Fast, furious and fascinating: what’s making me mutate from a sucker for soccer to a handball enthusiast

Being a former junior footballer, handball always struck me as a strange sport. Who on earth would think of throwing a ball with their hands instead of giving it a kick? Besides, I don’t always get the rules. Sometimes the whistle is blown on a certain move, other times the two referees remain silent in an identical situation. This will then be reprimanded either with a two-minute penalty or a seven-metre throw. I’m also royally confused by all those lines on the gymnasium floor. They may mean something in floorball, volleyball or basketball, but not in handball. And vice versa. In short, I get football, I struggle with handball. Maybe Wikipedia can help.

Unfortunately, I’m not exactly enlightened by the information provided on the knowledge base. Quite the opposite, in fact. It leaves me even more befuddled. All of this wouldn’t matter if my daughter hadn’t recently joined the under 14s of the local handball club in our village. That’s why I want to have a better understanding of the game.

Small audience, grand atmosphere

Jump cut. It’s a Saturday evening at a sports hall in Birsfelden, Basel-Country. Among others, this is where the men of the first team of Basel’s RTV play their home games. Today they’re up against rivals from BSV Bern with the same number of points. Both long-standing Swiss clubs have both seen better days in handball. Both teams are at the bottom of the top division, making a victory all the more important to still have a chance at the play-offs. It’s something my daughter and I don’t want to miss.

The players from Bern are off to a good start and go into break time with a four-goal lead. Especially the last goal, scored just seconds before the break siren sounded, reveals Basel’s main flaw. Their defence is inconsistent. «It’s so frustrating,» my daughter says over a break-time ice tea. «The RTV players’ defence isn’t good. Only number 11 has got it right.» Her eyes light up.

That night, there were about three or four hundred spectators in the gymnasium. Way too few for a game in the top of the Swiss Handball League. But you know what they say. It’s a niche sport. But the atmosphere is all the more impressive. Above all, it’s the Bernese fans who are being really vocal. Every goal, every successful move is cheered on frenetically. In fact, I’m struck by how loud handball is in general. For example, whenever the ball hits the crossbar or the goal post, it makes one hell of a noise. Next time, I’m bringing along my earplugs.

After fifteen minutes, the game continues and Basel returns from the dressing room in better shape. It seems their coach found the right words. The defence is better at the back and completed more consistently at the front. Midway through the second half, RTV is still down by one goal but appears to have that much-talked-about momentum on its side.

This game has heart and a broken arm

But then the goalkeeper of RTV Basel is injured. During a save, he slams into the post with his upper left arm and needs to be replaced after briefly being looked at by the medical staff. I’m no doctor, but that sure looked like a broken arm to me. In any case, my daughter and I wish him a speedy recovery.

This assumed arm break also means a break in the game of the Basel team. All of a sudden, neither the front nor the back are making successful moves and the Bern team advances again. The home crowd, which was awakened from its lethargic state in the second half and managed to reach the Bern crowd’s level in terms of atmosphere, gradually falls silent. In the end, the fans dressed in red and white dominate, their «Be, Ss, Vees» echoing through the gymnasium. BSV wins 36:30.

And so my daughter and I head off home full of new impressions. What’s remained? I was impressed by the atmosphere. However, this is mainly thanks to the visitor fans. Once again, it’s become painfully clear to me just how annoying the feigning of injury is that some football players exhibit on a regular basis. Handball is all in. The game is extremely physical, yet there’s no feigning anything. Even the injured goalkeeper of RTV wanted to keep on playing right after the accident. I enjoyed myself. Handball has a new fan.

And my daughter? Even after the game, she’s still annoyed by RTV’s defence: «Basel really didn’t defend well today. That’s not how you win a game.» There’s not really anything more to add to that breakdown.

Immerse yourself in a new (sporting) world

Get out of your bubble and open up to some new experiences. Is Alpine wrestling old-fashioned, baseball boring and boxing more show than sport? Every now and then, I try to get to the bottom of questions like these. You can see what I’ve previously written about below: