Four Wall Handball
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American handball, known as handball in the United States and sometimes referred to as wallball, is a sport in which players use their hands to hit a small, rubber ball against a wall such that their opponent(s) cannot do the same without the ball touching the ground twice or hitting
out-of-bounds In sports, out of bounds (or out-of-bounds) refers to being outside the playing boundaries of the field. The legality of going out of bounds (intentionally or not), and the ease of prevention, vary by sport. Sports that use this term include Am ...
. The three versions are four-wall, three-wall and one-wall (also known as ''Wallball'' or ''international fronton''). Each version can be played either by two players (singles), three players (cutthroat) or four players (doubles), but in official tournaments, singles and doubles are the only versions played.


History

Games in which a ball is hit or thrown have been referenced as far back as
Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
and
ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
. A game similar to handball was played by Northern and Central Americans from 1500 BC, most famously by the
Aztecs The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the ...
as the
Mesoamerican ballgame The Mesoamerican ballgame (, , ) was a sport with ritual associations played since at least 1650 BC by the pre-Columbian people of Ancient Mesoamerica. The sport had different versions in different places during the millennia, and a modernized ...
. However, no references to a rebound game using a wall survive. It is thought that these ancient games more closely resembled a form of hand tennis. Further examples of similar games include the European-originated games of ''
Basque pelota Basque pelota (Basque: '' pilota'', Spanish: '' pelota vasca'', French: '' pelote basque'') is the name for a variety of court sports played with a ball using one's hand, a racket, a wooden bat or a basket, against a wall (''frontis or fronto ...
'' (or '' Jai-alai''),
Gaelic handball Gaelic handball (known in Ireland simply as handball; ) is a sport where players hit a ball with a hand or fist against a wall in such a way as to make a shot the opposition cannot return, and that may be played with two (singles) or four player ...
, '' Valencian frontó'', ''
International fronton One-wall handball, also known as 1-wall, wallball or international fronton, is a wall game (indirect style) where the player hits a small rubber ball with their hand against a wall. The goal of the game is to score more points than the opponent. ...
'' and Eton fives. References to similar games (then referred to as either "hand-tennis" and "hand-ball") have been found as early as 1287, when the Synod of Exeter banned the game due to the damage it caused to church buildings. Other notable examples of wall ball games being banned include Robert Braybrooke, Bishop of London, who in 1385 prohibited the game. Another recorded game of striking a ball against a wall using a hand was in
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
in 1427, when King James I ordered a cellar window in his palace courtyard to be blocked up, as it was interfering with his game. In Ireland, the earliest written record of a similar game is in the 1527 town statutes of
Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...
, which forbade the playing of ball games against the walls of the town. The first depiction of an Irish form of handball does not appear until 1785. The sport of handball in Ireland was eventually standardized as
Gaelic handball Gaelic handball (known in Ireland simply as handball; ) is a sport where players hit a ball with a hand or fist against a wall in such a way as to make a shot the opposition cannot return, and that may be played with two (singles) or four player ...
. By the mid-19th century, Australians were playing a similar game, which developed into the modern sport of Australian handball."Handball" (article), The World Book Encyclopedia - Australasia 1970, Field Enterprises Educational Corporation, Chicago Illinois, (fieldwork assistance by Field Educational Enterprises of Australasia Pty. Ltd., North Sydney, Australia, p. 370


American

In ''Treacherous Beauty'', by Mark Jacob and Stephen H. Case, about the Arnold-Andre conspiracy, Major John Andre and General Sir Henry Clinton are said to have played a game called handball during the
American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
. The earliest record of the modern game in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
mentions two handball courts in
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
in 1873. The sport grew over the next few decades. By the early 1900s, four-wall handball was well established and a one-wall game was developed in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
by beach-goers who hit bald tennis balls with their hands against the sides of the wooden jetties that lined beaches. This led to a rise in one-wall handball at New York beaches and by the 1930s, thousands of indoor and outdoor one-wall courts had been built throughout the city. American handball is seen predominantly in parks, beaches, and high school yards in
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
,
Lynbrook, New York Lynbrook is a village in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 20,438 at the time of the 2020 census. History The area currently known as Lynbrook has had o ...
,
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
,
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
and other large urban areas.


National Championships

National championships in handball have been held annually in the United States since 1919. These championships were organized by the
Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It h ...
(AAU) until 1950, when their control was transferred to the newly formed United States Handball Association (USHA).


Influence on racquetball and wall paddleball

The sports of
racquetball Racquetball is a racquet sport and a team sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor or outdoor court. Joseph Sobek invented the modern sport of racquetball in 1950, adding a stringed racquet to paddleball in order to increase vel ...
, squash,
fives Fives (historically known as hand-tennis) is an English handball sport derived from ''jeu de paume'', similar to the games of handball, Basque pelota, and squash. The game is played in both singles and doubles teams, in an either three- or f ...
, four-wall and one-wall paddleball were heavily influenced by handball. Four-wall paddleball and one-wall paddleball were created when people took up wooden paddles to play on handball courts. Four-wall paddleball was invented in 1930 by Earl Riskey, a physical-education instructor at the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
, when he came up with the idea of using paddles to play on the school's handball courts.
Racquetball Racquetball is a racquet sport and a team sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor or outdoor court. Joseph Sobek invented the modern sport of racquetball in 1950, adding a stringed racquet to paddleball in order to increase vel ...
was invented in 1949 by Joe Sobek in
Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich ( ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 63,518. It is the largest town on Gold Coast (Connecticut), Connectic ...
, when he played handball using a strung racquet.


