Raising the bar

The ongoing partnership between the EHF CAN (Competence Academy & Network) and the FIBA Europe Techno Centre (FETC) relating to the use of I.T. in both handball and basketball will see a focus in 2011 on the ‘Observer Programme’ and the ‘Digital ScoreSheet’, the two main technological solutions developed by the FETC which the EHF has invested in.

The ‘Observer Programme’ is a comprehensive video analysis software for refereeing and coaching issues based on real time video footage linking to an accessbile interactive online platform.

eurohandball.com first reported on this back in December 2010 when the online platform was used for the first time in handball as an EHF pilot project during the 2010 EHF Women’s European Championships in Denmark and Norway, and which received rave reviews by all the EHF officials present, particularly the referees. Read the article here.

Following this successful pilot the Observer Programme is being rolled out across a number of EHF tournaments and will be in use at the EHF Women’s 17 European Championship in the Czech Republic and the EHF Women’s 19 European Championship in the Netherlands.

More exciting developments are planned for the EHF and FIBA Europe partnership as the Digital ScoreSheet (DSS) for Handball, based on the same real time video technology, is being developed for later this year and is set to have its first outing at the 2012 EHF Men's European Championships in Serbia with the software eventually being used across all of the EHF competitions. Read more about it here.

Officials from the EHF recently returned from Gran Canaria in Spain, following a three-day technical meeting to discuss the adoption of the Observer Programme and the DSS.

The adoption of the two platforms and their technical modification in order to develop tools that will apply directly to handball is the immediate goal of the EHF on the technological front and, alongside the FETC staff led by Head of FIBA Europe Techno Centre Antonio Ojeda, EHF officials including Competition Analyst Tomasz Szydlowski, Video Analyst Robert Kleiner and IT Manager Christoph Gamper were in attendance in Spain to discuss the way moving forward with the technology and to plan the transfer and adoption of the DSS system in ways suitable to handball, under the guidance of the FETC.

"We had some fantastic feedback in Denmark and Norway," said Helmut Höritsch, Education & Development Senior Manager, EHF CAN (Competence Academy & Network). "The system worked really well and both the EHF and FIBA can see the benefits for our officials and the wider benefits for both the sport of handball and basketball."

"The EHF are constantly striving to improve our knowledge as an organisation," he continued. "We are always interested in any new ideas or technology and the exchange of information."

"Anything that can improve our sport both on and off the court is of great interest and the Observer Programme is a great example of this."

In December 2009 the EHF was a founder member of the Association of European Team Sports (ETS) which was created with the main objective to represent and promote the interests of European team sports and to discuss questions concerning team sport on political and technical level in Europe. The partnership work between FIBA Europe and EHF is evidence of these objectives working.

The other members of ETS are FIBA Europe (basketball), CEV (volleyball), FIRA-AER (rugby), IIHF (ice hockey) and UEFA (football). The ETS allows its members to maintain friendly relations and to foster cooperation, exchange of experience and information between them.

Find more information about the Association of European Team Sports here.

Find more information about FIBA Europe here.