Field handball



Field handball (also known as outdoor handball or grass handball) was a soccer-like outdoor form of what is now (indoor) handball. It was played at the Olympics once, at the 1936 Summer Olympics 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 (similar to an association football field, using the same goals) between 90 and 110 m long, 55 to 65 m wide. The field has two parallel lines 35 m from the goal line, which divides 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 13 m radius, and the penalty mark at 14 m from the goal. The goal is the same as in soccer, 7.32 m wide and 2.44 m 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 it, similar to basketball, it gradually grew in popularity to replace field handball also in summer. The last IHF World Men's Outdoor Handball Championship was played in 1966 as the teams from both German states dominated the sport.