Court

American handball is played on a walled court, with either a single (front) wall, three walls, or in a fully enclosed four-wall court; four-wall courts typically have a ceiling while three-wall courts may or may not. The four-wall court is a rectangular box. The front wall is square, and the side walls are long and high. In the middle of the floor lies a short line, dividing the floor into two squares. Also along the floor is the service line, which is in front of the short line. The service zone is the area between these two lines. The back wall of the court is usually high, with an above gallery for the
referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...
, scorekeeper and spectators. Some courts have a glass back wall and glass side walls to allow for better viewing. (In three-wall court handball, the court often has a front wall and two full side walls, or the front wall is flanked by two triangular wings.)


Play

Handball may be played as singles (two players against each other), doubles (two teams of two players), or "cutthroat" (three players rotating one against two). In cutthroat handball, one server plays against two receivers, until he or she is "put out" (Other terms include "down" or "side out"). Then, the left-most receiver serves. Serves rotate in this way until one player wins by scoring either 7, 11, 15, or 21 points. Should both teams reach a score 1 below the winning score, the game can be continued by "win-by-two" or "straight". In "win-by-two", the winning score is increased by 2 points. In 'straight', the score remains the same and cannot be pushed. When a tie of 20 is reached in a 21-point match, a common decision is 'straight 25', where the winning score is set to 25 and cannot be changed. The cutthroat mode of play is also known as "triangles."


Service (4-Wall)

The ball is served by one player standing in the service zone. The server begins by dropping the ball to the floor of the service zone and striking it, after one bounce, with the hand or fist so that it hits the front wall. The ball must hit the front wall first; it may then hit at most one side wall before the first bounce; the served ball must then bounce on the floor past the short line but before reaching the back wall. If the served ball lands in front of the short line, it is called a "short", while a serve that reaches the back wall without bouncing is called "long", and a serve that hits both side walls before hitting the floor is called a "3-wall." These are all types of errors known as service faults. After one service fault, the server will have only one serve remaining. The server is "put out" by hitting two faults in a row and becomes the receiver. However, if any serve hits the ceiling, floor, or a side wall ''before'' hitting the front wall, the server is out (no second serve allowed). In doubles, the server's teammate has to stand in the service area with their back to a side wall in a service box, marked by a parallel line from the side wall, until the ball passes the short line.


Return (4-Wall)

While the server has the ball, the receiver must stand at least behind the short line, indicated by dashed lines extending from each side wall. Once the ball is served, the receiver must hit the ball either directly ("on the fly") or after the first bounce. However, a receiver choosing to take the serve on the fly must first wait for the ball to cross the short line (the dashed line, in racquetball). The ball can bounce off the floor twice. Also, any player during a return may hit the ball off the floor before it touches the front wall. The server then hits the ball on the rebound from the front wall, and play continues with the opponents alternately hitting the ball until one of them fails to make a legal return. After the serve and return, the ball may be played from anywhere and may hit any number of walls, the ceiling, or a player so long as it hits the front wall before bouncing on the floor. Players can "hinder" (block) their opponents from hitting the ball. Servers failing to make a legal return is "put out" and becomes the receiver. If the receiver fails to make the return, a point goes to the server, who continues to serve until "put out." Only the server/serving team can score points. The game goes to the player/team first to score 21 points. A match goes to the player/team to win two out of three games; the third game goes to 11 points.


Variants


Three-wall

A three-wall handball court is an outside court with a front-wall, two side-walls (these may be "full" or "half"—half being a pair of sloping side-walls), and no back-wall in the play area. It is played very much like an indoor four-wall court, only with the challenge of returning the ball without any back-wall rebound. The long line at the forty-foot mark is considered out if the ball hits it when hitting the floor.


One-wall / Wallball / International fronton

One-wall handball courts have a wall wide and high. The court floor is wide and long. When not played as part of tournament or league play, the one-wall game typically uses the bigger ball called "the big blue" (described below in the "Equipment" section). The main difference between one-wall handball and other versions is that the ball must always be played off the front wall. One-wall handball can be watched by more people than a four-wall game. The court is also cheaper to build, making this version of handball popular at gymnasiums and playgrounds. In New York City alone, an estimated 2,299 public handball courts occupy the
five boroughs 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. Humans, and many other animals, have 5 digits on their limbs. Mathematics 5 is a Fermat pri ...
.


