Handball and Basketball are two popular sports played using the palms of the hands- or, as professionals would call it, projectile and rotational motion. However, there are differences between them.
Chart Summary
| BASKETBALL | HANDBALL |
| Seven players on each time |
| Courts are much wider and are not often indoor |
Getty images/ DigitalVision/Thomas Barwick
Definition
Two teams of five players play Basketball on a rectangular court, generally indoors. Each side attempts to score by tossing the ball through the opposing goal, an elevated horizontal hoop, and a net known as the basket.
Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalie) use their hands to send a ball into the goal of the opposing side.
Basketball vs. Handball
A handball court is 40m by 20m in size. It is 6 meters long on each end and 2.5 meters broad on each side. A basketball measures 28m by 15m. As a result of this discrepancy, wing players in handball travel substantially further than basketball players, although other handball positions mirror Basketball offensive-to-defense transitions more closely.
The principles for determining whether the defensive player has an established position are similar, but the defensive player is allowed wider freedom in handball. As a result, offensive charging is called more frequently in handball than in Basketball.
The placement of high-percentage shots in both sports is closely connected to why a man-to-man defense may be effective in Basketball but is exceedingly hazardous in handball. In Basketball, a defeated defender may depend on another defender to get in between the offensive player and the basket. In Basketball, there is just one place for a high-percentage shot: right near the basket (i.e., a layup). Except for the extreme wings, the whole 6-meter line in handball is identical to a basketball layup.