Is handball an official sport?

Question

when i say handball i meant the one where there is a wall and is played with a blue ball...and where is it played since i only see people in new york play it

Answer 1

Absolutely handball is a sport. You are refering to one-wall handball. There are several "variations" to the game that all would be recognized as handball. There is also an Olympic sport called Handball but it is not the same as you discribe. I was taught how to play "by the rules" over 30 years ago in college. As some of the other answers indicate, it is more popular in some areas than others.

The game of racket ball came along in the late '70s and began to supplant handball -- I guess people preferred to lean the backhand rather than how to "scoop" a ball off the wall with the offhand.

Answer 2

handball is an official sport with referees and league play in parts of Europe and in California, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Montana, and Oklahoma

Answer 3

I don't know if it is. But I want to congratulate you because you're the first American who noticed that there is another sport that the rest of the world calls handball (and is also an Olympic sport). Of course, I'm interested in the latter, in whom my country (Romania) is a world powerhouse and whom I consider the most spectacular game there is.

Answer 4

I'm from NY and only seen it played when I was a kid. It is a great game though and it would be great to see a handball tournament on ESPN.

Answer 5

any game that has rules and is an active sport (not a board game), is a sport. hey, i played it in California and in Germany, so new york is not the only place it is done. and it is great for the
cardio system.

Answer 6

THe one with the blue ball is called raquetball

Answer 7

The sport of handball as it is played today certainly has a chequered history. The very fact that man has always been more adept at using his hands than his feet lends credibility to the claim made by famous sports historians that he started playing handball much earlier than, say, football. Ancient forms of handball The games that were precursors of handball can only said to be distantly related to it in terms of their structure and rules of play. Nonetheless, the games of "Urania" played by the Ancient Greeks (and described by Homer in the Odyssey) and "Harpaston" played by the Romans (and described by the Roman doctor Claudius Galenus in 130 to 200 A.D.) as well as in the "Fangballspiel" (or 'catch ball game') featured in the songs of the German lyrical poet Walther von der Vogelweide (1170-1230) all contained certain features that can be described as ancient forms of handball. In France, Rabelais (1494-1533) described a form of handball: "They play ball using the palm of their hand." Furthermore, in 1793 the Inuit people living in Greenland described and made illustrations of a ball game played using the hands. Meanwhile, in 1848 the Danish sports administrator Holger Nielsen gave permission for a "handball game" to be played in Ortrup secondary school and promptly laid down the corresponding rules for it. Field handball pioneers Modern handball was first played towards the end of the 19th century. For instance, one such game was played in the Danish town of Nyborg in 1897. The real impulses emanated from Denmark, Germany and Sweden. The founding fathers of field handball were probably German physical education experts who gained recognition for field handball as a separate sport at the turn of the century, based on the games of "Raffball" ('snatch ball') and "Königsbergerball" (Konrad Koch 1846-1911). In Sweden it was G. Wallström who introduced his country to a certain sport named "handball" in 1910. In 1912, a German called Hirschmann, who was the secretary-general of the Association Internationale de Football, encouraged the spread of field handball. In 1917 Max Heiser drew up the first set of rules for it. In 1919 Berlin sports teacher Karl Schelenz launched this form of handball, played on a full-size outdoor pitch, in Europe. Later on he improved the rules and he is now generally recognized as one of the founding fathers of field handball. In 1926, at a meeting held in The Hague, the Congress of the International Amateur Athletics Federation nominated a committee to draw up international rules for field handball. Precursors of the IHF In 1928, the International Amateur Handball Federation (IAHF) was set up on the occasion of the Amsterdam Olympic Games. One founder member was the subsequent IOC Chairman Avery Brundage (USA). By 1936 the IAHF already numbered 23 member countries and gained world-wide prominence for the first time in connection with the field handball competition held at the Berlin Olympic Games. In 1938 the first Field Handball World Championship was played, also in Germany. In 1946, at the initiative and invitation of Denmark and Sweden, the eight founder nations - Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland - founded the International Handball Federation (IHF). The IHF\'s official birthday is 11 July. Now in 2003 the IHF officially numbers 150 member federations representing approximately 800,000 teams and more than nearly 19 million sportsmen and women.

Answer 8

people in california and south carolina play it too. i loved that game. i dont think that it is a sport, but it should be. dont cha know!! lol jk

Answer 9

yes , Europian handball is !

Answer 10

no its not a sport