The serve often ends up being the most important element of three-wall handball, particularly when you have otherwise evenly matched opponents. A devastating serve works for you in numerous ways, including accruing easy points through unreturned serves or easy putaways, demoralizing your opponent and conserving energy.
    The serve also sets the tone for the ensuing rally and says something critical about a player. Players who do little more than put the ball in play on the serve are likely to be less aggressive during a rally as well. They’ll often rely on retrieving, wearing down an opponent and scoring on an opponent’s hand errors.
    Players whose serves have a distinct purpose are likely to be more offense-minded, focused on getting ahead in a rally quickly and continuing to press that advantage. 
    For this reason, the goal of a serve is not to put the ball in play: It is to go on offense. 
    At the very least, a majority of the server’s second shots should be taken with his or her strong hand in the front half of the court. At best, a majority of your second shots should press an advantage that keeps your opponent off balance and scrambling to make a defensive return. For these reasons, a good serve can be defined rather loosely. A good serve is any play that puts the server on offense for the next shot. 

Assessment

    The first priority in improving your serve is assessing your current service game. Consider videotaping a match and answering the following questions on each service:

• Which serve did I use?
• Was I able to hit an offensive shot off my opponent’s return?
• If not, which of the following mistakes did I make:
• Poor accuracy, such as hitting the side wall, not hitting it deep enough or poor balance.
• Poor power.
• Poor decision-making or poor choice of serve.
• Taking insufficient time to prepare to hit the serve.

    Answering these questions will give you a baseline of serve effectiveness and a certain sense of where you need to concentrate to improve your service game. Let’s address each question in turn, because embedded in each is the key to developing greater effectiveness from the service box.

Service mistakes

    Service mistakes come in several categories, the most serious being a lack of accuracy. The most egregious inaccuracy, other than an out serve, is hitting a serve that bounces and then hits a side wall or otherwise sits slow and high, allowing your opponent to step into the shot and use an aggressive motion.
    Another form of inaccuracy is not hitting your serve deep enough. The problem with an insufficiently deep serve is that your opponent has time to read it after the bounce and can step forward into the swing. Again, your opponent will be able to hit the ball hard from a position of good footwork while you are in the front court. 
    Poor power is a problem many players face, particularly as age becomes a factor. Power is a great weapon but not nearly as important as an accurate serve. A player with limited power can still have a deadly serve, provided he or she makes a good service choice and has great placement.
    Players with limited power get into trouble when they try to hit the serve as hard as they can, thereby sacrificing accuracy.
    Poor choice of serve includes a number of fundamental mistakes that can be corrected with greater service planning.
    First, it is important not to repeat the same serve over and over. The returner can start to anticipate even a well-placed, powerful serve. Care should be taken to mix service choices so your opponent is never quite sure what is coming next. This might mean hitting serves up the left or right side, as well as short or deep in the court. 
    Second, players are often quite skilled at returning the ball from a specific side or with a specific stroke or motion. Some players have an outstanding overhead swing, making a serve that needs to be struck from over the shoulder less effective. Many players have developed consistent defensive shots with their off hand but may be less comfortable hitting defensively with their strong hand. Some players have an excellent punch shot or driving sidearm motion, making low serves less effective. 
    It is in this area that pregame observation and experimentation during the match can be helpful. Your opponent may struggle to read a hook or have less confidence returning from his or her strong side.
    A third mistake servers make is a lack of options. This can be corrected by increasing your arsenal of serves.
    A lack of decision-making or failing to take sufficient time to plan and visualize the serve is a frequent mistake and often is responsible for inaccurate and repetitive service choices. You have 10 seconds to put the ball in play, and you’d be surprised how much planning can take place in 10 seconds.
    If you find yourself calling the score and then immediately stepping up to serve without pausing, it is likely you will hit an overused, unplanned, one-dimensional serve that your opponent has seen many times and has little fear of facing.

What makes a great serve?

    The bottom line of what makes a great server is how you feel when you are standing at the receiving line in a closely contested match.
    A great server takes his or her time and knows before committing to putting the ball in play the serve he or she intends to hit.
    He or she stands in the same place, bounces the ball the same height, strikes the ball with similar power and takes the same motion every time a specific serve is hit. 
    He or she has the same pre-serve routine on every serve. 
    He or she has a variety of options from multiple positions in the service box. 
    He or she takes note of what is working and what is not working with a specific opponent, on a specific day or at a specific point in the match — and adjusts accordingly. 
    He or she knows how to spin the ball in both directions, applying a natural or reverse. 
    He or she can, to some degree, mask or shield the serve such that it takes an opponent a split second longer to recognize and react to the serve. 
    Finally, he or she prioritizes placement over power. While the truly great servers have both power and placement, all great servers know where to place the ball, and it is always deep and off, but near the wall if that is the intended serve. 
    Consider what other people might observe about your own service game. Ask questions of your opponents to gain greater insights. This knowledge can be compared to the analysis you made from your video. For instance, with video you can see how your opponent reacts to your serves as a gauge of effectiveness.
     There are many types of serves hit from a range of positions in the service box. The types of serve you decide to hit and the percentage of times you use various serves should depend on your success. Serves can generally be grouped into four categories:  short serves, deep serves, overhand serves and specialty serves.

Short serves

    Short serves need to be hit such that the ball travels low and clips the side wall close to the floor relatively soon after passing the short line — the ball cracks out — or takes a second bounce close to the side wall and as short as possible.
    Short serves are tough to hit due to the motion and power required. Risk also is involved, as a poorly executed short serve is an easy shot for the returner. A poor short serve happens if the ball bounces and then hits the side wall, or if your opponent reads the serve early and easily gets into position to make a shot.
    However, these serves are devastating because they require an opponent to respect the short ball by moving their normal return of serve position farther into the court. This can make your deep serve far more effective, as a deep ball will bounce close to an opponent’s feet and require an off-balance or scoop return. Short serves are also a great way to make aces.
    The key to the short serve is twofold. First, you will need to strike the ball using a fundamentally solid kill-shot stroke but make your point of contact high enough so the first bounce is just over the short line. The height of the bounce will depend on your power; it is common to strike the ball when it is about a foot high.
    Second, your forward foot (the left foot for a right-handed player) will need to step directly toward the angle you want the ball to take toward the front wall. In short, step toward the line you want the ball to take. 
    You can experiment with hitting these short serves to the right and left from two positions: the left third of the service box and the right third of the service box. One way to practice is to throw the ball rather than hit it, altering your swing height and step until you find the right position. 

Deep serves

Forcing an opponent deep on a serve, especially to their off hand can increase the offensive players’ chances.  Photo by Keith Thode.

    The deep drive serve is the go-to serve for most three-wallers for several reasons. 
    First, a good deep serve needs to be returned from deep in the court, giving the server plenty of time to adjust to the returned ball and make a shot while the receiver has a maximum distance to cover in order to retrieve an attempted kill shot.
    Second, the deep serve is tough to return effectively because the ball needs to be struck by the receiver soon after the first bounce. It will often require the receiver to hit off his or her back foot. An effective deep serve will land within a couple of feet of the long line and miss the side wall.
    Deep serves become devastating if you can add spin. Because players are often taking the ball soon after the bounce, a hook serve will create numerous hand errors even if your hook changes direction only slightly.
    Deep serves can be hit to either side, though the traditional deep serve is to the weak hand of your opponent. If you can control the spin, hooking the ball so it runs along the wall and “out the back door” is an effective means of acing your opponent. 
    A hook that moves toward the wall is also effective but should be used with caution, as this serve can become an easy return if it hits high on the side wall and your opponent can step in to hit it. A hook that moves toward the wall can be hit so it lands farther into the court (for instance, 3 feet from the side wall), which is also effective because your opponent is expecting the ball closer to the wall. 
    A deep serve to the strong-hand side makes a great balance to the weak-handed direction. Even when used sparingly, this serve requires your opponent to stay more central in the court and keeps him or her from getting into a groove returning from one side only.
    Another deep serve that is effective when used sparingly is hit directly at your opponent’s feet with spin. You can hit this serve from the left third of the service area to avoid screening the ball. When hit properly, this serve is often a surprise and can handcuff even top-level opponents.
    What makes this serve so difficult to return is how close it comes to the receiver’s body, and the fact that the majority of players are accustomed to moving laterally when they return the serve. As with other deep serves, the ball must land close to the long line.

Overhand serves

    For players with a strong overhand, an overhand drive serve is very effective and requires opponents to return the ball using an overhand stroke. If your opponent is weak from this position, an overhand drive or lob is often a better option than a drive serve. 
    The overhand serve can be hit from any position in the box, but again it will be critical to keep the ball from clipping the side wall.
    Kendell Lewis used a very effective overhand drive that bounced at about the 35-foot mark. He hit this to either side, requiring the receiver to respect both corners and keeps him from cheating to a side.
    Power and height add to the deadliness of this serve, as the receiver must guess whether it will clip the side wall, charge in rapidly to hit it on a short hop or retreat well behind the long line to hit a return from the back foot.
    Softer overhand lobs can also be effective, but these serves need to be hit from a position right along the side wall. Otherwise the receiver can step into the shot and take it in the air, leaving the server in a defensive position.
    Andy Schad hit a very effective lob along the left wall. His serve could be hit hard or soft and typically bounced about the 35-foot mark right at the spot where the wall meets the floor.

Placing a deep overhand serve near the side wall can cause the opponent headaches on the return.  Photo by Keith Thode.

Specialty serves

    Specialty serves are also useful and important to have in your arsenal, depending on the opposition.
    Some receivers, particularly in doubles, will step well into the court to cut off an overhand drive or lob serve. This can make it easy to get out of your service rhythm and start making the classic service mistake: trying to hit your serve as hard as you can and losing accuracy. 
    Two specialty serves are worth mentioning:

• The two-wall deep serve to the center of the court. This is useful if you are playing doubles against opponents whose weak sides are both in the center of the court — a lefty playing the left and a righty playing the right.
      Though more effective in four-wall, this serve requires your opponents to return from the weak side and can create confusion if your opponents fail to communicate properly. 
• The deep two-wall serve to the opposite corner. This serve is struck similarly to a Z-serve in four-wall but hit slightly deeper and at a more shallow angle so the ball never hits a third wall.

    Similar to the two-wall serve, this Z-serve needs to be hit so it lands deep in the court and moving quickly toward the wall it will narrowly miss. For a right-hander, this serve is best hit into the left corner and crossing to the deep right.
    What makes this serve so effective is that it makes your opponent move first to one side and then to the opposite side of the court. For a righty, your opponent will first move left, only to then realize the ball will be on the right side of the court. Since most three-wall players also play four-wall, the instinct will be to wait for the ball to come off the side wall. But when hit properly, the ball never hits that third wall, and your opponent is left wondering what happened.
    This is another serve that is most effective when used only sparingly. If your opponent reads the serve, he or she can move quickly into a position that will allow an overhand stroke that can be struck with power.

