In this article, I am going to show you some tactics, which allow you to challenge the defense a lot more. You will also learn, how to react on this tactics, if you play in the defense.
Before I get to the plays, you have to know two basics:
First: Handball is a team sport. Every play should be called from the middle player, so that every teammate knows what is going to happen. There are two ways to do that. The fastest and safest way, is to scream a code word or number. The other way is a sign like raising one hand. The advantage of this is, that some of the defense players might not see that and are not prepared. But it is also a little risky, because if one player of your own team doesn’t see the sign, the whole play might be over, before it even began. So always make sure, that you talk to your team.
Second, handball is a contact sport. The defense is trying to stop the play in a pretty harsh way. Every free-throw is a victory for the defense, since they take away the game flow and have time to organize again.
Enough said, lets get to the plays. The first play is a very simple one.
Fake pass: In order to irritate your opponent, you can pretend to play the ball to a teammate, but still keep it. The opponent might take a little step to the side or at least puts his weight on one side, which gives you the opportunity to pass him on the other side, or just pass the ball in the other direction. The same works with looking at one teammate, but passing another one. In this case, you have to know exactly where your teammates and the opponents are. You also have the chance to pretend a throw from the backside, which will irritate your opponent and gives you valuable milliseconds.
In case, that you have the ball and only one opponent is in front of you, you can try to pass him in a one versus one.
I will show you two different ways of one versus one. The first one is the body feint:
You do one step left to fool you opponent, one step right and pass him on your right side (his left side).
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find out the english name for the second faint. In German we call it Überzieher, which means as much as pull over. This one versus one is very close to your opponent. You pass him on your left (his right) side, by blocking his right arm with your left arm and spinning / pulling your right arm, with the ball in this hand, in a big circle from next to your leg, over your back, to the top and Plays
In this article, I am going to show you some tactics, which allow you to challenge the defense a lot more. You will also learn, how to react on this tactics, if you play in the defense.
Before I get to the plays, you have to know two basics:
First: Handball is a team sport. Every play should be called from the middle player, so that every teammate knows what is going to happen. There are two ways to do that. The fastest and safest way, is to scream a code word or number. The other way is a sign like raising one hand. The advantage of this is, that some of the defense players might not see that and are not prepared. But it is also a little risky, because if one player of your own team doesn’t see the sign, the whole play might be over, before it even began. So always make sure, that you talk to your team.
Second, handball is a contact sport. The defense is trying to stop the play in a pretty harsh way. Every free-throw is a victory for the defense, since they take away the game flow and have time to organize again.
Enough said, lets get to the plays. The first play is a very simple one.
Fake pass: In order to irritate your opponent, you can pretend to play the ball to a teammate, but still keep it. The opponent might take a little step to the side or at least puts his weight on one side, which gives you the opportunity to pass him on the other side, or just pass the ball in the other direction. The same works with looking at one teammate, but passing another one. In this case, you have to know exactly where your teammates and the opponents are. You also have the chance to pretend a throw from the backside, which will irritate your opponent and gives you valuable milliseconds.
In case, that you have the ball and only one opponent is in front of you, you can try to pass him in a one versus one.
I will show you two different ways of one versus one. The first one is the body feint:
You do one step left to fool you opponent, one step right and pass him on your right side (his left side).
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find out the English name for the second faint. In German we call it Überzieher, which means as much as pull over. This one versus one is very close to your opponent. You pass him on your left (his right) side, by blocking his right arm with your left arm and spinning / pulling your right arm, with the ball in this hand, in a big circle from next to your leg, over your back, to the top and then the front.
Two things are very important for both one versus one situations. First of all, you have to have speed, in order to pass your opponent and actually fool him. Otherwise, he can just take one step back and you run directly into his arms. So before you get the ball, take a few steps back and start running to the front, before you even have the ball. One of your teammates passes it to you and you already have the speed.
Furthermore, you have to be very careful with your steps. As I explained in a previous article, you are only allowed to make three steps without passing, throwing or dribbling. You don’t want to dribble right in front of an opponent, because while you do that, the ball leaves your hand and can just be stolen by the opponent. Since you already need three steps for the faint, you have to start with the zero-step. The zero-step allows you to catch the ball in a small jump without making a countable step. But it only counts as zero steps, if you land on both feeds at the exact same time. Otherwise this are two steps. It is pretty complicated, but actually very important.
After learning about plays, that you can do without teammates, we will take a look at plays, that include two players. For the beginning, we have the give and go pass.
You start on your position, pass the ball to the person on the next position, run behind the defense line and get the ball back. You also could do the same as introduction for a one versus one. You get the ball back with speed and start the faint.
Next we have a play, that is not used in most of the other sports. The cross-over.
It might be a little more complicated, but it is a lot more affective. Player three (any player on the half position) attacks the gap between player one and two (between half and mid defender). Since always two players defend one attack on a gap, there is a very big space between the half and the outer defender. Player four now, runs behind player three (who already is on his way to the gap) to the new gap between the half and the outer position.
Important for that play is, that the pivot player is on the other side, so he is not in the way.
The last play you are going to learn today, is the two pivot play.
This play is easier than the cross-over, but still very affective. For preparation, the normal pivot-player has to stand on the same side, who is going to be the second pivot. When your team decides to play with the left player as second pivot-player, they pass the ball all the way to the right-player. As soon as the ball flies from the half-right player to the right-player, the left-player runs behind the defense line in the direction of the ball. Since his opponent has to react (which costs him reaction time), the second pivot is in front of the defender and is able to get the ball from the right-player.
But now enough about the plays. I hope you enjoyed this article and I am sure you can see one or two of this plays in professional games. You just have to look for it.
