Handball

“ Pollux, however—our main authority for most of these games—in one place [8] distinctly describes both football and handball. “The names,” he says, “of games with balls are—ἐπίσκυρος, φαινίνδα, ἀπόῤῥαξις, οὐρανία. The first is played by two even sides, who draw a line in the centre, which they called σκῦρος, on which they place the ball. They draw two other lines behind each side, and those who first reach the ball throw it (ῥίπτουσιν) over the opponents, whose duty it is to catch it and return it, until one side drives the other back over their goal line.” ”

“ Great importance was rightly attached to every form of sport. Wherever a British detachment was stationed, football and cricket fields and tennis courts were provided, and even the newly invented game of handball was introduced. ”

“ In selecting a ball for general games, including Handball Drills as herein given, it is desirable to have one slightly larger than for the official game and to get one with considerable resiliency; that is, a ball that will rebound from a hard floor to a height of about 3 feet when dropped from a height of about 6 feet. A good ball for this purpose will measure about 2-1/4 inches in diameter and weigh 2-1/2 ounces. They are of hollow rubber, sealed. Such balls will cost about $5 per dozen. For children's play of course cheaper balls can be had. ”

“ Swinging clubs, if carried to excess; jumping is unnecessary; work on the parallel bars, the trapeze, etc., is needless. In fact, a ball player can find far better training for quick movements, gaining keen sightedness and endurance in a handball or racket court than is possible in a gymnasium. ”

“ Burne’s Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 530.
(b) Children throw a ball in the air, repeating the rhyme, and divine the length of their lives by the number of times they can catch it again. In some places this game is played with a cowslip ball, thence called a “tissy-ball.”
(c) I have heard other rhymes added to this, to determine whether the players shall marry or not, the future husband’s calling, dress to be worn, method of going to church, &c. (A. B. [14] Gomme) . Strutt describes a handball game played during the Easter holidays for Tansy cakes (Sports, p. 94) . ”

“ Such exercise is not good for any one, but especially is it dangerous for ball players. They do not want strength, but agility and suppleness; besides, the straining of some small muscle or tendon may incapacitate one for the entire season, or even permanently. Right here is the objection to turning loose a party of ball players in a gymnasium, for spring practice. The temptation to try feats of strength is always present, and more than likely some one will be injured.
The best preliminary practice for a ball player, outside of actual practice at the game, is to be had in a hand-ball court. ”

“ The game itself is interesting, and one will work up a perspiration without noticing the exertion; it loosens the muscles, quickens the eye, hardens the hands, and teaches the body to act quickly with the mind; it affords every movement of the ball field except batting, there is little danger from accident, and the amount of exercise can be easily regulated. Two weeks in a hand-ball court will put a team in better condition to begin a season than any Southern trip, and in the end be less expensive to the club. ”

“ The pitcher's arm is a new disease, the outgrowth of base-ball; the lawn-tennis elbow is another result of a popular open-air [Pg 150] amusement, and it begins to look as though the coming American would hear with one overgrown telephonic ear, while the other will be rudimentary only. He will have an abnormal base-ball arm with a lawn-tennis elbow, a powerful foot-ball-kicking leg with the superior toe driven back into the palm of his foot. ”

“ So does a tennis ball thrown by the hand or struck by the racket; though here, indeed, I admit that a spin may be given to the ball which will somewhat detract from the simplicity of its movement. In playing baseball, a large part of the skill of the pitcher consists in throwing the ball in such a way that it shall not move in a parabola, but in some twisting curve by which he hopes to baffle his adversary. Setting aside these exceptions, and such another as the case of a body tossed straight up or271 dropped straight down, we may assert that the path of a projectile is a parabola. ”

“ The essence of the sport, as practised in China and Japan, was to kick the ball as high as possible and to keep it always in flight. There were no goals, no organised systems of assault and defence, and the pastime was essentially aristocratic. Hand-ball (te-mari) is the corresponding amusement of the gentle sex. The reader must not imagine anything in the nature of English "fives." Hand-ball, as the Japanese girl plays it, is a combination of refined dexterity and graceful movement. ”