A warrior will have many opponents in a lifetime, but the ultimate opponent is the warrior’s own self…To actually overcome one’s own defects is the true nature of victory.
— From “365 Tao: Daily Meditations”

Self-reflection being one of the hallmarks of wisdom, it seems wise to step back from time to time to consider the things we do and think about why we do them.  One thing I wondered about recently was: Why do I play handball? And when I play, is the experience positive or negative?

Here’s what I came up with. We can all recite reasons we play the game:

• “It’s good exercise.”
• “I like the camaraderie.”
• “It’s a challenge.”
• “It’s just plain fun.”

The reasons we come up with, however, may not be the primary motivating factors that keep bringing us back to the courts.  Chances are good that some reasons are subconscious, complicated motivational impulses associated with our egos, or an inchoate aggressiveness. If playing hand-ball reinforces our negative tendencies, it will likely do us more harm than good.

It may also be possible that our lack of a clear understanding of our motivation, and our failure to develop and cultivate a constructive point of view about handball, is preventing us from actually enjoying the game to the degree we could.
As I thought about it, I realized that in handball, as in practically every other activity, our attitude and our motivation will dictate whether the experience is constructive and beneficial — or destructive and harmful.  I found it helpful to consider the metaphor of the warrior.

Both Killian Carroll and Paul Brady have battled in epic finals since they met in at the 2015 World Championships–each often exhibiting a warrior’s characteristics. Photo by Keith Thode.

I had recently read a discussion of the warrior metaphor in Ming-Dao’s “365 Tao,” from which I quote above, and realized that it could easily apply to handball.  The sport is, after all, about as close as you can get to combat without people actually hitting each other (at least not on purpose).

The warrior is a symbol that appears in Eastern and Western cultures and religions as a person of great virtue.  The good warrior is courageous, self-sacrificing and highly disciplined.  As Ming-Dao points out, what’s admirable about the warrior isn’t that he defeats the enemy. Rather, it’s that he overcomes his own weaknesses.

Viewed from this perspective, the handball player who works hard at the sport while trying to reinforce his or her positive emotions is the player who will derive the most benefit.  Handball, besides being something we do just to keep in shape or just to have fun, can be a discipline that improves the quality of our lives by teaching us humility and self-discipline.

So it’s helpful to ask some basic questions about our goals in playing handball.  Because the game is part of our lives, it should advance our life goals.

Different people, of course, have different life goals and ambitions.  Sometimes those goals are subconscious urges that we blindly pursue and, occasionally, rationalize with platitudes.  Thus, we may fail to come to grips with the reality of life, and, as Thoreau observed, end up leading lives of quiet desperation.

I’m not talking about career goals or financial goals or even athletic goals.  I’m referring instead to more fundamental goals, such as the goal of achieving happiness and fulfillment, or the goal of seeking out the authentic meaning of our lives. This kind of goal isn’t advanced by self-indulgence or ego gratification.

This is where the attributes of the warrior come into play.  To live a satisfying life, we know but often forget that we must have self-discipline and foster in ourselves virtues of humility, compassion, courage, honesty and respect for others.  If we want to enjoy handball or any other sport, we should bring these same virtues to the way we play the game and use the game to help develop and enhance them.

So I come back to the question of how and why we play handball.  I suggest we attempt to play like warriors and use the game not only to have fun or get exercise but also to consciously practice the virtues of self-discipline, humility, courage, honesty and compassion.

This doesn’t mean we can’t be competitive at the same time.  In fact, we’ll find that the more we suppress our egos and respect our opponents, the more fun we’ll have and the better our game will be.

From the 2013 One-Wall Open final:  Tyree Bastidas and Joe Kaplan are two champions who leave everything on the court. Photo by Keith Thode.

We all know it’s a lot more fun to win than to lose.  But if we can’t lose with grace and equanimity, we need to re-examine why we play the game — and step away from the dead-end pursuit of ego gratification.

Our real opponents are our own minds. We know that our bodies play the game much better if our minds aren’t flooded with ego-based anxiety.  And if we can’t appreciate it when our opponent executes a perfect off-hand, back-wall kill shot, we’re missing out on the fun of the game.

Or if we get seriously upset at ourselves every time we miss a shot and go into depression when we lose a game, we need an attitude adjustment.

If played with the right attitude, handball rewards and reinforces virtues and qualities that make life worth living.  Taking the game seriously means to work at training our minds and bodies to play the game well.  In the process, we may find that the sweetest victory is victory over our own demons.

So we should play handball like warriors — fun-loving warriors, but warriors nonetheless — who never disrespect our opponents or ourselves.  This just might enrich our handball experience and help make us all a little more enlightened.

You’ve heard the theory of the three secrets for success in business: location, location and location.  Likewise, there are three secrets to success in handball: position, position and position.

We’ve all been on the wrong side of a score when an opponent stood at the short line, cut everything off and made us chase the ball until the rally mercifully ended.

This situation will occur anytime one player is far superior to his opponent.  The better player will take an up-front position and set a blistering pace that will cause the lesser player to succumb quickly.

Even if you are less skilled than your opponent, you can dictate the pace to maximize the use of your personal skills.  To take advantage of your better reflexes or conditioning, you will want to force the pace.

