Field handball (also known as outdoor handball or grass handball) is a soccer-like outdoor predecessor of what is now (indoor)

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

. It was played at the Olympics once, at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

in Berlin. It was dominated by Germany, winning all World Championships (except when banned in 1948), with German teams (two of them post-war) never been beaten or tied by a non-German squad. The sport is played on a

grass field A pitch or a sports ground is an outdoor playing area for various sports. The term ''pitch'' is most commonly used in British English, while the comparable term in Australian, American and Canadian English is playing field or sports field. For mo ...

(similar to an association football field, using the same goals) between long, wide. The field has two parallel lines from the goal line, which divide the field into 3 sections; each section can have up to 6 players of each team. The goal area is a semicircular line with a radius, and the penalty mark at from the goal. The goal is the same as in soccer, wide and high. The game is played with the same ball as the indoor type, by two teams of 11 players (plus 2 reserves), and in two periods of 30 minutes each. Compared to soccer and American football, a forward handball pass is slower and shorter with the round ball being thrown rather than getting kicked like the soccer ball, or being aerodynamically shaped like the gridiron football. Indoor handball used to be the winter alternative only. With quicker action and spectators being closer to the game, similar to

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, it gradually grew in popularity to replace field handball also in summer. The last World Men's Championship was played in 1966 as the teams from both German states dominated the sport.

References

External links

Handball at the OlympicsVideo 1 about field handball (in German)Video 2 about field handball (in German)IHF videoField Handball rules
Handball variants {{handball-stub

See also

References

External links