“ A game of "rounders" between a team from the Rounders' Association of Liverpool and an American eleven with Baldwin and Earl as the battery, and with Tener, Wood, Fogarty, Brown, Hanlon, Pfeffer, Manning, Sullivan and myself in the field was played. The bases in this game instead of being bags are iron stakes about three feet high, the ball the size of a tennis ball, and the batting is done with one hand and with a bat that resembles a butter-paddle in shape and size. ”

“ At some uncertain but momentous date, an impetuous player must, after missing the ball with his hand, have kicked out petulantly with his sandalled foot, and so unconsciously made the first experiment in the art of drop-kicking, or punting. Swiftly and strongly the ball flew, farther than it could be cast by the strongest arm or smitten by the lustiest hand; and this must inevitably have been the first step to the later development of the game played with the follis, when it was kicked with the foot or struck with the hand at discretion and convenience. ”

“ The ball, which is commonly made of a blown bladder and cased with leather, is delivered in the midst of the ground, and the object of each party is to drive it through the goal of the other, which being achieved the game is won.... When the exercise becomes exceeding violent, the players kick each others’ shins without the least ceremony, and some of them are overthrown at the hazard of their limbs. ”

“ Suppose you have what I call a skimming Bowler, for mind you, all straight-arm Bowlers don't deliver alike. Some sink their body in delivery and turn their elbows in close to the side, which makes the ball more like an underhand one, and causes it to come straight from the hand so that it is plain, as you can see it all the way, and by placing the bat full at it you will rarely make a mistake. Such a ball has no deception ”

“ Thus in many other ball-games the ball is hit when it is further off from the striker’s foot—as in Golf, Racquets, Tennis, Lawn Tennis, Fives. In Cricket, except in such strokes as the pull and the cut, the ball should be hit when it is near to the striker’s foot. ”

“ The ball used is a rather small one, and is made of rattan, hollow, light, and elastic. The player keeps it dancing a little while on his foot, then occasionally on his arm or thigh, till suddenly he gives it a good blow with the hollow of the foot, and sends it flying high in the air. Another player runs to meet it, and at its first bound catches it on his foot and plays in his turn. The ball must never be touched with the hand; but the arm, shoulder, knee, or thigh are used at pleasure to rest the foot. ”

“ We never knew a better hand-ball catcher than the above experimenter, but he is now thoroughly convinced, that hand-ball catching and goal-keeping are two very different arts.
Many crack players dread the responsibilities and dangers of goal-keeping. We have seen veteran fielders shrink up like the mimosa sensitiva at the very approach of a swift ball, which a trained goal-keeper would no more mind than a pea. A man may even stop balls well enough out on the field, but put him at goal, and confidence gives way to trepidation. ”

“ Of course it is very much more difficult to make the ball revolve in this manner than in either the leg or the off break, but it is quite within the powers of the possessor of a fairly strong set of fingers. The lower half only of the ball should be held, so that the upper half protrudes above the hand and fingers, and at the moment of delivery, which must be from the level of the shoulder or lower, the fingers and hand must impart as much upward spin as possible. ”

“ I endeavor, of course, to hide my right hand as much as possible from the batter, and go through exactly the same motions as for a straight ball. I can get just as much speed with my curve as my straight, which in consequence, has proved my most successful ball.
"The drop ball is a most effective one if a pitcher can get control of it. If the ball falls even a half inch from the expected line, the batter is liable to strike over it. In pitching this ball I take a tight hold with the thumb and two forefingers, with the third finger underneath in touch with the sphere. ”

“ Great sport can be attained by adding several articles; for instance, basket ball, base ball, tennis ball, Indian club, dumb bell, etc., if the class is large. This combination keeps one in a state of excitement, and perhaps in some instances too much, but still is a very practical game for the gymnasium. A penalty may be attached to the person dropping or failing to pass accurately. It may be to withdraw from the circle after making two or more such errors. ”