Deciding whether this is your best ploy against a particular opponent may not be so easy, but accomplishing it is.  Merely take a position closer to the front wall to force the pace. You’ll be amazed at how many shots you can get your hands on and how fast the resulting action will be.

The red lines on the court diagram show where to keep the ball if you want to play a faster pace–primarily in front of the short line. The blue lines on the court show where to keep the ball should you want to slow the pace–primarily in the back court and along the side walls.

Want to take the pace to the next level?  That’s also easy if you keep the ball near the short line by aiming low on your shots. 

But a word of caution:  To avoid giving away easy points, try to aim your low shots to your opponent’s off hand or down the side walls. With play being so fast and furious in the front court, not only must you be in great shape, but your off hand should also be better than your opponent’s.

With the ball coming back to you so fast, there won’t be time to step around many of the shots.  Therefore, a solid off hand is essential to success in these up-front rallies.

If you find yourself on the losing end of such rallies and getting tired before your opponent does on a regular basis, it’s time to slow things down a bit.  Merely take a position a few steps deeper in the court, and you’ll note the pace slowing.

We’ll call this the medium portion of the court for medium-paced rallies.  This is probably your traditional positioning on the court and takes very little adjustment.

From the medium area, you’ll also want to play your traditional game, hitting kills only when the right opportunity comes along.  If things are going well here, stay here.  This is where you will be the most comfortable day in and day out.

But what if your opponent is forcing the pace, running you ragged and bringing the play into the front court?  You can counteract this by slowing the pace to a crawl.  Ironically, this will also take a solid conditioning base, since the rallies will last much longer as you trade shots with your opponent in the deep court.

But it’s a different kind of conditioning.  There won’t be the fast dashes or sprints to make your return, but slower movements for longer periods—as in a marathon.

You can keep the play in this area by hitting ceiling shots and deep two-wall passing shots.  Keeping the play in this portion of the court will favor the control player who can place ceiling shots into the deep corners.

Patience is the key to success here.  Young, hard hitters can be frustrated when the pace slows.

When things are going badly for you, you’ll want to take a timeout and then slow the pace. No matter what game plan you had in mind when you entered the court, if your opponent has the momentum, you’ll want to take a deep position in the court to bring his scoring onslaught to a halt.

You’ve probably noticed that games are never turned around immediately.  If one player jumps to a large lead, rarely can the other player get back into contention without first slowing the pace and holding the opponent scoreless for a few service innings.

The way to hold your opponent scoreless is with a slow pace, forcing him into deep court and controlling the play with accurate ceiling and passing shots.

Once you’ve been able to stop his offensive barrage, you can start thinking about mounting an offensive attack of your own.

To be the best player you can be, find the area of the court where you perform the best and try to keep the play in that vicinity.  You’ll win many more matches if you’re the one dictating the pace.

One of the questions most commonly asked of the top players is how to hook the ball.

The question usually is answered with the appropriate physics involved, both for the natural and the reverse hook.

Then comes a warning: Don’t try to hook the ball until you can control it.

That warning may be the most important thing to remember. Though most of the top players can hook the ball, the ability to hook is not the reason for their success.

Victory comes from solid fundamentals, the ability to control each and every shot in your repertoire, and hitting the correct shot according to your and your opponent’s court position and the situation.

Since the best players also have uncanny shot anticipation, reading hooks becomes part of that process for them. Consequently, hooks tend not to be that effective against the top players in the game.

Of course, there’s a time and a place for everything in handball. The time and the place for hooks is when and where your serve or shot will be more effective with a hook applied to it.

Since imparting spin to the ball requires hitting it on a specific spot on your hand and rotating your wrist as you strike it, it’s obvious that great fundamentals are needed before you attempt to hook the ball.

Also, for a hook to be effective, it’s necessary to make the ball contact the floor before hitting a side wall in the air, since the side wall will take the spin away from the ball.

If you’re using a hook, it must be applied with the intent of making your shot harder to return, and you’ll need accurate direction to make the ball harder to return, rather than easier.

This illustrates service reverses to the left and right hit by a right-handed player.

This illustrates service naturals to the left and right hit by a right-handed player.

Finally, hooking shots should be controlled and hit low on the front wall so they won’t carom off the back wall,where all the spin will again be lost.

Thus, if you don’t have the type of control needed to make your hooks effective, you shouldn’t waste your time with them. Instead you should be striving to improve your control.

A natural hook is just that­–a natural spin that most players impart to the ball without even thinking about it.

As we develop a sidearm stroke, the hand tends to cut under the ball as we strike it. This is what puts the natural hook on the ball. For most of us, developing a natural hook is as easy as emphasizing the undercutting of the ball on our sidearm stroke.

To emphasize the natural, try contacting the ball in the center of the hand and let it roll across your hand before releasing it between the thumb and index finger. The follow-through is very important since it will dictate the amount of wrist rotation.

A reverse hook usually requires many hours of practice to develop.

The ball should be contacted near the base of the index finger so the hand will rotate over the top or outside of the ball to impart the reverse hook. Try to keep the ball on your hand so it rolls off the hand near the base of your little finger when you release it.

A word of caution is needed here: This manipulation of the elbow and wrist can result in sore arms, such as tennis elbow.

Be sure to take it easy and not overdo it in your first few practice sessions. Over-doing it during one of the first hooking sessions has forced many a player off to the sidelines for extended periods of recuperation.

Regardless of whether you’re ready to add hooks to your repertoire, everyone should be aware of the natural hook they are already applying to their shots, particularly on the serve.

