AS the Congo Brazzaville 2015 All-Africa Games (AAG) draw closer, the Zambia women handball team is leaving no stone unturned in their preparations.
The battle for places in the Congo bound team has equally intensified and the competition amongst players is stiff; it’s simply the ‘survival of the fittest’ affair.
Many will agree that competition is necessary, inbuilt and essential. Competition can improve performance and happiness and people are better off when they are trying to win rather than trying not to lose.
It also helps if the stakes are very low and the motivation is not just to win, but to achieve mastery.
The female handball squad became the first Zambian team sport to qualify for this year’s All Africa Games and that feat deserves commendation.
The combination of team work and competition results in greater achievements and in most cases higher scores as well.
Team Zambia comprises some explosive and talented players who have a huge amount of pressure on their young shoulders to put up a podium performance, like being crowned African champions.
Their path to winning silver during the International Handball Federation (IHF) 2014 Zone Six Challenge was been helped by intense preparations, focus and commitment.
But the brutal competitiveness of playing at a continental level means that 2015 could be a make or break time for the silver medalists who have great ability, but have been underrated by some of their rivals.
Therefore, this is an opportunity for the laces strengthen their application and attitude and the continent what they are capable of.
Zambia has to make an impact if the game will have fresh faces rather than the usual South Africa, Angola or Mozambique to contest the major titles.
The expectations from fans are high and the players have to decide how much they want to win, they should ask themselves if they have the desire to do the hard work as the faces of Zambia women handball because that’s the true making of a champion.
Good coaches have always maintained their winning formulae but there should also be room for the offshoots that could be a surprise package to the team. The bottom line is players must be picked on merit.
If there is any player who can provide the team with a boost to build on the already existing talent, the coach should create room for them.
Competitiveness involves the whole range of attitudes, thoughts, feelings, and behavior associated with the pursuit of excellence and the long-term journey of getting to the top.
There is need to inculcate a sense of competitiveness in our players so that they begin to believe that success results from stable factors such as talent and ability and internal factors such as effort and health.
On the contrary, less effective competitors attribute success to unstable factors such as luck and external factors such as opponent weakness.
The message here is to let them give themselves full credit for their wins without minimising their part in a successful performance. This could be critical in increasing their confidence and motivation for all their games bat the Games.
In the past editions, I have tried to highlight of the most important attributes players should embrace for them to win a competition. One of them (Attributes) is self-confidence, the mark of a champion usually referred to as the secret ingredient that all great athletes seem to possess, regardless of what level they compete at.
Can the team grow confidence? If so, how? Are there specific things that coaches and teammates do that can kill it? As alluded to in one of the previous editions, self-confidence is that intangible factor, positive mental attitude that keeps an athlete working hard regardless of how many times they may fail or how many obstacles get thrown in their path.
It is important that besides the physical preparations our handball players are undergoing, they should also be prepared mentally for them to attempt and accomplish the impossible.
We know what these youngsters are capable of producing at their full potential; lacking self-confidence in a team may result in them consistently perform way below their potential.
There is no substitute for hard work. Success can only come from a solid base of hard work, if the team does its homework and trained well, they have a right to feel buoyant of achieving the best results.
They should do everything possible in their power, and then do a little more! A podium performance comes from knowing that the team has trained longer and harder than its competitors.
We can only wish the men’s team the best as they try to clinch a qualification spot when they take on Angola.
Below are some of the players that are set to represent Zambia at the All Africa Games handball championship women event.
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