About British Handball

What is handball?

Handball is a fast paced dynamic team sport game. Combining speed, strength, stamina, agility, technical precision, skill and teamwork, handball has become one of the fastest-paced and exciting Olympic sports. Teams of 7 players (including a goalkeeper) battle it out across 2 halves of 30 minutes to score the most goals. Players used their hands to pass, dribble or hit the ball, with the aim to create a shooting opportunity.

Handball combines elements of football, basketball and netball, and is hugely popular across the world. Professional clubs across Europe and the World compete in different leagues much the same as the football leagues.

For a quick guide to the sport, watch the IOC's video on the sport here

With an accumulative audience of 1.2 billion globally, Handball is the 4th largest sport in Europe with approximately 27 million registered players globally.

With increasing popularity, 26k fans watched the Women’s Quarter Final at the Paris Olympics.

Handball within the UK is one of the fastest growing sports, with a sell out crowd at GB vs Kosovo at the Derby Arena in 2024.

About The British Handball Association

The British Handball Association is the governing body for high performance international handball in the UK. It is responsible for the Great Britain national teams at all age groups, as well as elite coaching.

The British Handball Association was founded in 1967 and became a member of the International Handball Federation in 1968. It was also one of the original members of the European Handball Federation when it was created in 1991.

The England Handball Associations and Scottish Handball Associations are the BHA’s sole members, and are responsible for the grassroots development of the sport, as well as national and regional league and cup competitions, in their respective areas.

What we do

British Handball currently funds the indoor version of handball as the only handball discipline currently in the Olympics.

Other formats of handball include beach handball and wheelchair handball, and are played both domestically and internationally.

National Team Programmes - training and competition

Training

All national team programmes run on a camp basis for training. In advance, weekends or where possible longer periods are identified throughout the season (these are based around EHF international release dates and other national leagues) for squad members to come together for intensive training sessions. The training dates will be communicated through the appropriate team manager. Requirements for training and objectives for the sessions will be communicated. Training will generally consist of handball specific work, strength and conditioning (S&C) gym our court base work, Physio rehab or reactive treatment.

Where possible, the coaches aim is to gain as much international exposure as possible, so when opportunities come to train and compete against international opposition, we would consider this priority.

Competitions

There are official competitions for every GB team at European and World Level, as well as participating in friendly tournaments and matches every season.

Page last updated October 12th, 2025