As a rule, the most difficult shots to return are those that end up close to a side wall, especially in deep court. So we need to know how much our shots are hooking to know where we should be aiming our straight passes and drive serves.

For right-handers standing near the center of the court during the rally or on their serve, a natural to the left will break into the side wall. Thus, the bigger the natural applied,the farther away from the side wall the shot should hit on the floor so it ends up close to the side wall in deep court, where your opponent will be attempting his return.

The player with little or no natural hook can draw a straight path for his serves and passing shots so they end up close to the side wall in deep court.

Finally, the right-hander who can hit a reverse hook will aim his straight passes and drive serves for a spot on the floor very near the left side wall so that the ball will travel along the wall all the way to the back wall.

This is considered the main advantage to applying the reverse hook, while the slider down the right is the main advantage to employing the natural hook.

The converse holds true for the right-handed player hitting a shot to the right side of the court:

• A natural should be aimed at a spot on the floor very near the right side wall so it runs the wall.
• A reverse should be hit farther from the right side wall so it will break toward the wall and end up close to the side wall in deep court.

Using hooks to break your passing shots and kills away from your opponent can be very effective, especially against players who don’t anticipate hooks or watch you stroke the ball. Actually, any kind of hook will work against players who don’t watch you stroke the ball since they won’t see you apply the hook.

Hooks that break into your opponent’s floor position will handcuff the player who turns his back on you as you stroke the ball.

However, as the top players will quickly point out, this practice won’t work indef-initely against anyone. Even Pavlov’s dog would catch on to hooks, unless you mix them up.

Another reason to use hooks sparingly is the fatigue factor. The extra effort used in hooking the ball is far greater than you might think and will result in less effective hooks and less control late in the match, when you need both the most.

The ability to hook the ball can pay especially big dividends in doubles. Hook-ing the ball away from one opponent and toward his partner can cause confusion as to who should hit the shot, if not catch them totally off guard.

Since the court is crowded with four people, hitting a hook during the rally can be very effective since the player may not have seen you apply it. Of course, hitting a hook at one of your opponents’ feet will also be very effective.

As you practice hooking the ball, remember that a hook won’t be effective:

• If it hits the side wall before the floor.
• If it can be taken in the air before hitting the floor.
• Or if it caroms off the back wall.

Otherwise, as long as you learn how to control them, hooks can be very effective weapons in your offensive arsenal.

The floor will beat you every time. This sage advice comes our way in almost every issue of Handball magazine. What it means is that a player’s continued attempts of low-percentage kill shots will result in defeat.

But “the floor will beat you every time” means more to the advanced player than it does to the beginner. In fact, the more advanced, the more the statement means. At the highest levels, the ability to execute shots is very even, and shot selection takes over as the determining factor in who wins and who loses.

So call this an advanced bit of instructional advice. Beginners will still benefit, but please realize a higher priority for the newer player is shot technique.

The beginner should learn to stroke the ball with solid fundamentals — to hit the kill, the pass and the serve. The beginner can agonize over shot selection later.  Now is the time to play and enjoy the relative freedom from the subtleties of choosing between offense or defense, kill or pass.

Since so many handball experts talk about the importance of shot selection, there must be something to it. Furthermore, if you have any doubts of the importance, watching the pros will dispel them. The way handball is played at the highest level, shot selection is paramount.

Although the problem is often raised, solutions are rarely given. Usually some vague advice recommends that you shoot good shots while on defense and certain other good shots while on offense, or that you practice “percentage handball,” whatever that means.

The trouble with the advice is that most of us don’t know what “good” or “percentage” shots are, and no amount of explanation can teach us what is safe and what is risky.

Let’s face it: Most of us learn to play handball by simply playing. We find out what works and doesn’t work by trial and error. We formed habits early in our playing careers. These habits were usually determined by our physical characteristics, so a big person learned to hit hard pass shots, while the short, quick person learned to be a shooter, and a person with lots of stamina became a retriever. Those habits were reinforced with winning performances, and soon we had our “game.”

So when someone tells you to use percentage shots, your mind says, “Yes, that sounds logical and right.” But when you get back on the court, your old habits take over. The pressure of the game and the good feeling you get when you take your best shot removes the mental assent you gave to play percentage handball.

So how do you break out of these self-defeating playing patterns?

Try a new game: Determine before you start that in every rally you will hit five defensive shots before you attempt one offensive shot.  When you are serving, start counting after the serve, because the serve is an offensive shot. Don’t worry about what kind of defensive shots to take. For starters, just don’t attempt to kill the ball. Consider every shot except the kill to be a defensive shot. After taking five defensive shots, start looking for the rally-ending kill opportunity.

Don’t relax. Just because you are not killing the ball doesn’t mean you are on vacation. You have to work just as hard to hit good defensive shots as you do to hit good offensive shots. Your opponent will soon catch on that you’re not trying to kill much today, and he will start laying back for your passes and ceiling shots.

Don’t let this tempt you. Stick to your plan; it will just be better practice.

A couple of things will surely happen:

• You will find very few rallies last long enough for you to attempt a kill. Someone will err first. If you are hitting well-executed defensive shots, you will find your opponent will frequently hit the ball into the floor, far more than you would have imagined.
• You will also find there are a wide variety of defensive shots from which to choose. This is one of the main reasons this type of game will improve your shot selection. You don’t have to worry about choosing among many different shots. All you have to remember is not to attempt a kill until you have hit five shots.

