Handball

[ThomasR]

Will this sport EVER take off in Australia?

IIRC, at the opening ceremony they said it was the only sport in which Australia did not have an entrant.

My three younger brothers were all fascinated by it, and apparently it's a pretty big sport in Europe (although you would never tell by the crowds)

The rules don't look too difficult, and I don't think it requires much in terms of facilities & equipment (remarking basketball courts and a couple of soccer-style nets is pretty much it by the looks).

What is the state of the sport in Australia and what initiatives are being taken to spread it?

There are certain footballers for whom throw is synonymous with handball anyway.. not mentioning names (sorry Hirdy).

 

[scmods]

I reckon it's a great game, I always like watching it.

We did have a team at Sydney (as host country we didn't have to qualify) so there must be somewhere in Australia where they play it.

 

[Fire]

Hell i'd take it up if it meant a free trip to Bejing.

Perhaps we at Bigfooty should form the only league in the nation and score ourselves a free holiday in 4 years?

 

[scmods]

I seriously thought about it leading up to Sydney.

For Beijing, though, we'd have the inconvenience of having to qualify through some international tournament.

 

[Fire]

Are you certaint here is a qualification process, or is that just a very reasonable guess?

 

[scmods]

There is for every other Olympic event!

If there wasn't, I'm sure we'd have a team there on the free holiday.

 

[Portmanteau]

Sign us up. Played it a couple of times in PE at school, thought it was great fun.

 

[The Scarecrow]

Looks like fun, and no one can beat a free holiday

I'd join, I enjoy watching the handball, though it's very different from the game I used to play at SChool.

 

[campbell]

great sport,we love watching it here. My 2 sons, Kapow and Homer played it at school,they are seriously thinking of finding a team somewhere to play.

its strange the at AIS isn't into this.
My son Homer is doing Human Movement at Uni, he got an email from the AIS about a month ago asking for help.If he knew anyone who fitted a criteria.
The AIS is starting from scratch for the next Winter Olympics, a womens skeleton team.So you would think the would be interested in this sport of handball.

 

[campbell]

http://www.ihf.info/CDA/aus,494,0,,en.html

the Australians have a Handball Federation.

 

[CrackerJack]

crazy sport, thats y i luv it

 

[mattyc2422]

Sign us up. Played it a couple of times in PE at school, thought it was great fun.

As did I. Played against a couple of schools actually. They had all sorts of Zone Defences whilst we piffed the ball around and hoped it went in.

 

[Dogwatcher]

Enjoyable to watch - a combination of indoor soccer and netball.
I think however, they could just do away with the middle third of the court. It's not actually used. Maybe they could have just five metres between the shooting circles rather than whatever it is they use now.

 

[lenny&carl]

I seriously thought about it leading up to Sydney.

For Beijing, though, we'd have the inconvenience of having to qualify through some international tournament.

I honestly had exactly the same thought in '96. But for now my dreams of golimprick glory are more along the lines of being the Vanuatu Snowboard team.

 

[Mog]

Can be much wrong with this sport; I just saw some Chinese girl getting stretchered off after copping a full force knee from some Angolan. Nice to see some contact.