Which handball rules does a player have to know?

Rule 7:2 lets you hold the ball for a maximum of 3 seconds, and that includes a ball lying on the floor. Rule 7:3 allows a maximum of 3 steps after you catch it.

The steps are counted precisely. If you catch the ball in the air and land on one foot, or on both feet together, that landing is not a step. A step is taken when you lift a foot and put it down again, or move a foot from one place to another. Dragging the back foot behind the front one counts as one step.

Falling over with the ball, sliding and getting up to play it is legal. So is diving for a loose ball, controlling it and standing up.

What the referee whistles is a free throw for the other team, taken from where the error happened.

Rule 7:4 gives you three ways to move the ball while standing or running: bounce it once and catch it, bounce it repeatedly with one hand, or roll it along the floor with one hand. Once you hold the ball again in one or both hands, the clock restarts at 3 seconds or 3 steps and then it must go.

In practice that means 3 steps, a dribble and 3 more steps is a legal sequence. Catching the ball and starting a second dribble is not. Rule 7:7 forbids touching the ball more than once after you have controlled it, unless it touched the floor, another player or the goal in between. A fumble while trying to catch the ball does not count.

Two more rules surprise players who come from football. You may not play the ball with your foot or leg below the knee, unless an opponent threw it at you (7:8). And you may not touch the ball while any part of your body is on the floor outside the court (7:10).

Under Rule 6:1, only the goalkeeper may enter the goal area. The goal-area line is part of the area, so touching it with any part of your body counts as entering.

As an attacker, you may take off outside the line, release the ball in the air and land inside. That is not penalised, as long as you played the ball before touching the area and your landing does not disadvantage the opponents (6:3a). Step on the line with the ball in your hand and the decision is a goalkeeper throw for the defending team (6:2a).

As a defender, standing on the line to block a shot is entering. If it gains your team an advantage, the opponents get a free throw (6:2b). If it destroys a clear chance of scoring, they get a 7-metre throw (6:2c).

A ball rolling inside the goal area belongs to the goalkeeper's team and only the goalkeeper may touch it. You may play a ball that is in the air over the goal area (6:5).

Football has neither an area reserved for the goalkeeper nor passive play. Basketball has a 24-second limit on each attack, but no zone that only one player may enter.

Rule 7:11 forbids keeping the ball without a recognisable attempt to attack or shoot. When the referees see a tendency to passive play, one of them raises an arm: the forewarning signal (7:12).

From that moment your team has at most 4 passes. If no shot has been taken when the 5th pass is received, the opponents get a free throw. The referees can also call passive play earlier, at any moment, if the way you attack does not change after the signal.

Clarification No. 4 adds three details for players:

• A free throw or throw-in for your team after the signal does not reset the pass count.
• A pass or shot blocked by a defender that comes back to your team counts as a pass.
• If you get a free throw, throw-in or goalkeeper throw after the 4th pass, you may combine that throw with one more pass to finish the attack.

National federations may set a different number of passes for age groups and levels, up to a maximum of six. Youth competitions are where you will meet this, so ask your coach which number applies.

Yes. A team has up to 16 players and no more than 7 on the court at once (4:1). Rule 4:1 also says that a team playing without a goalkeeper may have a maximum of 7 court players on the court at the same time.

Coaches use this when they are a player short after a suspension or chasing a goal late in the match: the goalkeeper goes to the bench and a seventh court player comes on. That leaves the goal empty, and after a turnover the opponents can shoot at it from their own half.

The extra court player still cannot stand in the goal area. Only a player identified as the goalkeeper may enter it.

A team needs at least 5 players on the court to start a match. The match may continue if suspensions take a team below five; the referees decide whether and when it is stopped for good.

Handball punishes fouls progressively, and the steps are fixed in Rule 16.

