Vyakhireva’s game: “In crunch time, I sing a song in my head”

Only 168 centimeters tall, Russian right-back Anna Vyakhireva is not among the tallest players in the international circuit. But that does not make her one of the shortest either as, for example, her teammate at Brest Bretagne Handball, Juliette Faure, only measures 164 centimetres in height.

While one might think that this can be a disadvantage, as handball is a very physical sport, the left-hander does not see things that way. “This is a question you should have asked me 10 years ago, when handball was all about tall players being as physical as possible,” she smiles. “But now, things are a little bit different. The game is a lot quicker, with a lot more diversity and not all about strength, and I actually am able to find a way around on the court.”

Since she started handball when she was a kid, Anna Vyakhireva has never been among the tallest players in her category. “That is who I am, basically. I don’t think about it every day. I never felt like it was a problem to solve, more like: this is the situation, how can I make the best of it?” she continues.

One of the things the former Rostov-Don and Vipers Kristiansand player honed to perfection is her trademark one-versus-one. Fake on the inside, back to the outside — or the other way around — and a lot of defenders around the world have been tricked into this. “But to me, I don’t even think about it. This is how my dad taught me to do it, as he taught me how to play handball. I don’t think about it anymore, I guess this is just my body doing it by itself,” explains the 2023 winner of the EHF Champions League with Vipers. 

With such a trick and an impressive offensive game, does Anna Vyakhireva still need to work a lot technically to keep her game perfect? “Honestly, that might sound pretentious, but no. These days, the mental part is the one that I work on the most. I have been playing handball so much, I have a lot of experience, so if there is a skill that I want to learn, that does not take me much effort”, she says, way more humble than it may sound on paper. 

This is not a surprise, then, that she has been able to adapt quite quickly to her new French club, Brest Bretagne Handball, after moving from Vipers last summer. Even though one of the words she will use to describe herself on the court is “improvising”, she also emphasizes the fact that she is actually quite easy to play with. “I guess I have to adapt to my teammates and the other way around. There are things I can not do on the court, but I am able to create a lot of situations for my partners around me. As soon as we understand each other, then the game is on,” she says.

Despite often smiling on the court, the 2016 Olympic gold medallist is insistent that the mental part of her game is perhaps the most important for her. While she took a couple of months off after the 2021 Olympics, she insists on the fact that handball should remain “fun”. “When I am confident in my game, then I have fun, but it can become quite tough sometimes, when I take handball too seriously,” she stresses, before adding: “To me, handball is like an art. I try to think about a lot of things during a game, like how to do this or that, but the more I think, the more I tend to lose focus. So it’s actually better when you don’t think that much.”

Speaking of art, music is actually a great help for her when crunch time comes around. While some players tend to focus a lot more or to completely unplug their brains, the left-handed magician has another way to cope with the pressure. “I sing a song in my head, sometimes even out loud,” she says unexpectedly. “It can be any song, like one that I have been listening to lately. You know that image with the money hitting the drum in the comics? That’s what it looks like in my brain during the tough moments in handball!”

And while one might think that Anna Vyakhireva is overplaying it a little or, as she puts it, “that it might sound really dumb,” for her it is just a way to take the stress out of the situation. “I remember once I had this Bruno Mars song in my head that we had been listening to with the girls. And in a way, that makes complete sense when you think of it, because you have something to focus on, instead of just thinking that you can’t miss the action.”

And with the brain busy pounding the rhythm to a song, Anna Vyakhireva’s body is able to work almost all by itself. “It’s all about instincts and reflexes. It’s something unconscious, like my body knows exactly what to do in a situation. I don’t control my body too much, to be honest, it’s not really me playing handball. The more free my mind is, the better my body will react,” explains the best scorer of the last EHF Champions League season, with over 100 goals.

“Of course I’m going to think about stuff I have to do next during games, but that doesn’t help much, the game changes so fast and if you go into the action with a prepared move, it can’t always work out. The players around you are also smart and adapt to the game, so that’s why you just need to follow the situation and react properly. Personally, my mind has to be free from too much thinking.”

Photos © Lau Nielsen (main), Dejan Starcevic/Buducnost & kolektiff (in-text)