How to play the infinite game of handball – lessons learned from Happy League

• Main Authors: Rossing, Niels Nygaard, Christensen, Anders Broe Dahl, Skrubbeltrang, Lotte Stausgaard
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being; name=SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being; /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/sustainable_cities_and_communities; name=SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities; Faroe Islands; Greenland
• Online Access: https://vbn.aau.dk/da/publications/e4166551-2dfc-4d97-942c-2b0fea23a504; https://www.eurohandball.com/en/news/en/ehf-scientific-conference-2023-programme-released/

Across countries and various target groups, sport participation is characterized by competitiveness with a dominating focus on promoting performance and results. Unsurprisingly, children and youth most often have other motives (e.g. having fun, being part of a team, learning skills), although they are embedded in competitive sport cultures. As competitiveness is linked to reduced sport participation, there is a growing interest in initiatives that attempt to transform sport cultures. In this paper we use a successful case, Happy League, to describe which actions can be made to transform a competitive sport culture to an inclusive sport culture. Happy League is a handball community with more than 400 volunteer coaches and 1200 children with various special needs and or disabilities across 82 clubs in Denmark, Faroe Islands and Greenland. Inspired by James Carse’s ‘game theory’, that divide games into either finite (competitive) or infinite (lifelong), we describe the concrete actions within the game, they promote an infinite game of handball. Based on a ‘theoretical’ thematic analysis, we identify concrete actions within training (e.g., bending the rules for each player) and organization of competitions (e.g. making players signing up for tournaments instead of teams), that facilitate an infinite game approach. The findings have the potential to inspire practitioners and researchers in ways to promote the infinite game of handball.