'Regular guy' tests his handball chops
Joe Evans January 05, 2009
My name is Joe Evans. I'm your regular guy. I played basketball and football in high school and I graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Public Relations. I interned with the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL and spent the past three seasons locally with the Utah Blaze of the Arena Football League. I recently started writing special articles for usateamhandball.org.
After writing a few feature articles on Matt Sabatino and the Fitzgerald brothers from the 1996 Olympic team, I figured it would be fun to actually play handball for the first time to see what it was all about, and share my thoughts about the sport on a more personal level.
That led me to what appeared to be just another routine Tuesday evening headed to the Taylorsville Recreation Center, where the Salt Lake Warriors pratice.
I arrived and discovered young men of various ages doing warm ups with two indoor soccer nets set up on each end of the basketball courts. I figured I found the right place but I wasn't sure.
I went over an introduced myself to the man in charge, Amir, an American originally from former Yugoslavia. He told me to go and warm up on the sidelines as he was starting to get the drills going.
I went and streched (something I normally don't do when I play basketball, a bad habit, I admit) and then a nice gentleman named Fong, originally from Vietnam, introduced himself and started teaching me the basic techniques.
In team handball, you always throw with the ball high behind your head and your arm cocked as if you are throwing a javelin. Chest passes are rare, unlike in basketball, and you can't throw lazy, soft passes. Everything is crisp and tight, like a well-oiled soccer team from Brazil.
Another new rule is you can take three steps once you catch a pass or pick up your dribble, so 15 years of basketball training is out the window because it felt like I was constantly traveling.
The ball is slightly bigger than a mini-basketball, but heavy enough that you can get some velocity on your throws. You need to throw the ball hard and accurately if you're going to get it past the goalkeeper in the small indoor goal.
After warming up with Fong for just 20 minutes of throwing, catching and jumping, I had not realized how out of shape I was! During a brief water break, I sprinted to the bathroom where I felt I was going to throw up! I hadn't even played in a scrimmage yet!
Needless to say, the brief water break was personally extended so I could calm down after 10 minutes of heavy breathing where it felt like my chest would explode. Eventually, the nausea and chest pain wore off and I was able to return to the drills. It reminded me a lot of my first basketball practice of the season back in high school, but only more intense and more out of shape.
We then started to play the game. It felt a little chaotic at first because I wasn't aware of the rules. There is a 6-meter line around the goal where neither the defense nor offense can enter into this "neutral zone."
Playing defense was pretty basic. It's like basketball where you have to get between your man and the goal, but you are allowed to be a lot more physical than basketball, so it was closer to rugby in a sense.
Playing offense felt a lot like watching an Air Force or Princeton-style basketball team. We passed the ball around a three-point line (the 6-meter line) and take shots on goal once you feel you get an opening between the defense and the goalie.
It's very fast paced, like soccer, where you are constantly running without breaks or timeouts.
I didn't score any goals, but I did clank if off the goal posts twice. One poor individual took a ball right in the face from a much bigger, stronger player. Wrong place, wrong time. Just part of the game.
Afterwards I ran into an old colleague at BYU who still coaches the goalkeepers on the men's soccer team. He was also there for the first time playing goalie. I also met a BYU student who just started up the handball club on Provo campus to help find athletes for the U.S. National tryouts coming up in a few months.
The national team is looking for exciting new athletes, most likely not me. My guess is the ideal potential Olympic player would be someone who played running back or even a pitcher in college who can throw the ball quickly and accurately. You'll also need speed guys on the wings to be offensive specialists, and a quarterback/point guard-type player who can score and set up his or her teammates. A team also needs a few bigger guys to battle in the trenches and an experienced indoor soccer goalie.
Would I play handball again? Absolutely! It was the best workout I have had in a very long time (since playing organized high school team sports). I discovered muscles that have atrophied over the years at my cubicle. My arms, shoulders, back and legs ache. I just sneezed at my desk and it hurt my entire torso.
I was so pumped about my experience I went home and watched some highlights on NBC's website and started spreading the word to my friends. Handball is a great sport and I believe one of the best ways to spread the word is to play and experience it for yourself. Whether you play with a group of people in a school gym class, a community or church activity, or one of the clinics currently going around the country, all you need is a ball, two indoor soccer goals and a basketball court and seven guys on each team.
