FISU and IKF to work together on next University World Cup

/in /by

The International University Sports Federation FISU and the International Korfball Federation have agreed to work together towards formal inclusion of korfball in the FISU World Championship program from 2018. The final decisions by FISU and IKF will be made after a next edition of the IKF University World Cup will be held under the endorsement of FISU. The endorsement will allow the event to be organized using the FISU logo. Furthermore, the event and the sport of korfball will be widely announced amongst FISU’s 167 national university sports federations.

IKF President Fransoo, who presented korfball today to the members of the FISU Executive Committee meeting in Brussels, marks the FISU decision as the beginning of a closer collaboration between IKF and FISU, to assist FISU in having its first gender-equal sport on the program, and to make national university sports federations around the world aware of the potential of korfball as a university sport.

FISU requested the next UWC be held latest by early 2015, to allow for an evaluation to be conducted by FISU, make a formal decision on korfball’s inclusion in the 2018 FISU World University Championship program, and select a host for the 2018 WUC.

Picture (left to right): Leonz Eder (Chairman, FISU World University Championships Committee), Jan Fransoo (IKF President), Claude-Louis Gallien (FISU President), Eric Saintrond (FISU Secretary General), Paulo Ferreira (Director, FISU World University Championships Department), Rosaura Mendez (Chair, FISU Gender Equality Committee)

Frank Buvens and Graham Crafter re-elected

/in , , , , , /by

During the IKF General Meeting Sunday 27 October 2013 in Lisbon the Composition of the Executive Committee was on the agenda. In accordance with the Statutes Mr Graham Crafter (ENG) and Mr Frank Buvens (BEL) have completed their elected term of office and are eligible for re-election. Both were willing to serve again and General Meeting re-elected them unanimous for a period of 4 years.

Mr Graham Crafter serves the IKF as Secretary General. Mr Frank Buvens is the responsible officer for Refereeing and Competitions.

Korfball Congress gives boost to youth competitions and development of korfball4

/in , , , , , /by

More international youth competitions and the introduction of other disciplines; those were the main focus in the discussion on the second day of the IKF World Korfball Congress.

The IKF Competitions Committee proposed a new age structure and extension for international youth competition. While currently the IKF organizes World Championships for U23, and Continental Championships U21, it was decided to align those. Given the rapid developments of players, the U23 and senior championships show so much overlap in team composition, that there Congress showed wide support for replacing the U23 World Championship by and U21 World Championship. In 2016, the last IKF U23 World Championship will be held. Further, in younger age groups there are currently no championships, although the IKF patronizes a long traditions of World Cups for U19 and U16. While the patronizing will remain, the IKF will start with an official U19 World Championship, and with Continental Championships for the U17 and U15 age groups. The formats and starting years will be set by each of the continents. It was agreed that the U15 Championships should have more of a festival nature. Further, the European continent, having the the strongest competitions, intends to open up its U17 and U15 events to team from other continents by invitation.

The second major topic for which the IKF Council received wide support was to develop a new korfball discipline, provisionally denoted as korfball4. This compact format, primarily targeted at outdoor hardcourt competitions, but being defined so flexibly that it can be played both indoor and outdoor, should open up new markets for attracting people to korfball. Extensive ideas for positioning, branding, and rules were brought forward by the delegates that embraced the new initiative. The IKF Council will now form a task force that is expected to develop the concept before the middle of next year, with the first events held in 2015.

At the day’s conclusion, the IKF shared its recent initiatives in the areas of communication and social media. For the latter, a new social media strategy will deliver extended multimedia content as from early 2015.

Dr Jan Fransoo, IKF President, – @korfballpres – spoke in his final words to the Congress of a very successful congress and he thanked all delegates for their valuable contributions: “Your support gives the IKF Council even more inspiration on the way we go”.

1st day World Korfball Congress

/in , , , , , , /by

The first day of the IKF World Korfball Congress In Lisbon, Portugal was opened with speeches from the president of our host the FPC, Mr Mario Almeida, Mr Guerreiro, Secretary of State for Sports and Dr Jan Fransoo, IKF President in front of around 60 special guests, IKF delegates and committee members.

The sessions were on;

  1. The IKF Year of the Youth 2013
  2. Refereeing
  3. Development and Education
  4. Equal gender policy.

There was great interest in the subjects and many interesting new suggestions from the audience were added to the ideas and plans presented.

IKF World Korfball Congress and General Meeting

/in , , , , , /by

Friday 25, Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 October 2013 around 50 delegates and IKF Council members are in Lisbon, Portugal for the bi-annual IKF World Korfball Congress and General Meeting. The Portuguese Korfball Federation (FPC) hosts this event.

Friday and Saturday are scheduled for the IKF Congress with sessions on competitions, new korfball formats, refereeing, changes in age groups, the international korfball calendar, communications, media, social media, equal gender, the Year of the Youth. Further the IKF President, Dr Jan Fransoo, and the FPC President, Mr. Mario Almeida, will sign the contract for the next IKF European Korfball Championship in 2014 in Portugal. A Portuguese Secretary of State will give a speech to all delegates on Friday afternoon to honor the IKF Congress.

Sunday morning 27 October is reserved for the IKF General Meeting. All 59 IKF member countries are invited. Based on the countries present in Lisbon from all over the world over 85% of all voting rights will be present in the General Meeting. The General Meeting is the last part of the official program.

New website for korfball coaches

/in , , , , , , /by

After last IKF Level IV “High Performance Coach” course was held from 27th August – 1st September 2013, the new website for korfball coaches was launched at www.ikf.org/coachingkorfball .

The website is created to share content about the training and coaching of korfball, so all coaches are invited to log in and share information about their training exercises. At the same time they can find information about coaching materials, courses, etc.

