Why team handball is lame: Nothing distinctive
A decade ago this reporter traveled to Atlanta for the centennial Olympic games. A small budget restricted him to sports with the cheap tickets. Among the cheap tickets was Team Handball, so in he went. Team Handball can be described as football (soccer) on a basketball court where handballs are legal. Nothing about the game strikes the observer as difficult or challenging. It has nothing to make it distinctive.
Basketball has a horizontal goal plane , different from every other goal sport. Also, it requires the dribble. Field Hockey requires players to control the ball with a stick. Ice Hockey does also, plus it makes competitors skate on ice. Polo requires players to control the ball with a stick while mounted. Water Polo allows the handling of the ball, but makes players swim. Every other successful sport has some element which makes it difficult to master and distinctive from other sports. Team Handball allows players to handle the ball on a hard surface and no dribbling, does not allow the defense to tackle, and has a decent sized ground-based, vertical-planed goal. Nothing about the sport is hard!
Despite the lameness and lack of originality of this sport, the International Olympic Committee continues to contest this sport at its quadrennial tournaments. Every goal sport needs a distinctive element to set it apart and make it challenging to the players. (Two more examples: Lacrosse has the netted stick; Ultimate replaces the ball with a flying disk)
Team Handball lacks this but somehow retains enough popularity to remain Olympic.
posted by Kirk @ 9:47 PM
8 Comments:
Well, at least you’ve attended a match. I’ll give you credit for that. But quite frankly, the reaction that most people have after seeing Handball played for the first time is quite the opposite. Here are what a few more established reporters have had to say about the sport.
http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/olympics/handball/articles/2004/08/25/give_handball_a_sporting_chance/
http://www.usateamhandballwomen.com/News/Aug25_04.html
Distinctiveness is somewhat reflective of the biases that you’ve grown accustomed to. Handball has elements that are similar with a lot of different sports. The combination of these elements makes for a distinctive sport with distinct skills that are not necessarily easy to master. Quite simply, you have no clue as to what you are talking about.
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Well, obviously you missed something. 1. There is dribbling in handball. But because of the physical contact, players use it sparingly. And because there is a rule about passive play (you MUST atack the goal), you'll never see players just dribbling at the top of the circle.
2. Just like basketball there are differnt styles of play. The Russians use very large backcourts with lots of firepower to take shots over the defense, while the Koreans use speed to get you out of position to drive in and score.
3. Did you see which teams played really hellacious defense (like France) and long offenses and which teams shot the ball as soon as they got in the building ala Loyola Marymount (the Koreans and the Brazilians).
I think you need to watch the game more. And if you don't think it's athletic. I would players like Croatia's Ivo Balic (a backcourt) or Germany's Christian Schwartzer (a circle). USA's Gary Hines (a wing/backcourt) or even Germany's Henning Fritz (whose a goalie!) and tell me these guys ar not athletic enough.
If you're still not convinced, try coming to our practice and I'll let you play against some of our women's team.
Kirk,
you have obviuosly struck a sensitive chord with those who know and play the sport. It's OK if you feel that way. You are entitled to your opinion. However, your somewhat biased desription of the sport can easily be applied to ANY of the other sports such as basketball and so on.
Truth be told, handball is a very exciting sport and one of the, if not THE, most complex sport in the world. The US ARMY addopted it as their daily excersise regimen while stationed overseas in the mid 1900s.
In addition, this sport is ranked second in the world in injuries. Behind soccer. Yep, American football even rugby are not even close. What does this mean? It means, first and foremost, that WORLDWIDE (that would be everything else OUTSIDE the old US of A), team handball is the second most popular sport. It also means that there are a lot of players who play this game, moreso than basketball. Exhale...
Dirk Nowitzki, Akeem Olajuwon are two of the most popular US athletes to have sprung their careers out of team handball. Just a little trivia for you.
I have just watched some Olympic handball.
It was sort of like basketball but with a HUGE goal box to score in.
It was sort of like soccer but with being able to just pick up the ball and just throw it.
It struck me as a hybrid of a few sports, without the skill.
Too hard to make a basket? Have a goal. Too hard to kick a ball or hit it with something? Just pick it up and throw it.
I watched two teams score, run across the court, score. Score, etc.
There were goalies of course, but who cares. What are they going to do against a THROWN ball? That's going to be just a little more accurate than kicking, way more potential for faking out, WAY easier to score over a whole line of blockers. You can just spike into the HUGE goal right over their heads.
Only the continental Euros could come up with a game like this. LAME!
Curling may not be physically demanding but at least it seems to take some skill.
I play football (soccer) and i have to say this is the most lame ass sport i have encountered. How could ANYONE miss when given a one on one opportunity... I little goalie and a basketball net the size of my garage door! More injuries than anything other than soccer? My ass! This sport is for people that didnt make the soccer rugby or hockey teams
Apart from the fitness aspect which looks awesome... The skill level is miles away from football.
Once upon a time there was this kid that tried to play soccer but he couldn't keep from using his hands. So next he tried to play basketball but had a hard time keeping the dribble. Then be tried dodge ball but the target wasn't big enough. So he decided to invent his own game and now it's an olympic sport. The End.
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