The reason for recommending this game is that you can’t learn shot selection until you learn the many shots at your disposal. This game will help you explore the uncharted regions of shot variety.

You may want to start by playing this new game with opponents you usually beat handily. At first it will even things out. Later, as you begin to hit good defensive shots, you will beat him worse than ever.

Then it’s time to try your new “game” against better players, or limit yourself to just one type of defensive shot against the player you’re handling with ease. In one game you might hit only ceiling shots for defensive shots, and in the next only wraparounds. You’ll soon know what your best shots are and which ones need to improve.

The idea is to get you thinking about the shots you use regularly. What you use — and use effectively — may still be determined by your physical capabilities, but you will find you have a much wider range of shots than you realized. And you will learn to use them all more effectively.

If you’re like everyone else, you’ve been looking for an easy fix or two to improve your game.

Unfortunately, handball is such a complex game that very few rules of thumb are true all the time. However, some ploys, habits and plays work almost all the time. Consider adding an item or two at a time and we’re sure you’ll pick up a point or two en route to getting 21 first.

1. If you’re having trouble keeping your eyes on the ball, follow it around the court with your nose. Start following it with your nose all the way into your hand as your stroke the ball, and you’ll be amazed at how many hand errors you won’t be making.

2. Reach back with your hand as you backpedal in the court so you don’t have to take your eyes and nose off the ball to find out if you’re too close to the back wall.

3. Stay down on your follow-through to keep your serve off the back wall. Follow through so your stroking hand points to the spot on the front wall where you’re aiming your serve.

4. Use the Z-serve to start an important match, since it doesn’t matter if your butterflies cause you to overswing.

5. Also, use the Z-serve for your second serve after a fault. The Z doesn’t have to land near the short line to keep it from caroming off the back wall.

6. If you run sprints to improve your speed on the court, run a few while backpedaling. No matter how much you practice running forward, you won’t improve that much since you’ve been running forward all your life. Unless you’re a defensive back in football, you haven’t come close to reaching your potential for backpedalling speed.

7. No matter what stroke you use or where you’re aiming, move toward the target as you stroke the ball.

8. After you step into the service zone, take a second or two to visualize how your serve will travel after you hit it. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much more accurate you’ll become.

9. Your opponent’s front leg is the key to where he or she is aiming and how low the shot will go. The angle of the shot will be determined by the weight transfer, and you’ll get a head start on the height of the shot by the amount of bend in the front knee. If your opponent is thinking pass, there won’t be much bend. If it’s a kill attempt, the front knee will drop.

Only a handful of players can consistently execute kill shots from behind their opponents. If it doesn’t roll out, it will be a setup.  Photo by Keith Thode.

10. Use the corner kill when your opponent is behind you in the deep court.

11. Use the straight kill when your opponent is in the front court with you but off to one side or the other. Hit to the opposite side.

12. Forget killing from deep court.

13. Whenever time allows, visualize a successful shot before you hit the ball.

14. Center court, as in “get back to the center after you hit the ball,” is really deeper than cutting the court in half, or 20 feet from the front and back walls. All of us can move forward faster than backward, and we need to step forward into every shot.

15. When in doubt, go cross-court with your shots. The margin of error on cross-court shots is much greater than down-the-line shots that can tend to come off the back wall.

16. Hit your pass shots so they bounce behind the short line. Otherwise the floor will slow them up, and your opponent will be able to track them down.

17. Address angling shots on an angle. Just as you face the side wall to hit a ball traveling parallel to that wall, address the flight of balls traveling on an angle with the same theory.

18. Allow yourself only one kill attempt. If your opponent picks it up, pass him or her on the next shot, since a pass will probably score while another kill attempt will likely be picked up too. The rule: Rework the rally, just as good basketball teams do.

19. When receiving service, don’t try to win the rally until you’ve successfully changed positions with the server.

20. Call your opponent’s shots before they swing (though not out loud, as that’s an avoidable). Thus, you will truly be anticipating where you should be on the court.

21. Run to a position on the court a step or two deeper than where you think you will make contact with the ball. This is called the pre-shoot position and where you’ll be able to step into every shot.

When killing the ball, get low, get set and remember to follow through with your swing.  Photo by Matt Krueger

Equipment bonus:  When you find a pair of court shoes you really like, buy a few pair as they will be replaced by a new model when you need another pair.

Practice bonus:  Learn to hit a shot in its simplest form — for example, from close to the front wall. Once you’ve become adept at the easy version, move farther away from the target and so on until you’ve duplicated a game situation. If there’s ever a doubt as to how you should hit a shot or serve, throw the ball and take a mental picture (or video) of how you’re throwing and where you’re letting go. That will be how you hit it.

Enjoy the journey of getting to 21 first!

We’ve all heard this sage advice to the beginning handball player:  “Get back to center court after you hit your shot!”

Of course, this is sound counsel to the beginner, who is striving to merely make contact with the ball and doesn’t have a clue where his opponent will hit the next shot. Assuming equal ability levels, the opponent probably doesn’t know where he’s going to hit his shot either. 

Thus, the physical center of the court, 20 feet from the front wall and 10 feet from either side wall, is a good starting point for the beginner.

But once you learn to anticipate the shot options available to your opponent, only on a few occasions is the true center of the court the best place to be when your opponent is striking the ball.

A defensive player positioned behind true center court has better options, depending on what shot the opponent takes.

