Nikola Portner and friends call on “NoLimit” experience in Croatia
By
Posted on
HandballNoLimit Camp will take a place on the beautiful Adriatic Coast in Croatia in the city of Omis between July 1 and 7, famous as a home of different sports projects. SC Magdeburg and Swiss national team goalkeeper Nikola Portner and his friends made the fantastic job with the Camp for the younger handball generation in Switzerland and moving to Croatia will be in some way a nice chance to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the project.
Why Handball NoLimit?
- The idea came by itself, as I have been professional player I always wanted to give something back to the sport that I felt in love back in 1999. As I finished my career in Switzerland logic choice to start this project was the country of chocolate. Being friend with our Yugoslavian (world) handball legend Zlatko Portner, unfortunately not with us anymore, I met his son Nikola – saying David Miloradovic, project manager, who explained how everything began.
- Back then at 2018 when Nikola won EHF Champions league trophy with his club Montpellier, my idea was to propose him to join the forces in this project. Perfect choice as Nikola is the first Swiss to win this prestigious trophy, and being captain of Swiss national team himself. Name Handball No Limit came from idea that we really wanted to connect everybody and everything together that crosses our sport, by it’s name „without limit“ of age, gender, and handball experience – NO LIMIT!
History of the project is already reach…
- Our camp exists from it’s first edition at 2019, and we are glad to say that even despite Covid19 pandemic, we managed to maintain our camp. This task was not easy be we have succeed somehow, with lot of work and passion. Success was, no kid or adult was infected by virus during these 2 difficult years. During these 4 years we had around 230 kids (boys and girls) age 13 to 18, from around 5 different countries, Switzerland, France, Serbia, Croatia, Portugal, Spain, Germany. Camp Is open both for players and goalkeepers.
Who were the coaches through the years and goals?
- Camp itself apears to be as any other else. Among fun time which is always an priority for us, we endeavor to present to our players life of an proffesional handball player through his normal working day. Way that Nikola thinks, exersize, relaxes, prepare for the game. Add to this Is Nikola’s passion for this camp, not just giving his name for the brand, but also activ participating in organization of this project being constantly in communication with myself. Beside 2 times per day handball practice, add value to this camp is various different subjects that we present to our campers such as, Medical prevention courses, Mental coaching, Nutrition in sport, various physical preparation sessions etc. Accent morning sessions is on individual handball elements, which we try to implement in afternoon training sessions working with small groups. We are proud to say that through our 4 years in past we had some big handball names as coaches, Dragan Djukic, Nenad Sostaric, Klaus Feldmann, Joao Castro, Paulo Costa, Nikola Marinovic, Marko Markis. Vasilis Anastasellos, Thomas Sedioli, Aleksandar Stevic, Matthias Kornes, Aleksandar Brkovic, Ilka Filckinger, Akim Komnenic, Ulf Anderson. Great satisfaction for us is that every year we give opportunities to young coaches. They can contact us to participate as assistant coaches. During the week they help and learn from their much more experienced colleagues. We as an organization take all costs for their week with us.
What to expect in 2023?
- For our 5th edition, we wanted to make something special for our campers. Thankfully to our contact and dear friend Mario Cajkusic (head of International Goalkeepers camp – Omis) we decided to move our camp in beautifull Adriatic coast – Omis near Split. Omis and Sagitta Holiday Village gives us an opportunity to work in an optimal level and have fun also. This year is also special because we accept parents to come and follow their kids while they perform. A great programme is ahead of us. Nikola will be present during the whole week, together with great coaches, Bent Dahl (Norway), Akim Komnenic (Serbia), Johan Zanotti (Sweden) Rolando Freitas (Portugal), Rajko Milosevic (GK coach), Slobodan Acimov (Physical preparation coach – Pick Szeged), Ana Djokic (former Champions League winner with female team Buducnost Podgorica) working as handball agent, and some nice surprises that we will announce as the time approaches.
What will be the future of Nikola Portner – Handball NoLimit camp?
- I think personally that the future is bright for our organization. Maybe we were not able to grow as we thought (because of Covid19) but we still have a lot of ideas for the future. We are open for new people to join us in this project, new countries, and hopefully we will have Handball No Limit camps in many different regions of Europe.
