Coaches' opinions about teaching defensive skills for youth handball teams

Purpose It can be observed that coaching in youth sports may be based on technique development, while it is inspired by high-performance sports. As it is observed a lack of research that addressed the coaching process with youth handball teams in the Brazilian context, this study aimed to analyze what is expected for the defensive phase and how it is taught. Methods We interviewed 22 handball coaches from the U-12, U-14, U-16, and U-18 teams addressing the teaching of defensive skills when facing different offensive systems and the approaches used in the training sessions. The interviews were analyzed using the Collective Subject Discourse (CSD) method. Results and discussion The coaches' discourses revealed an increasing expectation due to players' experience, but with stimulation of high-level sport since the youngest teams. The discourses also emphasized the use of traditional approaches and game-based approaches to apply the learned skill in the game context, independently of the age group. It was noted that the expectations of the coaches about players' technical-tactical development and the approaches are controversial, especially when comparing the specific skills with the use of the traditional approach in the younger teams (U-12 and U-14 teams). It is suggested that more attention must be paid when choosing the defensive skills to be taught for youth players, and the chosen teaching approaches must promote a reflexive environment to learners.