• Warning (yellow card). A player should not get more than one warning, and a team no more than three in total. After that the punishment must be at least a 2-minute suspension (16:1 Comment). A player who already has a suspension should not get a warning afterwards.
• Suspension (two fingers raised). It always lasts 2 minutes of playing time, and your team may not replace you on the court in that time (16:5). The 2 minutes start when play restarts with a whistle.
• Third suspension. The third suspension for the same player always leads to a disqualification (16:5).
• Disqualification (red card). You leave the court and the bench for the rest of the match, and your team plays a player short for 2 minutes (16:8). After those 2 minutes another player may come on.
• Blue card. Shown after the red card, it tells everyone the referees will send a written report. The competition's disciplinary body then decides whether a further ban follows.

Some fouls skip the warning. Rule 16:3c lists fouls that go straight to a suspension, and a dangerous foul can be a red card on its own.

It does. If your 2 minutes are not over at half-time, the rest runs at the start of the second half. The same applies from regular time into overtime, and within overtime (16:5).

In a cup match, the last line of Rule 16:5 comes into play. A player whose suspension has not expired at the end of overtime is not entitled to take part in a tie-breaker of 7-metre throws. Rule 2:2 says the same from the other side: only players who are not suspended or disqualified at the end of playing time may take part.

In that 7-metre throwing each team nominates 5 players, who throw alternately. If it is still level after five throws each, both teams nominate five again, and from then on the first goal difference after an equal number of throws decides (2:2 Comment).

Whether a draw goes to overtime first or straight to 7-metre throws is set by the competition rules. Ask before the tournament.

A 7-metre throw must be taken as a shot on goal within 3 seconds of the referee's whistle (14:4). Waiting longer is a free throw for the defending team.

The thrower stands behind the 7-metre line, no more than 1 metre back (14:5), and may not touch or cross the line before the ball has left the hand. Teammates and opponents stay outside the free-throw line until then.

The Polish, German and Spanish rule books call this throw a rzut karny, 7-m-Wurf and lanzamiento de 7 metros. The rule is the same in all three.

Rule 3 sets ball sizes by age and gender, in two categories: balls for play with resin and balls for play without it.

The size and weight of balls for mini handball are not regulated in the playing rules. Your federation or the tournament sets them.

The IHF guidelines on equipment allow resin, and you may keep a deposit of it on your shoes. A deposit on the hand or wrist is not allowed under Rule 4:9, because the resin can get into an opponent's face. National federations may add their own restrictions, so check before you pack the tin.

Playing time follows age too: 2 × 30 minutes from age 16, 2 × 25 minutes for 12 to 16, 2 × 20 minutes for 8 to 12 (2:1).

The Regulations for IHF Competitions give 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a defeat. When teams finish level on points, the first criteria are the matches between the teams concerned: points, then goal difference, then goals scored in those matches. Only after that come goal difference and goals scored across all matches, and finally a drawing of lots.

So in a group of four, a win over the team you are level with can be worth more than a big win against the bottom team.

National leagues have their own rules. The German DHB-Spielordnung also awards 2:0 points for a win and 1:1 for a draw, puts head-to-head results first and then uses deciding matches, unless the federation chose another method such as goal difference (§42–44).

The organizer sets up the competition. As a player or parent you mostly follow it.

• The scoreboard. The handball live scoreboard runs a cumulative clock of 2 × 30 minutes, overtime of 2 × 5 minutes and 7-metre throws. A 2-minute suspension appears with a countdown that runs on playing time, so anyone holding the board's link can see how long a player still has to sit out. Yellow, red and blue cards are recorded too.
• Third suspension. When the operator records a third suspension for the same shirt number, the scoreboard turns it into a disqualification on its own.
• The table. A new club tournament bracket or league for handball starts with the IHF table rules: 2-1-0, then the matches between the teams concerned. JudgeMate does not draw lots. If the rules cannot separate teams, the organizer sets the order. Deciding matches as in the DHB-Spielordnung are not built in.
• Walkovers count as 10-0 by default, and the organizer can change that score.
• Results. By default the organizer enters them. If the organizer switches on reporting by teams, one side enters the score and the other confirms it, but only in group matches, round robins and league matches. Knockout, consolation and third-place matches are closed by the organizer or the referee.

The handball glossary explains the terms used here, and the handball referee guide covers the same rules from the referees' side.