A world champion coach in Hennef! Erik Wudtke and the DHB’s new U19 squad started with an intensive training camp at the Hennef Sports School. Three days full of tactics, team building and indoor training – with the aim of building on the World Cup success of the summer. In this interview, Wudtke talks about the title, the new generation and the importance of Hennef as a training venue.
Sportschule Hennef: Erik [Wudtke], first of all, congratulations on recently winning the world championship title with the German U19 handball juniors – that’s something to be really proud of. So the first question: how proud are you of this success, both personally and in terms of the team’s performance?
Erik: I’m also a bit proud that I can at least be part of the team. As a coach, you’re in a special position: you have responsibility. As a coach of a youth team, it’s even more special because you’re responsible for young players. On the one hand in terms of their sporting development, but also in terms of their personality.
Sportschule Hennef: Was there a moment when you knew: “This team can become world champions”?
Erik: Yes, I have invested a lot of faith in the abilities of this team. The fact that we could actually become world champions is something you rarely think about during the tournament. But it was clear to me from the start that this team would stay in the competition for a long time and improve from game to game. At the latest after the difficult match against the Faroe Islands in the group stage and the subsequent deciding match against Slovenia. Either we play for the golden pineapple in the Presidents’ Cup or you have a chance of staying in the tournament for a long time. Dealing with this pressure situation was the key moment for me when I said: The boys are dealing with this stressful situation so positively, they’ll still have a game on the last day of the tournament.
Sportschule Hennef: You are now here at the training camp in Hennef with the new U-19 cohort. After such a great success, how difficult is it to focus on the next year?
Erik: I admit that I took two weeks’ vacation in South Tyrol to process the last year and before the start of the new year. That certainly helped me to distance myself from a team. Even if that is difficult, as you build up an inner bond with young people. In this respect, I’ve used the time to come to terms with the tournament a little, to reflect on what we’ve experienced, but also to make plans for the new generation. Accompanying the new U18/19 team for two years and thinking about what changes we want to make with this group is a great challenge. I can say that at the current training course here at the Hennef Sports School, the hunger to achieve new things with the boys is still great.
Training camp in Hennef: Erik Wudtke (6th from right) and the new DHB U19 age group at the Hennef Sports School
Sportschule Hennef: Perhaps from the boys’ perspective: how big are the shoes to fill for this new generation?
Erik: This U19 world championship title was the missing piece of the puzzle in the German Handball Federation’s promotion of young talent. So far, we’ve won every title you can win in the youth sector. We have also celebrated many successes with the senior teams. What was missing was this title at the U-19 World Junior Championship. The 2006/2007 age group has now done it. Successes with junior teams are particularly valuable for the boys’ personal and sporting development.
Sportschule Hennef: There are many different individual talents that come together at a training camp like this. How do you manage to form a cohesive team from these many individual talents?
Erik: It is important to establish common values in a team, which are of course also set by the coaching team. But there are also values and standards that the team sets itself. And then, in addition to shared values, shared goals also help. It brings people together when you know that you are dependent on your teammates in a team sport, that you can rely on each other and that you are also responsible for your own performance. These are things that weld a team together. We like to use these training camps here at the Hennef Sports School to develop the boys on a sporting level. But also to promote cooperation with players from different clubs. They are top performers in their teams and have to take on a new role in the national team. This is always an exciting process that involves a lot of trust and communication. A lot of input is required in just a few days.
Hennef Sports School: How do you promote team cohesion outside of this hall?
Erik: Conversations in the seminar room promote team cohesion outside of the training measures. We talk to each other a lot, we have exercises that we design together. We do video analysis and match preparations and talk about training content together. Participation is very important here. It shouldn’t be done from above, but the players also have to tell me what they need. It’s their training that I lead, but the content is the things they want to develop themselves. This promotes independence and, of course, self-confidence. This creates teams. And if, coupled with the values, you are prepared to turn an individual idea into a team idea, then we develop people who are prepared to invest more in something than they ask for. For me, that’s the team idea behind it.
Sportschule Hennef: And how did the decision to hold this training camp here in Hennef come about?
Erik: Why are we doing this in Hennef? Quite simply: I’ve done so many courses at the Hennef Sports School, all of which have had a positive effect on the athletes. And these are very important elements for me. The conditions here are right to give competitive athletes an important next step on their career path. On the one hand, there are the training conditions that we have on site. We have a wide range of options, whether it’s strength training, training in the hall or theory training in the seminar room. We can use the outdoor sports facilities if we want to work on our athletic skills. There are many opportunities for further development in training. We also have short distances here in Hennef. The boys can make optimum use of the regeneration times. They have their rooms where they can wind down and recover from training. We have excellent catering in Hennef. That’s a danger for us coaches because the food is simply good, suitable for athletes and very tasty.
The boys enjoy good training opportunities on the one hand and forms of regeneration on the other. In addition to these things, there’s one thing you can’t ignore, which is particularly positive for young people who come together for a course like this and perhaps don’t know each other that well yet: We are surrounded by very friendly people here. They are very quickly able to concentrate on the sport here because the atmosphere is very, very positive. That is a valuable constellation for us. That’s why we love coming to Hennef. I like to remember that we prepared for the Olympic Games in Paris here last year with the senior national team. We came back from the Olympics with a silver medal. That’s why my memories of Hennef are always positive and naturally make me want to come here with the boys.
The German men’s national handball team prepared for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris at the Hennef Sports School