To participate in “Coaching Korfball” website requires logging in including personal information, therefore it will allow IKF to create a database recruiting information from persons involved in coaching at all levels: from P.E. Teachers need to find exercises for their trainings to regular korfball coaches in different parts of the world.

“Coaching Korfball” website contains different sections to feed the background of coaches formation. In the section Training exercises, you may find exercises for trainings at different levels; to IKF Education where there is information about courses and clinics. At the same time there are some other sections as Rules and Promotional , where registered coaches and P.E. Teachers can find materials to show the very basics of korfball.

The IKF Level IV “High Performance Coach” course is ready to start 27th August

/in , , , /by

Everything is ready for the start of first edition of for IKF Level IV “High Performance Coach” course during the week from  27th August to 1st September 2013. The city of Dordrecht and the great accommodation of DeetosSnel will host the first stage of a course that will be developed during the period August – December 2013.

During this first stage attendants will receive the instruction designed by Program Manager Mr Ben Crum. The “korfball guru” has designed a program of topics that will be developed by the best assortment of tutors and coaches possible, in order to implement the theory contained at his last “IKF Guide to korfball coaching” successful book.

Coaches and tutors appointed to run the different topics will be from in and out the korfball sphere. As korfball instructors, some names appointed to run the different topics are:

–       Jan Sjouke van den Bos (Coach Dutch National team 1999-2013)
–       Gert-Jan Kraaijeveld (Assistant Coach Dutch National team 2009-2013)
–       Wim Scholtmeijer (Coach Dutch National U21/U23 team period 2010-2013 and new Coach senior National Team)
–       Daniel de Rudder (Coach Belgium National team 1984 -1990 and Coach of National Teams of South-Africa, Poland and Turkey in different periods) and
–       Wim Bakker (Coach at Koog Zaandijk. Dutch Indoor Champion 2008, 2010 and IKF Europa Cup Champion 2009)

At the same time, there are other non-korfball lecturers involved to support the program of the IKF Level IV “High Performance Coach” course; tutors Raymond Verheijen and Peter Beek, are expected to deliver and outside vision about their main topics respectively: “Sport physiology and Physical Conditioning” and “Neurology and motor learning”.

Tutor Raymond Verheijen is well known in the football world as a founder of UK Football Academy and Dutch Football Academy, but also as assistant coach and physical trainer specialist performing in National Teams of The Netherlands, South-Korea, Russia or Wales but also at club level with Glasgow Rangers, Barcelona or Chelsea.

On the other hand, Peter Beek is developing a long career already as researcher in “Neurology and motor learning”. He is professor in “human movement sciences” at Department of Motor Behavior, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam

In order to follow this program starting next 27th August, KNKV TOP 6 Program supports the scholarship entry fee of a number of coaches who have been appointed by the different national organizations according to the terms of the TOP 6 Program:

  Country Attendants M/F National Team Current league team/Country
1 ENG Dave Buckland M Head Coach Seniors   England Tornadoes  /ENG
2 GER Detlef Dulfer M Coach U16 Germany Albatros / GER
3 CZE Ivo Kracik M Head Coach Seniors   Czech Republic Ceske Bujedovice /   CZE
4 CAT Rosendo Garcia M Coach U23 Catalonia CEVG / CAT
5 CAT David Rua M Coach U19 Catalonia CK Montcada / CAT
6 RUS Sergey Nizovsky M Head Coach Seniors   Russia
7 HK Warman Cheng M Head Coach Hong-Kong
8 POR Joana Faria F Coach U19 Portugal  Benfica 2nd   Div/POR
9 TAI Inglish Huang M Head Coach Nat. Team   Chinese Taipei
10 POR Jorge Alves M Head Coach Seniors   Brazil
11 CZE David Schwarz M Coach Czech Republic   Academy Korfball School Decin   / CZE

After the Stage 1 will be celebrated during last week of August , attendants will follow Stage 2 of 15 weeks of on-line lessons during the period September – December 2013, and finally the learning program will finish with Stage 3 during next Challenge Tournament in Rotterdam.

Opening ceremony World Games 2013

/in , /by

The opening ceremony of the 9th World Games in Cali, Colombia took place in front of 35,000 spectators in the sold-out stadium on the evening of 25 July, another 40,000 watching the event on a large screen outside the stadium, and hundreds of thousands of Caleños celebrating the opening of the event in the streets. It’s the 1st time this multi-sport event is held on the South American continent.

The 4,500 athletes and officials coming from 101 countries from all over the world will participate in competitions in 31 sports till August 4th.

The korfball event will start July 31st and the finals will be played August 4th

Closing ceremony of Universiade

/in , , , , , /by

The Universiade is an International multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a combination of the words “University” and “olympiad”. The Universiade is often referred to in English as the World University Games.

The closing ceremony of the 27th Summer Universiade was a spectacular finale to 12 days of competitions where 11,800 athletes representing 160 countries participated in a comprehensive sports program of 27 different sports.

The FISU Flag was presented to the Organising Committee of the next Summer Universiade which will be held in 2015 in the South Korean city of Gwangju.  However in 2017 the host will be Taipei and IKF are aiming to have the sport of korfball included in the program for this event.

IKF are in the process of applying for inclusion into the program of recognised FISU sports and will be busy over the coming months to do everything possible to have the sport of korfball included in the 2017 Universiade program in Taipei.  Taipei is also the host of the 1st IKF Asian University Korfball Championship (AUKC) which is scheduled from Wednesday 14 to Sunday 18 August 2013 in the Gymnasium of National Taipei University of Education.  Eight teams from five Asian countries have entered this event which is a culmination of lots of hard work from the Chinese Taipei Korfball Association and many years of promotion and development in the Asian region.