A simple example would be when your opponent is in deep court and hitting with an overhand stroke. Unless you wanted to run extra distances for a great workout, why would you go to the center of the court when your opponent will be hitting a shot that will almost certainly carry into the deep court? Why not start drifting back to get into a great pre-shoot position to return the most likely shot your opponent will hit, a ceiling shot?

There are many reasons the center of the court is not the best place to be. First, let’s start thinking of center court in terms of the reaction time needed to return the shot your opponent will most likely hit, as well as the pre-shoot position you need to attain before hitting your shot. Of course, it’s also important to remember your ability to run faster forward than backward.

The pre-shoot position, a step or two behind and a step away from where you will contact the ball, is very important to consider since any handballer has to be moving forward as he hits the ball. If you don’t step into the shot, it will be a weak one that will probably go errant.

This pre-shoot position means little to the beginner, who is caught up in merely chasing the ball around the court until he can hit it. But for the more experienced player, pre-shoot position is the most important factor for a successful shot.  In fact, the better the player, the more often he strides into his shot with his favorite stroke.

Considering the necessity of getting to a good pre-shoot position, center court in terms of reaction time needed will be at least a step behind the physical center of the court. Figure at least a step, since we must remember our ability to move faster forward than backpedaling.

Now consider the rules of the game. They simply state that you must return the ball before it bounces twice on the floor. Even the best kill-shot artists rarely hit their shots so low that they bounce twice before reaching the service line.  Thus, we’ve dramatically lessened the amount of floor space we’ll need to cover.  Since we’ll never have to protect the portion of the court very near the front wall, we can take another step back from the physical center for our center-court position in terms of reaction time.

These are the easily defined aspects of playing percentage handball, being in the best possible position to hit the best shot the highest percentage of the time. The same principle has long been taught for positioning when receiving service. The percentage player’s receiving position is very deep in the court, just a comfortable distance from the back wall. The reason is simple. From that position, the percentage player will never be forced to reach back as he returns the serve but will be moving forward into every return. This also is the essence of good pre-shoot position.

Of course, there will be exceptions, and the receiver can make an adjustment and move forward in the court if the opponent hits an extremely soft serve or is having an exceptional day at hitting the crack. But how often have you lost a match because your opponent was cracking out aces? Almost any losing cause is due more to consistently weak service returns from poor pre-shoot positions.

Unfortunately, center court in terms of reaction time cannot be defined as a specific spot on the court. When we backed up center court to two steps behind the short line and equidistant from either side wall, we didn’t take into account the way our opponent was setting up to hit his shot or the shot that we just hit.

So we’re going to broaden this area by putting our anticipation skills to good use. When we’re finished defining it, center court in terms of reaction time will be a large, egg-shaped area.

There’s one more consideration we’ll need to account for, whether we move better to our right or our left and which hand we’d rather use to return the ball. For most of us, this will result in a position with our strong arms resting equidistant from either side wall rather than the center of our body.

Before we try to determine where our opponent is going to hit his shot, we can start our quest to be in the best position by merely following our shot around the court. You’ll want to follow your shot around the court from within the egg-shaped area for a couple of reasons:

• So you can be in the best position no matter when your opponent decided to hit his shot, whether it be out of the air or after it travels deeper in the court.
• So you can stay on your toes and move around this area, thereby keeping the beat of the rally, ready to move and make whatever play is necessary.

Your movement inside this area will directly correspond to the path of the shot you hit. If your shot is headed to the deep right, you will be moving toward the deep right portion of the egg-shaped area. If  your shot is a three-wall wrap, you will be moving inside the area as the ball travels around the court. This will put you in the best position to retrieve your opponent’s shot if he attempts to take it on the fly or if he backs up to return it from deep court.

You’ll want to keep moving around this area as your shot travels around the court until your opponent starts to set up to hit his shot. Until he starts to move into his shot, you won’t be able to anticipate where he’s aiming.

But if he’s on the right side of the court, he can hit a shot down the right wall to end the rally much more quickly than he could pass you on the left. It would take much longer for the ball to travel the extra distance–and here is where reaction time comes into play. A shot hit cross-court will take longer to travel the extra distance than a shot hit down the side wall to which your opponent is nearest.

Moving to the right to protect yourself from the quick shot down the right side wall will also help in forcing your opponent to hit the shot that will give you more time to react, the one to the left.

And you can probably start thinking about moving in that direction, since no knowledgeable handballer will hit the ball right back to you. Of course, this same theory will apply to shots that will have to be played near the left wall.

However, a word of caution is needed. Whenever I bring up this center-court theory at clinics, it never fails that at least one player turns this anticipation theory into an obvious intimidation ploy—he’ll play far too close to the opponent. It is not intended to help you create avoidable hinders by over-killing this strategy. Use it to achieve great pre-shoot position and be in good position to retrieve your opponent’s offensive attempts. The intimidation factor will be present just by doing that.

Finally, as your opponent sets to hit his shot, your anticipation skills will come into play. The key to having great anticipation skills is to remember how you aim your shots and then watch your opponent set up to hit his shots. Of course,you’ll want to scout any new opponent and remember any favorite shots of a regular opponent. The same mechanical rules you follow in hitting a handball will most certainly apply to your opponent.

If your opponent is in deep court, setting to hit an overhand shot, you can safely stay in deep court. His shot will almost definitely end up in deep court. If it doesn’t, you’ll still have time to cover an errant shot that ends up in the front court.
However, the anticipation clues your opponent gives you get stickier when he is setting to hit an underhand or sidearm shot. But the angle of his body, determined by drawing an imaginary line between the tie in his shoestrings, will tell you which side of the court he is aiming his shot.

