Handball addict gives up his day job

What would you be willing to sacrifice for a chance to compete at the 2012 Olympics?

"Everything", according to handball novice Tim Maynard, who has just given up the job he loves (sports injury rehabilitation and performance coach) and postponed a Masters course in physiotherapy two weeks before it starts.

Six months after the launch of UK Sport's 'Sporting Giants', set up to identify athletes with ready-made team ball skills, 4,800 hopefuls have been whittled down to 16, and the 23-year-old from Essex is one of them.

Seven days of training in Denmark was the latest recruitment phase and now only an eight-week session starting in October in Sheffield stands in the way of Maynard gaining a full-time scholarship with the GB Handball Olympic Development Programme.

With most of GB's top handball talent on this programme now based at two Danish handball academies, training and playing with local clubs, the commitment for Maynard is potentially a big one.

"Going full-time in Aarhus in Denmark is now a possibility," Maynard told BBC Sport. "I've already asked myself whether I want to move to another country and commit to all of this and I've already said yes.

"I would give up everything to get there. I enjoy the sport, the challenges of every day. I even love the training - despite the aching body. I am willing to do it all."

Maynard has even resorted to a spot of landscape gardening and DIY duties to help pay the bills.

It has been quite a journey for a sportsman who, up until the turn of the year, liked nothing more than getting his hands on a cricket or rugby ball.

"When I first applied I just thought it would be a good laugh, but the more I play handball the more I get addicted to it," added Maynard, who was a member of the London Irish Under-19 team.

"It's got everything you could possibly want in a sport. It's got the speed of basketball, has elements of rugby - although not enough contact - and the tactics of finding space.

"Even when I'm watching TV I end up flicking through the channels looking for it. Handball is growing in this country and has the potential to be huge."

After picking up the basics in Nottingham in May, and passing endurance and agility tests in Sheffield in June, a week in Denmark in August was surely just a pleasant get-together and a gentle introduction to Danish life?

Ahead of the session, UK Sport described it as a "variety of challenges and training regimes, ensuring they understand the true reality of what it means to eat, live and breathe as a world-class athlete".

"Massively intensive," Maynard called it, still aching and bruised from his efforts. "I have played a high level of rugby but this was like nothing I had done before.

"My shoulders were very sore. The throwing is very different from cricket - the biomechanics are more like a baseball pitcher.

"We worked on every aspect of the game - defending, attacking, passing, shooting, how to recover and other things we weren't really used to."

Having only started playing properly in May, how does Maynard rate his own potential?

"My strength is my speed. I was quicker than everybody else but I need to improve on my shooting, passing and general knowledge of the game," he added.

"It is hard to pick up the technical bits. We played some of the members already in the GB squad and it was such an eye-opener. I thought I was improving until I saw these guys!

"I have learned a lot about myself and how ruthless I can be. I am usually quite laid-back but I'm thinking more selfishly.

"You know you're up against other people and that spurs you on. It has made me more determined and focused on my goals and seeing how far I can go."

So is making the GB team realistic for a man playing a sport he had barely heard of a few months ago?

"I would say yes and that is something I've learnt," Maynard said. "At the moment I'm a bit raw but hopefully with more specialist training I can only get better.

"It's up to the coaches to decide in Sheffield if I've got the ability, right attitude and the potential to be world class.

"Along came handball and then there was my Masters. Then it was the hardest decision I've ever made giving up a job I still love.

"If it doesn't work out I will just go back and work in sport rehabilitation until my studies next year, but the opportunity to go to the Olympics is too good to miss.

"If you make a decision, you've got to back yourself. I'm now backing myself."

Source: BBC Sport