Save for one glorious run to a South Kildare U16 football title, Steven O’Rourke hasn’t been very good at sports. Last to be picked will, therefore, see him try out a new sport every month in 2013 to see what he missed out on.
THOUGH TECHNICALLY NOT a ‘new’ sport, I have only played Olympic handball (or just handball from here on in) once before in my life.
It’s safe to say it didn’t end well.
The year was 1998, I was in Transition Year in school. Our PE teacher decided that, instead of the usual mix of football, soccer and hurling, we’d try some new sports.
We tried indoor hockey once but the urge to flick someone’s shins rather than the ball proved too distracting.
Lawn bowls was fun too, but as none of us were in our sixties it was hard to hold our attention.
Eventually, we got around to trying handball. Some of us had played the Gaelic version of it before, but none of us had tried this incarnation. It started well, we split into four teams and had a round-robin tournament.
I was the goalkeeper for my team; my sole qualification being that my father had played in goals for one of the local GAA teams.
I ended up being goalkeeper a lot.
Anyway, our team did well, winning the league stages and getting through to the final. We were winning that game too, 11-4, when I decided to try pull off a double save with my cat-like reflexes.
Sadly, that cat proved to be Garfield and I ended up in a heap on the floor, clutching my wrist in pain.
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One trip to A & E later and, for once, nothing was broken but it looked as if my handball career was over.
Elite company
Fast forward to a February night in Tallaght and here I am training with some of the Lughnasa Handball Club.
I’m in elite company. There are no fewer than four current or former Irish senior and underage players (Oisin Branagan, Ciaran Branagan, Patrick McAuley and Jamie Warburton) here to show me how to play the game, as well as former Ireland captain Paul Gray.
Lughnasa Handball Club
Image: Michael Moloney
We start the training session with the lads explaining the basics of handball. Each team consists of seven players; six outfielders and a goalkeeper. The game lasts 60 minutes, broken into two 30 minute halves.
The object of the game is simple, whoever scores the most goals wins. Usually, both teams score at lest 20 goals and I’m told it’s not unusual for 50+ goals in a game.
Our first exercise, part of the warm-up, is dribbling and passing. When you catch the ball, roughly half the size of a football, you can take three steps before passing or bouncing the ball. Once bounced, you can take another three steps and so on.
Having played some basketball before, this is relatively easy, though it is very tempting to look at the ball when you’re dribbling, rather than down the court. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the ball is significantly smaller than a basketball and doesn’t bounce as well.
Secondly, the ball is covered in a substance called “stickum” which, as the name suggests, makes it extra sticky and while that does make it easier to catch, it also limits the bounciness.
Dodgy knee
We then move on to crossing, which is not so much passing as using the laws of physics to leave the ball in the air behind you at a height and angle that directly correlates with the trajectory of your team-mate. It’s actually a lot easier than I’ve just made it sound and even I, a novice, can see the benefit of such a move in a game for shifting a defence out of position.
Time for some brutal honesty at this stage. As you can see from the pictures, I’m not the fittest journalist you’ll ever meet and everything is being done at full pace. I’m on my fourth wind but I am trying my best to keep up.
It really doesn’t help I’m nursing a dodgy knee, an injury I compound by tripping over myself in the previous drill:
My knee, it burns.
Image: Steven O’Rourke
However, because I’m really enjoying myself, I carry on and we begin work on the basics of defence.
Here I genuinely learn something new about the sport. Unlike basketball, where a player can foul out after a certain number of fouls, in handball this doesn’t happen.
A player can commit an unlimited number of faults but, with the proper technique, you won’t even get called for a fault, despite the disruption you can cause an offensive player.
If I just stand here, they might not try score past me.
Image: Graham Smyth
After a quick break to take some much needed fluids on board we get to the bit I was looking forward to most, shooting. Once more, this turns out to be more difficult than it looks.
For a start, you have to go against your natural inclination and jump off your bad leg which helps to leverage your throwing arm. Aiming takes a little bit of getting used to as well but, eventually, I score my first ever handball goal.
While I’d love to claim it was a top corner screamer that had those watching getting in touch with their agents to sign me up, it was a fluke, plain and simple. However, there’s no such thing as a bad goal is there?
Definite return
Sadly, my time in the Tallaght Sports Complex comes to an end all too soon. My knee has taken all it can and I have to call it a day with about 1/3 of the training session left.
However, I’ve really enjoyed my time trying handball. From this little taster, it’s clearly a way to build both fitness and hand/eye co-ordination. It’s also a lot of fun.
It manages to combines elements of football, rugby, basketball and even hockey and American football. If you’ve got a handball club near you (and you can find a list here) and are looking for a new sport to try, I cannot recommend it enough.
