The Netherlands : how the "Handball Academie Dames" was born

The Netherlands has become in recent years a force to reckon with in women handball. But how did they come to that? Well the local federation together with the Dutch Olympic Committee, sat together and start off the "Handball Academie Dames"in September 2006. The first group of promising talents was made up of 25 young players coming from across the country.A specific day to day program tailored to each player was created, where they would play play handball and study as well. On Friday's evening players would go training with their own team and at weekend they would play in the local league. Across the years there were quite a few young talented players moving to the national team like Lois Abbingh and Laura Van der Heijden. In 2008, a team from the "Academie" played in the Dutch Women Handball League.After that the federation decided to let the team compete on the international stage where eventually they reached the 2011 Challenge Cup semifinal. Certainly the NHV,besides the "Academie", has developed the game at grassroot levels through other two important initiatives: the "Handball Scholen" which are certified by the federation itself and the "Handball Talent Centra" which instead are certified by the "Handball Scholen". In a nuthshell, Dutch women handball would not be one of the emerging nations if the federation would not have created a detailed development plan which included the above mentioned Handball Schools and Handball Talent Centres.