Assembling a Medical Team: The Medical Needs of a Handball Team

Abstract

The recent explosion of interest in handball has been accompanied by an increase in professionalism in the sport and an expectation of better-organised and qualified support staff, including the medical team. This chapter proposes a model for establishing medical support services for a handball team, starting with the employment of medical staff with specialist qualifications, who are experienced in handball medicine and who can work in a multidisciplinary setting to establish a network of medical services to support the team. An integrated performance health management and coaching model is based on the principles of shared decision-making (involving player, coaching staff and the extended medical team) with the goal of not only managing the health of the player but also the performance.