28 hands,but just a single ball

Hands on the ball

The most popular ballgame in Germany is association football ! No doubt !
But there are also other sports in favor of the German population and one of them is played with the hands ,includes
a smaller ball and is also seen as one of the  most popular sporting activities  in Europe !!

Team handball

Like probably all German readers of you already guessed ,the sport is Team handball !
This game is especially well known and famous in all over Europe but a is also known as handball in America,Australia and Ireland but in a different style more related to squash with a defined culture and rule set

This post though is entirely concerned with European style of the sport and therefore doesn’t include any
aspects of the other versions .
The origins of kind of handball-like games go back to medieval times in France where first appearances were recorded .
The modern style was developed by the end of the 19th century in northern Europe countries primarily Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden.
Team handball is played by two teams indoors on a court 40 meters long by 20 meters wide (40 m x 20 m),
with a goal in the center of each end .
Both team consists of seven players each (six outfield players and a goalkeeper) and the main goal is ,obviously , to score as many goals as possible and in the end tohave at least scored 1 goal more then the opponent to win the game .
Due to its small field and the style of one team attacking and the other being just in defense alternating it
is a game with high portion of physical contact .
The main action happens around crease ,which is a semicircle with a radius of six meters at both goals where
just the defending goalkeeper is allowed in .
However, the court players may catch and touch the ball in the air within it as long as the player starts his jump outside the zone and releases the ball before he lands.
The game is played in two periods of 30 minutes with a 10 minute half-time break and each team may call one team timeout (TTO)
per period which lasts one minute to discuss new tactics or just interrupt the flow of the rival .
Like i already mentioned Team handball is a really popular game in Germany and other European countries also
representing the best national leagues (i.e.  Handball-Bundesliga(German first division,Asobal (Spanish first division)) containing the best players from all over the world .
Iam personally not a big fan of handball due to the frequent interruptions caused by tactical fouls detaining the flow of the game but i definitely do understand other people ,who are passionate about it , enjoying the pace , dramatic and many scored goals making it a fascinating game if you are into it .

Just to show you how dramatic a handball  game can get
i want to show you this video of the world championship 2009 in Croatia between Germany and Norway.

Advertisement