FOR THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW: Team Handball is a sport which is kind of like soccer using your hands instead of your feet.  It is fast, physical and fun, but few Americans have ever heard of it.  We Americans  think it has something to do with hitting a ball against a wall with our hand!  Not so!  Team handball is the second most popular sport in Europe (behind soccer).

The modern game actually grew out of three sports that were developed in three different European countries. 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 1932. That form of handball, designed to be played outdoors by teams of eleven players, was a full-fledged Olympic sport at the 1936 Munich Games. The United States finished sixth and last in the competition.

When handball was introduced to the United States, about 1930, the name was already being used for the court game that was very popular in YMCAs across the country,.so the new import was called "field handball," eventually shortened to "fieldball," and it was at first played primarily by girls and women. The seven-player version, however, became known as team handball in the United States.

Although it has never achieved great popularity, it was adopted by the U. S. Army as a camp sport in many areas of the country. Many Boys' and Girls' Clubs also took it up, followed by Explorer Scouts and even some high schools and colleges. The U. S. Team Handball Federation was founded in 1959 to standardize rules and sanction competition.

The object is to score by throwing or hitting an inflated ball into a goal. A player can move the ball by dribbling it, as in basketball; by hitting it with any part of the body above the knee; or by throwing it. Only the goalkeeper is allowed to kick the ball. (This, of course, is the reverse of soccer, where all other players have to kick the ball and only the goalkeeper is allowed to handle and throw it.)  It's against the rules to carry the ball for more than three steps or to hold it for more than three seconds.

Shots on goal must be taken from outside the goal circle, an area in which only the goaltender is allowed. Minor violations of the rules allow a team a free throw, which is an unhindered pass to a teammate, usually from a spot near where the foul was committed. Penalty throws at the goal, awarded for more serious infractions, are taken from a mark just outside the goal circle.   For men's teams, either 11-player or 7-player, a game is made up of two 30-minute halves. Women and youths play 25-minute halves.

The eleven-player game is played outdoors, on a field 90-100 meters (295-360 feet) long and 55-65 meters (180-213 feet) wide, with a goal 2.44 meters (8 feet) high and 7.32 meters (24 feet) wide. In the seven-player game, which can take place either indoors or outdoors, the playing area is 38-45 meters (125-148 feet) long and 18-22 meters (59-72 feet) wide. The goal is 2 meters high by 3 meters wide (about 6 feet by 9 feet).

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