When was handball made

#|

There are records of handball-style games going back to antiquity. Modern handball was first played towards the end of the 19th century. The real impulses emanated from Denmark, Germany and Sweden. In Sweden it was G. Indoor handball was invented in the s in Denmark. This is a 7-a-side game, played on a court slightly larger than a basketball court with smaller goals than its outdoor counterpart. Again, this sport flourished in the Germanic nations where it was hoped that it would appeal to a wider audience.

With rules from other sports like basketball being introduced, this made the game simpler to play and more exciting to watch. The fact that it became a winter sport added to the spectator appeal being away from the cold, seated in comfort, with more action and excitement and higher scores than soccer. Strict historical research, rather than myth and legend, turns up few clues as to the origins of the game.

The elements involved in the play ball, wall, players and rules must have evolved in many different countries at different times. The chroniclers of ancient times would have in the main been concerned with the lives of rulers and kings; leisure activities of the people would be recorded only in so far as they touched on the lives of the nobility. The first record of ball games with the hand is from B.

Their priests of the temple of Osiris in Thebes were depicted on the tombs striking the ball with the hand. Such iconographic evidence is also found in America where ball games formed an integral part of Pre-Hispanic culture. Over ball court sites have been identified from Arizona to Nicaragua. Many having sculptures, bas-reliefs and painted vessels. Showing people engaged in hand-played balls. The oldest are dated as far back as B.

So far there is no mention in any of the sources of a rebound game against a wall, the game played was one of hand-tennis and this is still played in parts of Spain, France, Holland and Sweden. The original ball used was made of tightly rolled cloth pieces stitched together and this would have given little bounce against a wall. The game of Jeux de Paume with the addition of larger and longer gloves finally became the game of tennis. Around the year A. In France Jeux de Paume palm play became popular with both the nobility in their enclosed courts and the ordinary people who played longe-paume on common land.

The medieval annul of St. Foix written around A. The game was first played with the bare hand, then with the glove, lined or unlined; afterwards they bound cord or rattin around the hand to make the ball rebound more forcibly.

About this time, play with the hand against a wall is first mentioned in Scotland in , when King James I paid a heavy price for his addiction to the game. He had given orders to his men to block up a cellar window that was interfering with his handball. Exactly years later, the Town Statues of Galway of forbade the playing of ball games against the walls of the town and this is the earliest mention of rebound play in Ireland.

Galway on the west coast of Ireland had many trading links with Spain especially the Basque regions where the game of Pelotamano was played and is still played extensively — it is still very much a matter of controversy as to who introduced wall handball to the other — the jury is still out. From onward, mention of handball became more numerous, in particular by church authorities who were becoming concerned with the custom of playing ball against the church walls. The churches in many European countries, fearful for their own stained glass windows, had notices forbidding play in the precincts of their establishments.

Videos Beyond Hollywood Hungerlust Pioneers of love. Jade Cuttle. An introduction to handball. The sport dates back to the Roman era. Handball was popular in Medieval France. Handball in modern times. Proof that the French excel at this sport.

France has some of the best players in history. Give us feedback. Read Next View. The first evidence of handball goes back to long before, however. The women of the Roman Empire played a game similar to handball, which they called expulsim ludere. There were other handball-like games played in Medieval France. The first games of Olympic handball were played in in Berlin. This was just 8 years after the International Amateur Handball Federation was formed.

In , the International Handball Federation was formed. No one man or woman invented handball or made it an official sport. However, the International Amateur Handball Federation can be credited for legitimizing the sport in In , handball was established as a sport. In , men's field handball was added to the Olympics. During the following decades, handball was played in Scandanavian countries.