So go ahead, give it a shot. I did and I loved it!
After writing a few feature articles on Matt Sabatino and the Fitzgerald brothers from the 1996 Olympic team, I figured it would be fun to actually play handball for the first time to see what it was all about, and share my thoughts about the sport on a more personal level.
That led me to what appeared to be just another routine Tuesday evening headed to the Taylorsville Recreation Center, where the Salt Lake Warriors pratice.
I arrived and discovered young men of various ages doing warm ups with two indoor soccer nets set up on each end of the basketball courts. I figured I found the right place but I wasn't sure.
I went over an introduced myself to the man in charge, Amir, an American originally from former Yugoslavia. He told me to go and warm up on the sidelines as he was starting to get the drills going.
I went and streched (something I normally don't do when I play basketball, a bad habit, I admit) and then a nice gentleman named Fong, originally from Vietnam, introduced himself and started teaching me the basic techniques.
In team handball, you always throw with the ball high behind your head and your arm cocked as if you are throwing a javelin. Chest passes are rare, unlike in basketball, and you can't throw lazy, soft passes. Everything is crisp and tight, like a well-oiled soccer team from Brazil.
Another new rule is you can take three steps once you catch a pass or pick up your dribble, so 15 years of basketball training is out the window because it felt like I was constantly traveling.
The ball is slightly bigger than a mini-basketball, but heavy enough that you can get some velocity on your throws. You need to throw the ball hard and accurately if you're going to get it past the goalkeeper in the small indoor goal.
After warming up with Fong for just 20 minutes of throwing, catching and jumping, I had not realized how out of shape I was! During a brief water break, I sprinted to the bathroom where I felt I was going to throw up! I hadn't even played in a scrimmage yet!
Needless to say, the brief water break was personally extended so I could calm down after 10 minutes of heavy breathing where it felt like my chest would explode. Eventually, the nausea and chest pain wore off and I was able to return to the drills. It reminded me a lot of my first basketball practice of the season back in high school, but only more intense and more out of shape.
We then started to play the game. It felt a little chaotic at first because I wasn't aware of the rules. There is a 6-meter line around the goal where neither the defense nor offense can enter into this "neutral zone."
Playing defense was pretty basic. It's like basketball where you have to get between your man and the goal, but you are allowed to be a lot more physical than basketball, so it was closer to rugby in a sense.
Playing offense felt a lot like watching an Air Force or Princeton-style basketball team. We passed the ball around a three-point line (the 6-meter line) and take shots on goal once you feel you get an opening between the defense and the goalie.
It's very fast paced, like soccer, where you are constantly running without breaks or timeouts.
I didn't score any goals, but I did clank if off the goal posts twice. One poor individual took a ball right in the face from a much bigger, stronger player. Wrong place, wrong time. Just part of the game.
Afterwards I ran into an old colleague at BYU who still coaches the goalkeepers on the men's soccer team. He was also there for the first time playing goalie. I also met a BYU student who just started up the handball club on Provo campus to help find athletes for the U.S. National tryouts coming up in a few months.
The national team is looking for exciting new athletes, most likely not me. My guess is the ideal potential Olympic player would be someone who played running back or even a pitcher in college who can throw the ball quickly and accurately. You'll also need speed guys on the wings to be offensive specialists, and a quarterback/point guard-type player who can score and set up his or her teammates. A team also needs a few bigger guys to battle in the trenches and an experienced indoor soccer goalie.
Would I play handball again? Absolutely! It was the best workout I have had in a very long time (since playing organized high school team sports). I discovered muscles that have atrophied over the years at my cubicle. My arms, shoulders, back and legs ache. I just sneezed at my desk and it hurt my entire torso.
I was so pumped about my experience I went home and watched some highlights on NBC's website and started spreading the word to my friends. Handball is a great sport and I believe one of the best ways to spread the word is to play and experience it for yourself. Whether you play with a group of people in a school gym class, a community or church activity, or one of the clinics currently going around the country, all you need is a ball, two indoor soccer goals and a basketball court and seven guys on each team.
So go ahead, give it a shot. I did and I loved it!
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