Can you introduce yourself, your team and club?
I am Ben Sassi Mohamed Yassine, currently national goalkeeper coach of the Tunisian women's national team. In addition to that, I am assistant to the first women's team of El Manzah Sport. Our team plays in the elite division of the Tunisian championship.
I discovered handball in my neighborhood, where I grew up, while playing with my childhood friends. As a youth, I was a goalkeeper for Stade Tunisien, a club in the capital. Later, as a teenager, while studying at the National Institute of Sport and Physical and Sports Education, I started coaching youth teams and specializing in goalkeeper training.
Currently, I am a physical education teacher. My coaching career has mainly focused on youth boys' teams, in addition to supervising goalkeeper training and managing statistics for the national team since 2018.
This position gave me the opportunity to participate in several international competitions with the cadet and junior teams, including the Mediterranean championships, the African and world championships as well as various international tournaments.
How would you describe Tunisian handball?
Tunisian handball enjoys worldwide fame, particularly on the African continent, and also made an impression during the 2005 world championship by placing fourth. This discipline benefits from a rich handball tradition which gives it a place of choice on the international scene.
What stats do you use the most during a match and why?
Steazzi is a statistics app that is gaining popularity within the handball community. It stands out for its efficiency in collecting data on teams, whether yours or the opponent. Personally, I use it during matches to guide my goalkeepers by analyzing the impacts of opposing shots. I also monitor our shooting efficiency on the opposing camp and the number of ball losses.
The graphs that players focus on the most concern the impact of shots on the opposing camp. For goalkeepers, we use the impacts of shots from the opposing team's back base to identify their preferred areas for shots.
In the future, I would like to be able to specify whether a shot comes from the 9-yard line or from a penetration by the ball carrier. This distinction may be important to avoid confusion between different types of impacts.
The evolution of the score is also a key element that we monitor carefully, whether at half-time or at the end of the match. It is important for the staff and players to evaluate our performance from the start of the match, to identify key moments and turnarounds during the game, and to make the necessary corrections.
What statistics do you use the most after the match and why?
After each match, Steazzi allows me to precisely evaluate the effectiveness of each player, whether in attack or defense. This analysis is crucial for players wishing to progress and optimize their performance from match to match.
The evolution of the score, whether at half-time or at the end of the match, is of capital importance for the staff and the players. It allows us to carefully monitor our performance from the start of the match, to identify key moments and turnarounds during the game, in order to rectify them quickly.
I can also evaluate the effectiveness of my goalkeepers in each position and identify any technical errors made during the match.
In conclusion, statistics are an essential tool to measure team progress at a high level. In my opinion, Steazzi stands out as one of the best applications in this area, although improvements are always possible and expected.
