enough players involved in the game and to raise the game through schools, colleges etc. This is the biggest problem because as soon as the players come into the sport they would love it because it is the best team sport in my opinion.
Maltahandball – Can you tell us something about the Danish league? Allan Lund – In Denmark we have professional players, we have semi professional players and we have also players who play for fun, like you are doing here in Malta at the moment and of course you cannot compare the level of the game here with the level of the game in Denmark because in Denmark handball is a big sport. We normally say it is not only sport, we say it is culture. We all tried to play. It is so easy to get enough players to come to the clubs.
Maltahandball – What is your role within the European Handball Federation? Allan Lund – I was elected eight years ago in a new position in the coaching committee and I will be running after two weeks (in two weeks time) there is a congress. I am a member of the methods commission, trainer’s commission but with special responsibility for development.
Maltahandball – At the end of 2003 the Danish Handball Federation had more than 146,000 active and passive members. In Malta by the end of 2008 we would be lucky to have 300. What in your opinion can be done for small countries like Malta to increase the number of members? Allan Lund – There is only one way that is to present the game in the schools secondly to form as many clubs as possible so that these young students be taught to love the game through the schools and they know were to do, You are 400,000 inhabitants here, and of course not everybody is going to play handball but you have a potential for having a lot more members then the number you mentioned (300)
Maltahandball – Denmark are the 2008 European champions, they only lost one match in this tournament. Tell us something about this team… Allan Lund – And we are very surprised in fact we are very happy but also surprised because our men team, it has been a big big struggle over the years to be the best in Europe. On the women side, many times we have won the Olympic championship 3 times, but for the men we have always been number 3 0r 4 so we are of course extremely happy now that we are also the first team that is top in Europe. On the other hand we knew it would come one day because when we compare all the European nation of the youth level, Denmark is far the best on both man and women side.
Maltahandball – What happened to the Danish team in Beijing Olympics? Allan Lund – All of these players are professional players, they have been pushed a lot through the season with the European championship, then back to the club were some play champions league and I am quite sure that some players need a rest. You cannot demand the players to be in top fitness for the whole year. We were unlucky in some of the games We have to learn that the top in Europe does not only consist of a couple or maybe five team, but it is twelve team that are nearly the same strength, so one day you win…one day you loose.
Maltahandball – Lars Christiansen played 252 games for Denmark and scored 1,151 goals for your national team. He must be a legend in Danish Handball. Can you tell us something about Lars? Allan Lund – First of all he is one of the oldest players in the team and he is also the penalty shooter. That gives him of course a lot of extra chances to be on the top scorer list but it is great that he was very successful in Norway, there has been tournaments were he has not been successful when he played for Danmark, but really when he plays for his side Flensburg as his daily job he is always successful but in fact most of the players in the national team, they are like stars now in Denmark, Not only Lars Christiansen, He deserves your praise but other players deserve the same.
Maltahandball – What about Anya Anderson? Allan Lund – The worlds best handball female player, Anya was unfortunately unable to continue her career, she had physical problems and had to stop her career but we are lucky that she decided to go into coaching. Now she just finished one job with a club and she is going to another club in Copenhagen and for sure she will be successful.
Maltahandball – You were appointed as technical adviser for the British Handball Association "World Class Program" What is the BHA expecting to achieve? Allan Lund – The best possible...we are so, I say "we" because I am part of the program. We are so lucky that we will participate in the London Olympics. We will be one of the 12 teams on the men side and on the women side. Of course we do not know if we are strong enough to beat one of the European teams, this is why I have said in the preliminary round, we have to beat one of the teams of the other continents and if we do this we will be top 8 and this is at the moment the target for us.
Maltahandball – That is a quote I found on the BBC Website, "Briton HB team can reach top 8..." Allan Lund –Yes, officially when we are asking for money from the UK sport which are giving the donation for the team's preparation, they wanted us to be top 4, but we have to first of all be top 8 before we can dream... Maltahandball – And do you think Briton be top 8? - Allan Lund – The improvement until now has been satisfactory but of course everybody knows that the first, second and third years the improvement is easier to make than it is in the last periods, so I am just saying, yes but...yes but...
Maltahandball – Mr. Lund, this morning I logged on the internet and I wrote "Allan Lund Handball" in the Google search engine. I had aprox. 8,110 results. You are very popular. Allan Lund – Oh...there was a mistake on Google. I have no idea about this, I think it must have been a mistake. (Lund jokes)
Maltahandball – What advice will you give to these young coaches who have just completed level one in coaching handball? Allan Lund – First of all I want them to continue. (Stay involved) I want them to continue as players if they play, and if they are coaches, they continue as coaches. I hope that everybody of the participants I met here one day or another will take a coaching career because the Malta Handball Association wants them and needs them, the progress should be as fast as the MHA wants, so just keep on going.
Maltahandball – Will you come back to Malta to teach more courses? Allan Lund – You never know, it has been a pleasure to be here but we will see what happens.
Maltahandball – Thankyou for your visit and for the interview. Allan Lund – Thankyou very much.
