You probably don't know that my primary profession is a professional handball goalkeeper. However, besides handball, over the past three months I have been spending a lot of time creating AI videos and photography, and I admit it has completely drawn me in. Every day I learn, test, create, and from something that started as curiosity, a business has slowly emerged as well.

Otherwise, I play in the first Hungarian handball league, and for several years I have been thinking about what comes after my career, because realistically, sports are not something you can do your whole life. By a chain of circumstances, also because my wife and I run our own online dog store, I came into contact with artificial intelligence, and that is where everything somehow connected.
What surprised me the most, however, is that this has also improved my save percentage. From January until today, my average is 38%. Anyone who follows handball knows that this is a very good number, especially considering that 6 matches have been played in the second half of the season.

And the reason for that is not some miracle training method, but something much simpler — for the first time in my life, I truly enjoy the game. Before, there was a lot of pressure, constant proving yourself, every week you are being evaluated. If things don't go well, there are meetings, tension, uncertainty... things that are often not talked about. Not to mention irregular payments, which is (unfortunately) quite normal in Slovenia especially, when you don't get paid for 2–3 months, but the bills don't wait. And that is exactly where that nervousness and uncertainty before matches come from. Now it's different. Maybe for the first time I no longer feel like I am 100% dependent only on handball — and that gives me freedom. I really go to the match to play. To enjoy it.

When I am at training or in a match, I am 100% in handball. When I am at home, I am 100% in creating and learning. That feeling of having something of my own has given me peace of mind — and precisely because of that, I play more relaxed. I no longer go to matches to prove myself, but to play.

And that is exactly the feeling I had when I was 13 years old, when I started playing handball. I am writing this mainly because it might encourage someone — especially athletes — to start thinking about what comes after their career while they are still in it. That moment comes faster than we think. There are too many examples of a void or even depression after a career ends.

I managed to find something that makes me happy and at the same time opens up new opportunities. And that is exactly why I enjoy handball even more today.

Rok Z.