Beach handball

The game starts with the referee's throw

Throwing a goal in beach handball

The sport of beach handball is derived from indoor handball .

As with beach volleyball , beach soccer or beach minton , this game is played barefoot on a sand surface or on the beach . Two teams with four players each (including the goalkeeper ) play a game that lasts over two ten-minute halves - which are rated independently of each other.

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Beach handball is played on a sand court measuring 27 × 12 meters. In contrast to the indoor handball semicircle, the goal area is rectangular. In contrast to indoor handball, there are different numbers of points depending on the type of goal throw. The team receives one point for a simple goal. The goalkeeper may be included in the attacking game or replaced by a specially marked key player. Goal throws by this key player (goalkeeper or a fourth field player who has been substituted for him) are worth two points. There are also two points for a spin shoot (jump shot with rotation around one's own axis) or for the " Kempa trick " (caught in flight and thrown hit) according to IHF and EHF rules, partly according to the rules of the respective association ( France, Switzerland) even three counters.

The bouncing of the ball is - due to the sand playing surface - as good as impossible. Instead of bouncing it, the ball owner can roll the ball on the ground. The player in possession of the ball may walk or run three steps with the ball before playing it or throwing it at goal. The game is played with balls that are hardly distinguishable from normal indoor handballs, but have a slightly different coating in order to still have a good grip on the dusty playing surface. In addition, smaller balls are used than in indoor handball. The "resin" of the ball - as it is common in indoor handball, especially in the upper leagues, to get a better grip - is not possible due to the sand playing surface.

If a team wins both halves, it receives 2-0 sets in the table. If each team wins a half, it goes straight to the shoot-out (penalty throw): The player starts from his own goal area, plays the ball to his own goalkeeper, receives the ball from his own goalkeeper on the way to the opposing goal and then throws the ball at the opposing goal Goal. If the ball hits the ground or the player takes more than three steps after catching the ball, the attempt is invalid. Five players take turns throwing at the goal. If there is a tie at the end of the penalty shootout , the players take turns throwing until one team takes the lead without being caught. The winner of the shootout round receives 2: 1 sets in the table. In the shootout there are two points for the “Kempa trick” and the “spin shot” and one point for normal goal throws.

If a half ends in a draw, it will be decided by a golden goal . For this purpose, as at the beginning of each half, the throw-off takes place by referee throw.

Events

International

Up to now, a European beach handball championship has taken place every two years. 2000 in Gaeta / Italy , 2002 in Cádiz / Spain , 2004 in Alanya / Turkey and 2006 in Cuxhaven / Germany . In future, the continental competitions will be held in the odd years and the world championships in the even years. The 2007 European Championship took place in Misano Adriatico (near Rimini , Italy). The 2009 European Championship ended on June 28th in Larvik ( Norway ). Croatia became European champions for men and Italy for women.

Official world championships in beach handball have been held since 2004. 2004 in el-Guna / Egypt and 2006 in Rio de Janeiro / Brazil . Beach handball has been an invitation sport at the World Games since 2001. 2001 in Akita / Japan , 2005 in Duisburg / Germany and 2009 in Kaohsiung / Taiwan .

In the course of spring 2015 there were attempts to upgrade beach handball to an Olympic sport in the future. The sport has already been confirmed for the program of the Youth Olympic Games ; in 2024, the IHF plans to also play beach handball at the Olympic Games.

The European Beach Tour is also part of the annual event calendar. This has been supplemented since 2014 by the Champions Cup , a tournament in which the European national champions compete against each other.

EHF Champions Cup in Gran Canaria

The EHF Champions Cup has been held on Gran Canaria in the first week of November since 2014. According to the European association, the national championship tournament is the highest quality beach handball event of the year for clubs in Europe. Twelve national champions compete against each other in the men and women on Maspalomas beach. The winners are officially counted as the clubs' European champions.

Participants / results from Germany: 2014 Northern Lights (men 8th place), The Ismaning Brothers (women 4th place), 2015 Sand Devils (men 7th place), Strandgeflüster Minden (women, 10th place) & The Ismaning Brothers (women 5th place), 2016 Sand Devils (men), The Ismaning Brothers (women); 2017 SG Schurwald (men), The Ismaning Brothers (women 4th place);

European Beachhandball Tour (EBT)

The European Beach Handball Tour is an association of beach handball tournaments across the continent. Club teams can collect points in the now well over 50 participant tournaments in order to qualify for the EBT final tournament.

