Team handball is an indoor sport played seven against seven on a court 40 metres long and 20 metres wide, in two halves of thirty minutes. Players throw, catch and bounce a ball small enough to hold in one hand, aiming to throw it into a goal 3 metres wide and 2 metres high defended by a goalkeeper.
Seven players from each team are on court at any moment: six outfield players and a goalkeeper. The outfield positions are left wing, left back, centre back, right back, right wing and pivot, also called the line player.
Pick two names from this sport’s all-time list. The larger number in each shared stat is highlighted.
| Stat | Nikola Karabatic | Mikkel Hansen |
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Team handball is an indoor sport played seven against seven on a court 40 metres long and 20 metres wide, in two halves of thirty minutes. Players throw, catch and bounce a ball small enough to hold in one hand, aiming to throw it into a goal 3 metres wide and 2 metres high defended by a goalkeeper.
Seven players from each team are on court at any moment: six outfield players and a goalkeeper. The outfield positions are left wing, left back, centre back, right back, right wing and pivot, also called the line player.
A match is two halves of thirty minutes with a ten-minute interval, so sixty minutes of playing time. The clock stops for timeouts, injuries and disciplinary sanctions, which means a typical elite match takes seventy to eighty minutes in real time. Each team has three one-minute timeouts per match, with no more than two in a single half.
A player holding the ball may take a maximum of three steps before passing, shooting or starting to dribble, and may hold the ball stationary for a maximum of three seconds. Dribbling with one hand is unlimited, but once the ball is gathered in both hands the count restarts and dribbling again is a double-dribble violation, which concedes a free throw.
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