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    Handball

    I was channel flicking the other night and came across a handball match. On the basis of 5 minutes watching I came to the conclusion that it was the crappest team game I have ever seen. It seemed to consist of running up and down a gym, playing a bit of catch and then attempting to hurl the ball in the goal. The lack of any discernable skill was an obvious problem, and the only element of tactical play seemed to be trying to create a bit of room to sling the ball. Am I sadly mistaken? Why would anyone go and watch this?

    #2
    Handball

    Are you sure you weren't watching basketball?

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      #3
      Handball

      I love when two topics on OTF have such different views.

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        #4
        Handball

        I think the handball fan might have similar comments about football as Nil is making about their sport.

        I haven't seen a full game of handball in many years (it is unknown in SA), but there certainly were tactics and skill involved when I used to play it in school. Presumably, professional handball places an even greater emphasis on tactics and skills than my gym classes.

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          #5
          Handball

          Eh? I quite like handball. I had a lot of fun playing it in school although it seemed to just suddenly stop around age 12. Pretty much every primary school seemed to have a team but I've never heard of anyone who played it in secondary school in Ireland.

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            #6
            Handball

            Tactics have to be much more precise and carefully executed than in football because space is so limited and any breakdown in the execution normally results in a score for the other side. It's chess with a stopclock rather than a leisurely game of draughts on a Sunday afternoon.

            The middle third of the court might as well not be there, but then you could say that the two end thirds of a football pitch are sometimes used much less than the middle third.

            I like handball and basketball - for the skill, yes, that's needed and the great swings in fortune that can happen during a game (both handball and basketball benefit from having scorelines that reflect the shifting dominance).

            I prefer football, though, I must admit.

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              #7
              Handball

              Handball or TEAM Handball as my American P.E. teacher called it, is a trippy game. We lived near some handball goals in Norway and I thought it was a cool sport.

              W/ the emphasis of using your 'hands,' this seems like a sport (along w/ rugby) that Americans athletes and fans would embrace if given the chance to break through the 'classic' sports of football, basketball, and baseball.

              However, it won't happen in my lifetime.

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                #8
                Handball

                While I can't really get excited about handball, the idea that there is a "lack of any discernible skill" is ridiculous. The way the players leap towards the goal, twist, turn and then throw the ball past the keeper from as close as they can manage - before hitting the ground, is at times quite staggering. Like basketball, it is a sport for which I can conjure up almost no interest for many reasons, but lack of discernible skill is not one of them.

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                  #9
                  Handball

                  The 'amazing changes in fortunes' thing happened quite famously last year to a Finnish team that brought off their keeper at the end of the game when the scores were tied. The players fucked up the attack, the Lithuanian keeper got the ball, and gently lobbed it down the other end and into the Finnish goal.

                  Isn't it the most dangerous team sport you can play? Or the one you're most likely to be injured while playing, anyway. I still find it quite dull though (unlike basketball, I can't quite see the similarity there).

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                    #10
                    Handball

                    Insofar as anyone in the USA plays, team handball (handball is what we call a game that is like squash without raquets), it's usually athletes who used to play basketball. There are actually a lot of similarities.

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                      #11
                      Handball

                      (handball is what we call a game that is like squash without raquets)
                      RotVP

                      This sounds like what I know as "Fives". I spent many a happy school lunch hour smacking a ball about a fives court. The school I was at had two purpose built fives courts, complete with false buttresses and split floor levels between the front and back of the courts. I understood it to be modelled on some part of Eton school buildings where the game was first codified but I may be wrong. I reckon that it was a heck of a lot more fun than the other version of "handball" though.

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                        #12
                        Handball

                        The fives-like handball is also called "Irish handball" and was, I think, one of the original GAA sports. The two games have only the name in common.

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                          #13
                          Handball

                          Why is it called fives?

                          I've always wanted to try my, er um, hand at Irish Handball or Fives or whatever that is. It looks like fun because it doesn't require much gear. I'm crap at raquetball, but I still enjoy it now and again. I imagine handball would be even better, especially if I could find a place to play outside, like they do in New York.

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                            #14
                            Handball

                            Reed of the Valley People wrote:
                            Why is it called fives?
                            Because that's the number of fingers on the hand? Just a guess.

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                              #15
                              Handball

                              Handball Irish style is really difficult. We used to play it in PE at school.

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                                #16
                                Handball

                                Irish handball is effectively playing squash with your inside wrist, on a concrete court. It a peculiar form of masochism that was much encouraged by the Irish clergy as a means of keeping young men away from wanking. I think the idea was to turn your hand into an insensitive pulp.

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                                  #17
                                  Handball

                                  why would handball be a dangerous team sport Comrade? it's no more dangerous than soccer. Definitely less dangerous than rugby or Am. football.

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                                    #18
                                    Handball

                                    I guess the nature of injuries would relate to damage torn or strained ligaments, achilles tendons etc rather than those caused by others.

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                                      #19
                                      Handball

                                      I guess the nature of injuries would relate to damage torn or strained ligaments, achilles tendons etc rather than those caused by others.
                                      Not necessarily

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                                        #20
                                        Handball

                                        That story is huge news here as you might imagine.

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                                          #21
                                          Handball

                                          Yes, I can imagine, ad.

                                          Where is handball in the ranking of popularity in Romania, would you say? (i.e. alongside footy, basketball, rugby, others)

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                                            #22
                                            Handball

                                            It's pretty popular. By which I mean it's on telly a fair amount. Way way behind football, but then so is everything else. I'd actually go as far as to suggest it's the second biggest team sport in Romania - certainly bigger than basketball and rugby, and I can't think of any other team sport that would be come close. Tennis is probably bigger and gymnastics certainly is, but those aside there is a lot of handball on TV - and I think the woman's national team is one of the better ones in the world - and a number of women's club teams seem to perform well in European competitions. The mens national team is less strong (they finished something like 15th in the recent World Championship), and the fact that this guy was playing in Hungary suggests that the clubs are not so strong either.

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                                              #23
                                              Handball

                                              Ah, ok ... not as big as I thought, then. I must be getting Romania confused with other eastern European countries.

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                                                #24
                                                Handball

                                                And I am the Life wrote:
                                                Irish handball is effectively playing squash with your inside wrist, on a concrete court. It a peculiar form of masochism that was much encouraged by the Irish clergy as a means of keeping young men away from wanking. I think the idea was to turn your hand into an insensitive pulp.
                                                Surely the danger there is that it might feel like someone else's, which would defeat the object.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Handball

                                                  if you can still do it after destroying your knuckles on the concrete ground, and mangling the tendons above your wrist with the ball, then fair dues to you.

                                                  my flatmates are into proper handball, and the couple of times I played it as a kid, it was a fucking great game to play. like basketball, but without the nonsense of baskets or the oversized football.

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