By: Adam Garcia

 History  Rules  Court layout  Modifications  Comments/recommendations on the game, rules and modifications

 Team handball is the second most popular sport in Europe (behind soccer), but is little known in North America. Its very name is confusing even to an American who knows quite a bit about sports.  The modern game actually grew out of three sports that were developed, independently, in three different European countries: The Czech hazena, the Danish handbold, and the German Torball.  All three were based on soccer, but essentially replaced the foot with the hand, so that the ball could be advanced by batting or throwing, rather than by kicking.  Hazena was being played by Slovak peoples as early as 1892  By 1925, the game had become fairly popular in other European countries. The International Amateur Handball Federation (IAHF) was established in 1928; handball was a demonstration sport at the Olympics that year and again in  Olympic sport at the 1936 Berlin Games  Team Handball wasn’t played again in the Olympics until 1972  Competition for women's teams in the Olympics began in 1976

 Two teams, composed of six players and one goalie each  Players manually dribble, pass and shoot a ball into what looks like a Soccer Goal.  Men's and women's handballs are centimeters and centimeters in circumference, respectively; easily gripped in one hand, it is built comparably to a soccer ball.  Half circles on both ends of the court mark the "goal area," a zone that extends six meters in front of the 6'7" tall and 10' wide goal. The 12 court players are not allowed to literally step foot in this area, which results in NBA-style leaps over the line to shoot while in the air. Successful scoring attempts result in a single point.  Defensive play is fierce, however, and allows aggressive person-to-person full body contact to prevent the offense from shooting.  A regulation game is played in two 30-minute halves with one team timeout per half. The clock stops only for team timeouts, injuries are at the referee's discretion.

 Handball is played on a court 40 meters long by 20 meters wide (40 m x 20 m), with a goal in the center of each end. The goals are surrounded by a near-semicircular area, called the zone or the crease, defined by a line six meters from the goal. A dashed near-semicircular line nine meters from the goal marks the free-throw line. Each line on the court is part of the area it encompasses. This implies that the middle line belongs to both halves at the same time.

 Play the game using the dimensions of a basketball court  Play two 15 minute halves instead of 30 minute  Seven players without a goalie  No physical contact allowed. Observe basketball style fouls  Females get double the points when they score