Cheating up into true center court can be a good move when the opponent is forced into playing defense from a troubled position.

This line is his power line, the direction his body weight is moving. Just like a baseball hitter can’t go to the opposite field once he steps to pull the ball, a handball player can’t send his weight in one direction and hit the ball in another with any consistency.

After noting your opponent’s depth in the court, stroke and power line, you’ll want to note the amount of bend in his legs. No one can kill consistently from a standing position, but they can still pass you. So prepare for the pass on these occasions when he’s hitting sidearm but with no bend in the legs. 

When the front knee is deeply bent, you will have to prepare for the kill attempt but still be ready to chase a pass or even a punch to the ceiling, since he still has each of these options. A scouting report will help you determine this player’s tendencies.

The last possible moment to make your move to a good pre-shoot position is as the ball leaves your opponent’s hand. If you weren’t already moving, you have lost some valuable time. Now is the time to make up for your slow start.

There’s nothing more disadvantageous to your getting to a good pre-shoot position or making a retrieve than not making a move, even if your initial move is wrong. You’ll find that with practice, your wrong moves will be fewer, while your great gets and good pre-shoot positions will be envied.

Upon hearing this argument for center-court position in terms of reaction time, which is deeper in the court than true center court, some have argued that the player who follows this strategy won’t be able to keep pressure on his opponent with the fly shot. But nothing could be further from the truth. You’ll find yourself in position for many more fly shots. Again, the reasoning is simple.

Most fly shots are hit from the area behind the service line and in front of the receiver’s restraining lines. A good pre-shoot position for these fly opportunities obviously fits with the deeper court positioning we’ve been discussing. Thus, we won’t be positioned in front of the short line unless we’re sure our opponent is attempting a kill.

If we were positioned at the short line to take advantage of fly opportunities, we would only have a good pre-shoot position for those balls that can be taken on the fly forward of the service line. However, those aren’t really fly opportunities, since the ball would be dropping too fast and we wouldn’t have the time necessary to stroke the ball—they’re just too difficult to fly. A short-line position needlessly leaves us too vulnerable to the pass without the reaction time necessary to make any other kind of play.

Hopefully, you will now be moving forward into every shot you hit.

Avoid the shaded gray area in the middle portion of the court when you’re hitting straight-line, front-to-back shots.  Use the green side corridors to get the most effectiveness out of your straight-line, front-to-back shots.

By Mike Dau
Handball Coach
Lake Forest College

Some years back, a great player shared with me his thoughts about playing a perfect game. To accomplish this nearly impossible task, he said that all his straight-line, front-to-back shots would run down the walls and all his other shots would contact at least one side wall.

It certainly sounded simple enough, but with my limited knowledge of the game, I needed an explanation in greater depth.

“Avoid hitting straight-line shots in the area between the doubles boxes,” he said. “In other words, keep them out of the middle of the court, and execute angle shots when you cannot control the ball down the walls.”

If you can visualize a narrow corridor the width of the doubles box on both sides of the court, this is the area for hitting straight-line, front-to-back shots (see the diagram). These would include serves, kills, passes and ceiling shots.  Creating difficult situations for an opponent is basic strategy in any match. This objective is better achieved the closer the ball runs down a wall.

When a rally situation makes it difficult to execute a straight-line shot down a wall, then a cross-court angle shot is the best option. Using the side walls correctly can either end a rally or dictate a defensive return by your opponent.

The diagrams below are defensive shots executed from the back quarter of the court taken off the back wall or a ground stroke off the floor.

Diagram A: Illustrates a shot taken near the right side wall that requires the use of the right hand. The ball should be directed to the front wall, left of center, 4 to 6 feet high, with power and at an angle that allows the ball to contact the side wall near the short line.

Diagram B: Illustrates a shot taken near the left side wall that requires the use of the left hand. It is the same shot shown in Diagram A, except that the ball is directed to the right of center.

Diagram C: Illustrates a shot taken near the middle of the court. From this position the ball can be directed into two walls, right or left. The principles in Diagrams A and B can be applied, although the angle must be adjusted.

Diagram D: Illustrates a three-wall option to Diagram C. The ball directed side-front-side has to be hit hard and should contact the initial side wall 8 to 12 feet high. Hitting the ball higher might result in the ball rebounding back into the front court and providing the opponent with an offensive opportunity. Generally, a right-handed player from this deep mid-court position would drive the ball into the right side wall, and a left-handed player would drive the ball into the left side wall.

Diagram E: Illustrates a three-wall shot taken by a right-handed player 3 to 4 feet from the left wall, enough space to allow hitting the ball with the right hand. A left-handed player could hit the same type of shot, with the left hand, 3 to 4 feet from the right wall, directing it into the left side wall.

To elevate your game to another level, consistency in cross-court shots must be achieved. There is no solution other than practice, and you can start by standing in the back quarter of the court, dropping the ball as you would when serving and trying to execute the angle shots as described. The next step would be to lag the ball into the front wall, forcing you to take a ground stroke in the back quarter, each time in different floor positions. Then try back-wall shots from the back quarter, again moving the location, forcing different angles.

Over the years in teaching seminars, I have used the catchphrase “High diddle, diddle, keep the ball out of the middle.”  Easy to say, not so easy to do unless you work at it.