As my last Korfball adventure for 2013 I travelled to the Korfball Challenge in Rotterdam. For those of you who don’t know anything about the Korfball Challenge, I will explain the best I can.
The tournament is run over four days and there are players from all age groups plus extra coaching courses and training. The best players from each district (Noord, Noord-West, Oost, Zuid, Zuid-West) play against each other at age group level (<12, <14) and there are also some international teams from Germany, Belgium and England (<16, <19). To top this off, in the evenings there is a six team senior competition. The top three club teams from the previous Korfball League compete against the top Belgian club side, the Talents (a Dutch <21 team) and the Tulips (a Dutch senior team minus the national players who are in one of the three club Dutch teams competing). The Korfball Challenge at senior level is also where three new rules are trialed. This year they trialed a 21 second shot clock, new substitution rules and no defended shots if the shot was in motion.
I was only in Rotterdam for the last two days of the tournament but I had a chance to watch the <19 tournament and also the Korfball Challenge finals (3rd/4th playoff and final). The talent of the <19 players was amazing! I guess most of them have played Korfball since they were young and that is why they are so much better in the Netherlands than anywhere else in the world. The five Dutch district teams finished 1st-5th while the international teams were 6th-8th. After the <19 tournament the Dutch national team was named with two players from my home club of DOS ’46, Harjan Visscher and Max Malestein, making the team! It was exciting to see some real future stars playing Korfball.
During the two days we were there, in between doing his physio work for the Noord <19 team, I managed to catch up with a lot of Korfball personalities from all over the world. This included my first national coach in NZ, Daniel De Rudder from Belgium; Warman Cheng from Hong Kong; Dave Buckland from England; Jorge Alves from Portugal; and a number of well-known Dutch korfballers. Of course as well as catching up with them, I spent much of the time trying to learn as much as I could from all of these Korfball brains.
On the last night I watched the Korfball Challenge finals. Firstly was the playoff for 3rd between Blauw-Wit and Fortuna. This was the first time I have seen a game between two Korfball league teams. Immediately I noticed a difference between the level of Korfball here and anything I have seen before. The shooting was amazing and the game just seemed to flow so quickly, not because the players were moving faster but the timing of movement and their ability to see the next play was so much better than the players from lower levels. It was a very close game to watch for the 2000-3000 strong crowd, many who are probably more used to watching this level of korfball than I was.
In the final, Korfball League champions PKC were up against the Tulips. PKC were not at full strength for this game and the Tulips played an amazing first half, notching up 20 goals in 25 minutes! Male player of the tournament Mick Snel, who at 20 is still developing as a player, scored many of those goals in often-spectacular fashion. One of the players from PKC was only 17! While he was very good, he still has a lot to learn before he can play with the control and skill of the top players to be 17 and competing at this level is amazing. As the game wore on the Tulips dominance slowed and the fact they were a team only put together for this tournament showed with a few errant passes. Despite this the win was still a comfortable 35-20 win for the Tulips, taking home the 2500 Euro prize.
After the tournament I traveled back to Nijeveen with Friso Boode, one of the players from the Tulips. We chatted the whole way back about many things but the conversation was obviously Korfball dominated. It was fascinating to listen to the point of view from a current top player and someone who is also a PE teacher introducing Korfball to complete novices.
It was great to experience such high level Korfball and hopefully in 2014 I get to see more Korfball League games and go to the final in Ahoy!
Check out my story about the Dutch Christmas and New Year here:
/the-netherlands.html
Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!
Lorenzo
The tournament is run over four days and there are players from all age groups plus extra coaching courses and training. The best players from each district (Noord, Noord-West, Oost, Zuid, Zuid-West) play against each other at age group level (<12, <14) and there are also some international teams from Germany, Belgium and England (<16, <19). To top this off, in the evenings there is a six team senior competition. The top three club teams from the previous Korfball League compete against the top Belgian club side, the Talents (a Dutch <21 team) and the Tulips (a Dutch senior team minus the national players who are in one of the three club Dutch teams competing). The Korfball Challenge at senior level is also where three new rules are trialed. This year they trialed a 21 second shot clock, new substitution rules and no defended shots if the shot was in motion.
I was only in Rotterdam for the last two days of the tournament but I had a chance to watch the <19 tournament and also the Korfball Challenge finals (3rd/4th playoff and final). The talent of the <19 players was amazing! I guess most of them have played Korfball since they were young and that is why they are so much better in the Netherlands than anywhere else in the world. The five Dutch district teams finished 1st-5th while the international teams were 6th-8th. After the <19 tournament the Dutch national team was named with two players from my home club of DOS ’46, Harjan Visscher and Max Malestein, making the team! It was exciting to see some real future stars playing Korfball.
During the two days we were there, in between doing his physio work for the Noord <19 team, I managed to catch up with a lot of Korfball personalities from all over the world. This included my first national coach in NZ, Daniel De Rudder from Belgium; Warman Cheng from Hong Kong; Dave Buckland from England; Jorge Alves from Portugal; and a number of well-known Dutch korfballers. Of course as well as catching up with them, I spent much of the time trying to learn as much as I could from all of these Korfball brains.
On the last night I watched the Korfball Challenge finals. Firstly was the playoff for 3rd between Blauw-Wit and Fortuna. This was the first time I have seen a game between two Korfball league teams. Immediately I noticed a difference between the level of Korfball here and anything I have seen before. The shooting was amazing and the game just seemed to flow so quickly, not because the players were moving faster but the timing of movement and their ability to see the next play was so much better than the players from lower levels. It was a very close game to watch for the 2000-3000 strong crowd, many who are probably more used to watching this level of korfball than I was.
In the final, Korfball League champions PKC were up against the Tulips. PKC were not at full strength for this game and the Tulips played an amazing first half, notching up 20 goals in 25 minutes! Male player of the tournament Mick Snel, who at 20 is still developing as a player, scored many of those goals in often-spectacular fashion. One of the players from PKC was only 17! While he was very good, he still has a lot to learn before he can play with the control and skill of the top players to be 17 and competing at this level is amazing. As the game wore on the Tulips dominance slowed and the fact they were a team only put together for this tournament showed with a few errant passes. Despite this the win was still a comfortable 35-20 win for the Tulips, taking home the 2500 Euro prize.
After the tournament I traveled back to Nijeveen with Friso Boode, one of the players from the Tulips. We chatted the whole way back about many things but the conversation was obviously Korfball dominated. It was fascinating to listen to the point of view from a current top player and someone who is also a PE teacher introducing Korfball to complete novices.
It was great to experience such high level Korfball and hopefully in 2014 I get to see more Korfball League games and go to the final in Ahoy!
Check out my story about the Dutch Christmas and New Year here:
/the-netherlands.html
Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!
Lorenzo