“ If the striker’s ball be angled—that is, so placed in the jaws of the pocket as not to allow him to strike the previously-played ball—he may have all the balls except his own and the object ball removed from the table to allow him to try bricole from the cushion. In some clubs and public rooms an angled ball is allowed to be moved an inch or two from the corner; but with a ball so removed the player must not take a life. ”

“ Meanwhile the ball is beating round beneath their feet, their skates are clashing steel on steel. I hear the shuffling kicks, the battling strokes of clubs, the husky mutterings of passion half suppressed; I hear the panting breath and the impetuous whisperings between the teeth, as they push and wrestle and jam. A lucky hit now sends the ball a few feet from the fray. A ready hand improves the chance; but as he lifts his stick a youngster’s nose gets in the way and spoils his stroke; he slips, and falls upon the ball ”

“ A word or two on ball-play.
Fives was our old hand-tennis, and is a very ancient game.
In the fourteenth century there was a game at ball, where a line, called the cord, was traced upon the wall, below which the stroke was faulty. Some of the players were on foot; others had the two hands tied together, or played in a hollow cask. [193]
Hand-ball was before the days of Homer. He introduces the princess Corcyra, daughter of Alcinous, king of Phœacia, amusing herself, with her maidens, at hand-ball:—
“O’er the green mead the sporting virgins play ”

“ But, moreover, they have shown by this self-same fielding skill that the game of base-ball is a better school for fielding than cricket, the peculiarity of the play in the former game requiring a prompter return of the ball from the outfield, swifter and more accurate throwing, and surer catching than the ordinary practice of cricket would seem to need. ”

“ The new possessor of the ball now endeavours, before the rest can reach him, to go through the same required moves, and send the ball back in the direction from which he received it. A good deal of laughing, shouting, and wrestling accompanies this boisterous game, and sometimes heavy falls are given, in endeavouring to trip up the controller of the ball’s movements before he can effect his desired object of bearing it away and performing the requisite ceremonial. ”

“ We learn from many sources that hand-ball was from a very early period a favourite recreation with the youth of both sexes. It is a subject not unfrequently met with in the marginal drawings of mediæval manuscripts. The annexed example (cut No. 164) , from MS. Harl. No. 6563, represents apparently two ladies playing with a ball. In other instances, a lady and a gentleman are similarly occupied. Our cut No. 165 is taken from one of the carvings of the miserere seats in Gloucester cathedral. The long tails of the hoods belong to the costume of the latter part of the fourteenth century. ”

“ The original game appears to have been of the simplest description. Given two boundaries or goals, a ball of any make so long as it were strong enough to prevent its being torn in pieces, and the opposing sides were allowed to get the ball on and make it touch the adversaries’ goal in any manner whatever they pleased, whether by kicking, hurling, shoving, or running, or by stealth. ”

“ The back part of the metal ring is fastened to an iron bar which extends six inches from the pole or wall to which it is attached (Fig. 615) . The
Ball is round and hollow, composed of two layers, an inside rubber bladder and an 349outside cover of leather. The rubber is tightly inflated and the cover so laced that it cannot be caught or held by the lacing. The ball measures from thirty to thirty-two inches in circumference and weighs from eighteen to twenty ounces (Fig. 616) .
The usual
Set of Players is ten, making five on each side, though the game is occasionally played with more. ”

“ Hand ball is a game suitable for either indoor or outdoor playing, in which two or four persons may participate. The game is divided into two parts—offensive and defensive. The server, or, if there are four playing, the server and her partner, constitute the offensive; the receiver or the receiving side, the defensive. The score is made by the serving side upon an error by the receiving side; if the server makes an error she loses the serve, thus also the chance to score. The ball is batted with the cupped hand against a wall or back board so that it bounds within a given territory. ”