Seven weeks after the end of the last Bundesliga campaign, the Borussia Dortmund's women's handball team are set to commence their preparations for the new season. Borussia coach André Fuhr has drawn up an extensive pre-season program for the coming weeks, starting on Monday with the first strength tests.

Summer break? What summer break? While the Borussia Dortmund women's handball team have had the chance to wind down after a stressful season that ended on 21 May, head coach André Fuhr has been on the road for three weeks now in his role as coach of the Germany women's U20 team. And he has been having a successful time of it. The German youngsters battled to their way to a highly respectable seventh place at the World Cup in Slovenia, in which 32 teams took part. "We did the best we could and left renowned nations like Romania and France trailing in our wake," said Fuhr in praise of the DHB's talented youngsters. 

With the World Cup and preparatory workshops on his agenda, the Dortmund coach will have an extremely short summer break. This Monday, only a few hours after the last World Cup fixture, he jetted off to Fuerteventura for a week's holiday. But Fuhr had no complaints about the workload. "That was unbelievably fun, it was positive stress," said the coach, who will now return to his duties in Dortmund.

On Monday 11 July, the German vice-champions will start their pre-season preparations with the first strength tests. That is when captain Alina Grijseels & Co. will meet the 12 newcomers for the first time. Examinations and performance diagnostics will follow over the next two days before the first big launch event – including the obligatory kitting out session – takes place at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK on Thursday 14 July. 

The Bundesliga campaign gets under way on 10 September. As vice-champions, BVB will be internationally involved in the European League and so will have more preparation time than usual. Unlike the Champions League, which starts at the beginning of September, the European League gets under way at the turn of the year. "From a training perspective it's not disadvantageous for us, quite the opposite. We have to integrate 12 new signings; that takes time, which we now have," said André Fuhr.

Immediately after the opening event, the team and coaches will travel to Winterberg in the Sauerland region for two days of team building (15/16 July), and on their return they will spend a day stand-up paddling at the Hengsteysee lake south of Dortmund. The first two weeks of training are generally very different from normal training, with a triathlon, beach handball and yoga on the agenda too.

The first pre-season friendly comes away to second-division team TuS Lintfort on 23 July. Then, on 6 and 7 August, the Dortmund team will face BSV Sachsen Zwickau, Werder Bremen and FSV Mainz at a tournament in Kirchhof. As they did last year, the team will head to Denmark for a training camp between 13 and 18 August, where they are scheduled to play against Viborg and Sonderjyske.