Last to be picked: In which our hero tries his hand at... Olympic handball
Save for one glorious run to a South Kildare U16 football title, Steven O’Rourke hasn’t been very good at sports. Last to be picked will, therefore, see him try out a new sport every month in 2013 to see what he missed out on.
THOUGH TECHNICALLY NOT a ‘new’ sport, I have only played Olympic handball (or just handball from here on in) once before in my life.
It’s safe to say it didn’t end well.
The year was 1998, I was in Transition Year in school. Our PE teacher decided that, instead of the usual mix of football, soccer and hurling, we’d try some new sports.
We tried indoor hockey once but the urge to flick someone’s shins rather than the ball proved too distracting.
Lawn bowls was fun too, but as none of us were in our sixties it was hard to hold our attention.
Eventually, we got around to trying handball. Some of us had played the Gaelic version of it before, but none of us had tried this incarnation. It started well, we split into four teams and had a round-robin tournament.
I was the goalkeeper for my team; my sole qualification being that my father had played in goals for one of the local GAA teams.
I ended up being goalkeeper a lot.
Anyway, our team did well, winning the league stages and getting through to the final. We were winning that game too, 11-4, when I decided to try pull off a double save with my cat-like reflexes.
Sadly, that cat proved to be Garfield and I ended up in a heap on the floor, clutching my wrist in pain.
One trip to A & E later and, for once, nothing was broken but it looked as if my handball career was over.
Elite company
Fast forward to a February night in Tallaght and here I am training with some of the Lughnasa Handball Club.
I’m in elite company. There are no fewer than four current or former Irish senior and underage players (Oisin Branagan, Ciaran Branagan, Patrick McAuley and Jamie Warburton) here to show me how to play the game, as well as former Ireland captain Paul Gray.
Image: Michael Moloney
We start the training session with the lads explaining the basics of handball. Each team consists of seven players; six outfielders and a goalkeeper. The game lasts 60 minutes, broken into two 30 minute halves.
The object of the game is simple, whoever scores the most goals wins. Usually, both teams score at lest 20 goals and I’m told it’s not unusual for 50+ goals in a game.
Our first exercise, part of the warm-up, is dribbling and passing. When you catch the ball, roughly half the size of a football, you can take three steps before passing or bouncing the ball. Once bounced, you can take another three steps and so on.
Having played some basketball before, this is relatively easy, though it is very tempting to look at the ball when you’re dribbling, rather than down the court. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the ball is significantly smaller than a basketball and doesn’t bounce as well.
Secondly, the ball is covered in a substance called “stickum” which, as the name suggests, makes it extra sticky and while that does make it easier to catch, it also limits the bounciness.
Dodgy knee
We then move on to crossing, which is not so much passing as using the laws of physics to leave the ball in the air behind you at a height and angle that directly correlates with the trajectory of your team-mate. It’s actually a lot easier than I’ve just made it sound and even I, a novice, can see the benefit of such a move in a game for shifting a defence out of position.
Time for some brutal honesty at this stage. As you can see from the pictures, I’m not the fittest journalist you’ll ever meet and everything is being done at full pace. I’m on my fourth wind but I am trying my best to keep up.
It really doesn’t help I’m nursing a dodgy knee, an injury I compound by tripping over myself in the previous drill:
Image: Steven O’Rourke
However, because I’m really enjoying myself, I carry on and we begin work on the basics of defence.
Here I genuinely learn something new about the sport. Unlike basketball, where a player can foul out after a certain number of fouls, in handball this doesn’t happen.
A player can commit an unlimited number of faults but, with the proper technique, you won’t even get called for a fault, despite the disruption you can cause an offensive player.
Image: Graham Smyth
After a quick break to take some much needed fluids on board we get to the bit I was looking forward to most, shooting. Once more, this turns out to be more difficult than it looks.
For a start, you have to go against your natural inclination and jump off your bad leg which helps to leverage your throwing arm. Aiming takes a little bit of getting used to as well but, eventually, I score my first ever handball goal.
While I’d love to claim it was a top corner screamer that had those watching getting in touch with their agents to sign me up, it was a fluke, plain and simple. However, there’s no such thing as a bad goal is there?
Definite return
Sadly, my time in the Tallaght Sports Complex comes to an end all too soon. My knee has taken all it can and I have to call it a day with about 1/3 of the training session left.
However, I’ve really enjoyed my time trying handball. From this little taster, it’s clearly a way to build both fitness and hand/eye co-ordination. It’s also a lot of fun.
It manages to combines elements of football, rugby, basketball and even hockey and American football. If you’ve got a handball club near you (and you can find a list here) and are looking for a new sport to try, I cannot recommend it enough.
Just be careful if you’ve a dodgy knee.
Last to be picked: In which our hero tries his hand at… dressage and show-jumping
VIDEO: Without doubt the flukiest handball goal we’ve ever seen
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