Equipment

A typical outfit includes protective
gloves A glove is a garment covering the hand, with separate sheaths or openings for each finger including the thumb. Gloves protect and comfort hands against cold or heat, damage by friction, abrasion or chemicals, and disease; or in turn to provide a ...
,
sneakers Sneakers (American English, US) or trainers (British English, UK), also known by a #Names, wide variety of other names, are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but are also widely used for everyday casual ...
, athletic shorts and
goggles Goggles, or safety glasses, are forms of protective eyewear that usually enclose or protect the area surrounding the eye in order to prevent particulates, water or chemicals from striking the eyes. They are used in chemistry laboratories and ...
.
Eye protection Eye protection is protective gear for the eyes, and sometimes face, designed to reduce the risk of injury. Examples of risks requiring eye protection can include: impact from particles or debris, light or radiation, wind blast, heat, sea sp ...
is required in tournament handball, as the ball moves at high speeds and in close proximity to the players. It is rarely used in "street" handball, however, where a softer "big blue" ball is usually used. The black or blue rubber ball weighs and is in diameter (smaller, heavier, and more dense than a racquetball), is hit with a gloved hand (open palm, fingers, fist, back of hand) (informal games often do not include gloves).


Small ball versus big ball

A true handball is referred to as an "ace ball" or, in earlier days, "blackball". A racquetball used to play handball is called a "big ball" or "big blue". A small ball is hard, bounces higher and moves faster. Types of small balls include the Red Ace (for men) and the White Ace (for women). The Red Ace small ball is heavier than the White Ace small ball. A big ball bounces slower and is softer and hollower than a small ball. Four-wall games use the small ball almost exclusively. Three-wall and one-wall games use both balls. Both balls are used extensively in New York City, with formal tournaments for big ball – NYC Big Blue, for example. Internationally, the big ball is used most often in the One-wall game (in the European 1-Wall Tour, the big ball is used exclusively for the Tour), however at World Handball Championships organised by the World Handball Council, competitions in both big-ball and small ball are offered for the One-wall code.


Terms and techniques


Variations

* School handball is an extended version of handball played at schools across the nation. It has three modes of play: freestyle, old school, and new school. * Handball is played in
Loyola School, Jamshedpur Loyola School, Jamshedpur is a private school, private Catholic school, Catholic primary and secondary school located in the Beldih Triangle of Jamshedpur, in the state of Jharkhand, India. Founded in 1947 by Jesuit missionaries from Baltimore ...
, India. It was introduced in the school as early as 1949 by Father Keogh. * Wall ball is a generic name for a variety of similar street games played by children, often with tennis balls. * Prison handball is a simplified version of handball popular in North American prisons. *
Frisian handball Frisian handball (; ) is a traditional Friesland, Frisian sport, related to American handball and fives, that is most commonly practiced by people from the northern Dutch province of Friesland (''Fryslân''). It is believed to be one of the old ...
, is a Dutch version known as Kaatsen. * Picigin is a Croatian game played since 1908 in Split on Bachvitse (Bačvice) beach in shallow water with attractive dives to keep the ball in the air. *
Chinese handball Chinese handball is a form of American handball popular on the streets of New York City, Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. st ...
is another variation of handball (albeit developed in America) where the return must hit the ground before the wall. There are no teams in this variation.


Notable players

* Naty Alvarado * Albert Apuzzi *
Paul Brady Paul Joseph Brady (born 19 May 1947) is an Irish singer-songwriter and musician from Strabane, Northern Ireland. His work straddles folk and pop. He was interested in a wide variety of music from an early age. Initially popular for playing ...
* David Chapman * Paul Haber * Vic Hershkowitz *
Jimmy Jacobs Christopher Scoville (born February 17, 1984) is an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Jimmy Jacobs. He is best known for his 12-year career in Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a List of ROH Wor ...
*
Fred Lewis Frederick Deshaun Lewis (born December 9, 1980) is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Francisco Giants, Toronto Blue Jays, Cincinnati Reds, and New York Mets, and in Nippon ...
* Oscar Obert * Joe Platak *
Robert Ripley LeRoy Robert Ripley (February 22, 1890 – May 27, 1949) was an American cartoonist, entrepreneur, and amateur anthropologist, who is known for creating the '' Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' newspaper panel series, television show, and radio sho ...
* Simon Singer (born 1941), American world champion player * John "Rookie" Wright


See also

*
Baseball5 Baseball5 (B5 or BB5) is a simplified variation of baseball and softball which is governed at the international level alongside those sports by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). The game revolves around two teams of five player ...
, a variation of baseball in which the batters hit using their bare hands *
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 ...
*
Patball Patball is a non-contact competitive ball game played in many forms using one's hands or head to hit the ball against a wall – the objective being to get the succeeding player out. The game is popular in school playgrounds during break-t ...
* Wallball


References


External links


United States Handball Association

World Handball Council

World Players of Handball
* https://jeudepaume.fr/wwba.php WWBA Wall World Ball Association New International Federation launched - International Strategy for Handball. * https://sagaciousminds.org/our-projects/f/wallball * https://ukwallball.co.uk/category/media/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Handball, American Handball sports Wall-and-ball games Indoor sports Culture of New York City Sports rules and regulations Sports originating in the United States