Indoor

Handball, or Team Handball as it is known in North America, is a Summer Olympic sport played on a 20m x 40m court with goals at each end.  The ball is passed between team mates at high speed and attacking players use fast counter attacks and clever moves to overcome the defence and create opportunities to score.  Only the goal keeper is allowed in the 6m goal area that surrounds the goal.

 

The final confrontation between shooter and goal keeper adds to the dramatic outcome of the attack.  Team Handball is reputed as being the fastest ball sport.  There is a great deal of physical contact and end-to-end action involving high jumps, powerful throws and spectactular agility. 

The official International Handball Federation (IHF) Rules.  

Here is some more detailed information on the size of the goals and the court markings.
 

Beach

Beach Handball is now a well established worldwide phenomenon.  It's based on Handball, but is of course a bit different.  Just like 'Beach Volleyball' is different than 'Volleyball'.

The International Handball Federation (IHF) Beach Handball Rules are the best way to explain how to play.  In principle, you have a smaller court, 12m x 27m, which provides for a 15m playing zone, with a rectangular 12m x 6m goalkeepers zone at each end.  The usual 2m x 3m goals are placed at each end of the court.

4-a-side teams, including goalkeeper and up to 4 subs, play 2x10 minute halves with a 5 minute break in between.  You score 2 points if you score a "spectacular" goal, such as an alley-oop.

History

The sport of handball as it is played today certainly has a chequered history. The very fact that man has always been more adept at using his hands than his feet lends credibility to the claim made by famous sports historians that he started playing handball much earlier than, say, football.

The games that were precursors of handball can only said to be distantly related to it in terms of their structure and rules of play. Nonetheless, the games of "Urania" played by the Ancient Greeks (and described by Homer in the Odyssey) and "Harpaston" played by the Romans (and described by the Roman doctor Claudius Galenus in 130 to 200 A.D.) as well as in the "Fangballspiel" (or 'catch ball game') featured in the songs of the German lyrical poet Walther von der Vogelweide (1170-1230) all contained certain features that can be described as ancient forms of handball.

Modern handball was first played towards the end of the 19th century. For instance, one such game was played in the Danish town of Nyborg in 1897. The real impulses emanated from Denmark, Germany and Sweden. The founding fathers of field handball were probably German physical education experts who gained recognition for field handball as a separate sport at the turn of the century, based on the games of "Raffball" ('snatch ball') and "Königsbergerball" (Konrad Koch 1846-1911). In Sweden it was G. Wallström who introduced his country to a certain sport named "handball" in 1910.