For tournament organizers it is very easy and free to register. You just have to play according to international rules. Ambitious tournaments with higher quality standards (such as electronic time measurement or international referees) receive additional evaluation points for their effort, which upgrade the respective tournaments and thus attract better teams.

Participants in the EBT final from Germany were, for example, the Sand Devils (men) several times, the Caipiranhas (women) in 2016, Beach and da Gang Münster (men) in 2017 and the 12 Monkeys Köln BHC (men) in 2019.

Germany

In Germany, beach masters are held in most federal states. The German Masters series first took place in 1995. An official German beach handball champion was played from 1999 to 2011, after which the series was temporarily discontinued by the DHB. In the meantime, the South German teams had separated themselves and had been playing for the South German Championship at the Stoneline South Beach Open since 2008 . As a counterpart, the German Open series has been held in northern Germany since 2012 . The German Beach Open are played annually through various qualification tournaments and a final tournament in Berlin. The organizer of the German Beach Open has been Marc Kunz , who is also active as a top player and club president of his club BHC Beach & da Gang , for many years .

German Championship (from 2014)

In the 2014 season, the German Handball Federation committed itself to beach handball again. As part of the German Open final tournament in Wildeshausen, a championship was played under official DHB supervision for the first time since 2011. The winners were the Northern Lights from Oldenburg (men) and the Ismaning brothers (women). The two teams thus received the right to start the European Champions Cup from the DHB and were considered German champions 2014. The new installation of a German national beach handball team was also announced during the event. In 2015, the DHB is again organizing an official German beach handball tour at nine locations including the final tournament in Kassel. The final tournament took place in Berlin in 2016 and 2017.

German champions 2014: Northern Lights (men), Ismaning Brothers (women)
German champions 2015: Sand Devils (men), Strandgeflüster Minden (women)
German champions 2016: Sand Devils (men), Ismaning Brothers (women)
German champions 2017: SG Schurwald (men), Ismaning brothers (women)
German champions 2018: Beach & da Gang Münster (men), Strandgeflüster Minden (women)
German champions 2019: Beach & da Gang Münster (men), Strandgeflüster Minden (women)

The current German champions are the teams BHC Beach & da Gang from Münster around their team captain and top performer Marc Kunz and the women's team Strandgeflüster Minden from the city of Minden of the same name . Both teams have thus qualified for the European final tournament of national champions, the Champions Cup 2019 in Catania in Italy . The two teams will be accompanied by the second placed BHC Hurricanes (men) and the Beach Unicorns Hannover .

The German Championships 2020 in Cuxhaven were canceled due to the coronavirus crisis in May 2020.

DHB national teams

The completely newly composed, female U19 national team achieved third place and the bronze medal at the European Championships in Lloret de Mar in 2015 . Men and women only achieved places in the midfield, but the international connection succeeded. DHB beach handball coaches have been Kai Bierbaum (men), Konrad Bansa (male youth), Denise Westhäusler (women), Manfred Königsmann (female youth) and Alexander Novakovic (female youth) since 2014 . In spring 2016, Dirk Florian (male youth) and Yvonne Eckhardt (women) joined the coaching team and were appointed as coaches.

In 2016, a male and a female U16 national team were brought into being. From July 8 to 10, 2016, the U16 European Championships took place in Nazare / Portugal, where the German teams achieved 6th place (boys) and 8th place (girls). In 2017 both youth teams won the bronze medal at the U17 European Championship in Zagreb, Croatia, from June 16 to 18, 2017. The female U17 was able to defeat the Hungarians and the male U17 the Russians in the game for third place. The men's and women's perspective teams finished 9th and 14th during their European Championship, which was held a short time later from June 20 to 24, also in Zagreb.

In 2018 the last European Junior Championship took place from June 29th to July 1st. held in Ulcinj, Montenegro. This year the female u18 team won the bronze medal for the second time in a row. In the game for third place, the Germans prevailed with a clear 2-0 victory. The male U18, on the other hand, managed to knock the reigning European champions Spain out of the tournament with a 2-0 win in the semifinals. The final match was Poland against Germany. After losing the first set (16:14), the German players won the second set 21: 8 and also won the subsequent shoot-out 6: 2. This also meant the first ever German title in male beach handball.

literature

Alex Gehrer (beach handball national coach Germany, 2006): Beach handball - the new summer sport . Goeppingen
Juliane Kurzke (2001): Beach handball - history, structures and future prospects . Cologne (Publication German Sport University Cologne)