Head Coach at Þór Handbolti and EHF Expert
Daniel Birkelund
The work is complex. The way we talk about it doesn’t have to be.
What travels with me
Not a fixed way of playing handball. What travels is underneath that.
Players get better, and everyone knows where we’re going.
A plan, an evaluation, another round. A little better every day, on purpose.
A framework, not a finished system.
A shared tactical language, built with the players and fitted to the roster in front of me.
Delegation as leverage.
Specialists own their areas, so my energy goes to culture, structure and the environment around the team.
Managing the chaos.
A season never goes to plan. I don’t panic. The job is to manage the chaos, not to solve it.
Six countries, one way of working
- 2025 –Head Coach, Þór HandboltiMen, Olísdeild (top league)Iceland
- 2024 – 2025Head Coach, Lemvig-Thyborøn HåndboldMen, professionalDenmark
- 2021 – 2024Head Coach & Sports Director, Skövde HFWomen, professionalSweden
- 2020Assistant Coach, Siófok KCWomen, professionalHungary
- 2018 – 2020Head Coach, Rælingen HKWomen, professionalNorway
- 2017 – 2018Head Coach, Energa Politechnika KoszalinWomen, junior, plus coach educationPoland
- 2014 – 2017Head Coach, Falk HortenMen, professionalNorway
- 2007 – 2014Player development, NHF Region WestPlus Head Coach at the Gymnasium for Top Sports, BergenNorway
- 2001 – 2007Bjørnar IL, Årstad IL, Stord HKAssistant and head coach, women and menNorway
National teams, Norway
- 2011–13Head Coach, boys U17
- 2009–11Coach, men’s U21
- 2013Coach, girls U17
How the culture, the concept and the daily work connect
Define the vision
Where are we going, and what does good look like here?
Align sport & organisation
The sporting side and the rest of the club want the same thing.
Set the code of conduct
A few non-negotiables on day one. Everything else is nudges.
Build the handball concept
Principles, standard solutions, a shared language.
Break it down
Season, periods, weeks, sessions. Each with a purpose.
Plan, execute, evaluate, repeat
Every week has a plan. Every match has a debrief.
↺ A continuous loop. The concept is never finished.
Complexity, in plain words
Complex and complicated are not the same thing. Most of what we deal with in high-performance sport is complex. A match is complex, because the opponent is thinking too. So is a player, and so is a dressing room in the fourth week of a bad run.
So I try to match the method to the problem, and then say it in words a player can use at the pace of the game.
Why does language come first?
Because it is the cheapest tool a coach has, and the one most carelessly used. If I can’t explain a tactical idea in words a player can use at the pace of the game, I haven’t finished thinking about it.
Where does growth come from?
What shows on the court often starts somewhere else: a player who doesn’t feel he belongs, a staff pulling in two directions. So I look wider than the court. And in training I care about what works, not about one method: repetitions without repeating.
What gets built first?
I find out what is already strong and build on it. A culture isn’t built by announcement. It is built by a hundred small corrections nobody remembers making, and then one day the room is different.
And when it gets messy?
It does. Every season. Keep a few principles fixed so people have something to stand on, make small moves, read what comes back, and adjust.
I find complexity and uncertainty more interesting than threatening.
From “Complexity, in plain words”
The complicated part, done properly
Everything that can be planned, measured and written down, should be. The tools change from club to club. What doesn’t change is that they exist, they’re written down, and they’re actually used.
Everything has a purpose
Everything we do, on the court and off it, starts from one question: in what way will this make us better? Each day of the week has a written purpose, with a target load and a mental, physical, technical and tactical focus. The players get the plan in advance, so their energy goes into the work, not into guessing what comes next.
Training
Enough repetition on what matters for it to become reliable. Enough variation and competition to prepare us for the unexpected, and to build independent players who think for themselves and are ready and willing to take responsibility.
Preparation
We analyse the opponent to find their strong sides and weak links, then build the strategy and the game plan around our own strengths. Video, data and analysis, from people and from AI.
Debrief
What did we learn? What do we reinforce, and what do we improve? Short and concrete after every match, with the same video, data and analysis behind it.
The players need to own it
Players are part of every step. They get the plan before the session, help shape how we play, and bring their own view to preparation and debrief. Ownership is what makes standards hold when the coach isn’t in the room.
A game plan adds details. It doesn’t replace who we are.
So preparation for a match never starts from scratch. Most of it is the process of continuous improvement that runs all season. Our concept works in three layers, and only the last one changes from week to week.
Load in two dimensions
Physical load with session RPE (rating of perceived exertion), RIR in the gym (reps in reserve) and minutes played. Cognitive load on a scale of my own: how much a session challenges the brain through decisions, communication and changing conditions. Hard when it’s supposed to be hard, easy when it’s supposed to be easy.
Numbers, and what they don’t say
The numbers tell us where to look. Video, observation and conversation tell us what we’re looking at. Test results should be the start of a conversation, not the end of it.
Coaching the coaches
Alongside club work, I teach. I do lectures and workshops for elite coaches across Europe as an EHF Expert, and I am working with the Master Coach education for the Norwegian Handball Federation.
Three national curricula, one way of thinking about the game
For the Norwegian Handball Federation I’ve been lead author on three major educational tools for players and coaches. They’re free and online.
Books and papers
Become the Best in Handball – with Heidi Løke (2013), a book I co-authored for young players and youth coaches.
Papers on leadership styles and players’ expectations of coaches at elite level, counter-attacks at the 2007 men’s World Championship, and wing play in Norway’s women’s team at the 2003 World Championship.
Where it comes from
I was never a good enough player to coach from memory, so I had to learn it.
- EHF Master Coach (2012) and EHF Pro License
- Master Coach education (level 5), Norwegian Handball Federation and the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences
- Elite Coach 2, NTNU and the Norwegian Olympic Committee
- NLP Leadership Practitioner
Notes from the bench
Essays on coaching, leadership and the game, written in between the work. Subscribe and new pieces arrive by email.
Get in touch
Clubs, federations, coaches, players. If it’s about handball, coaching or leadership, I’d like to hear from you.
I’m open to lectures, workshops and work with clubs and federations.
Elsewhere, as @dbirkelund
Languages
Norwegian, English, Swedish, Danish. Some French.
