Andreas Palicka, the oldest in the Swedish EC squad at 39, has long been ranked as one of the world’s best goalkeepers. Mikael Appelgren, second oldest at 36, is experiencing a new spring between the posts.
Age has never been a problem for handball goalkeepers, on the contrary, many seem to be like vintage wines.
And even though their bodies have been worn out during a long career, both veterans keep their places in the national team.
– When you were young, you had a lot of the speed and the ability to react for free. Now you have to work a little more to keep it going, says Appelgren.
On the handball court he uses, among other things, exercises with tennis balls to improve the ability to react. On the side, he works with neurotherapeutic exercises to strengthen concentration.
– I look a lot at what other athletes do. Many tennis players make some cognitive movements before their matches and this is something that is coming more and more in handball, says Appelgren.
Getting older can also have a positive effect on the game. The routine and positioning ability increase and Appelgren talks about the calm that comes with a goalkeeper who has been around for a while.
– When you’re younger, it’s easy to overwork situations, because you want so much. When you get older, the experience means that you acquire a good positional ability, which contributes to feeling calm and not stressing yourself out, he says.
Andreas Palicka, with 175 international matches in the bag before the EC, agrees.
– The positioning and calmness means that you can make saves that look easier than when you were 22 and needed to live more on intuition, says the Swedish team captain.
He takes an example with a wing shot, which is a psychological game between the goalkeeper and the shooter and where it is necessary to try to predict where the shot will come.
– This is something I have struggled with throughout my career and where tactics and understanding of handball are required the most. It’s about getting the shooter to show something, says Palicka, who when he acted as a mentor to young goalkeepers realized that many people think they were more misplaced than they really were.
He points out that the experience also plays a role mentally.
– When you get older, it’s easier to handle a less than good start. You don’t stress yourself out, but trust what you are good at. A young goalkeeper who has a couple of bad games often goes into a slump and starts to think that he is doing everything wrong, says Palicka.
Fabian Norsten, the third goalkeeper in the EC squad, is 25 years old and together with names like Tobias Thulin and Simon Möller belong to the future of the national team.
An elbow injury kept Palicka away from handball for four months and the eye injury in the general competition against Brazil has also disrupted preparations for the EC, but neither he nor Appelgren have announced any plans to retire.
– Before, you felt that you would be a handball professional forever, but now I have realized that there is a best-before date. I will make decisions year by year, says Appelgren.
In the European Championship opener against the Netherlands, he started in goal, while Palicka came on in the second half. It remains to be seen if national team captain Michael Apelgren will let the veterans gain confidence against Georgia on Monday evening as well.
