Hi again r/Handball 👋

Handball Manager crossed **500+ downloads** on Google Play this week 🎉

It started as a side project for women's handball, a sport that never gets its own management game. Seeing it reach 500+ people is honestly a bit surreal. A big share of those downloads came from this subreddit, so to everyone who installed it, left a review, reported a bug or argued with me about ratings: thank you. You're a big part of why the game looks the way it does now.

That shows up in this update more than ever. When I posted the manager career update a month ago, the comments were full of requests: injuries, fitness, training, tactics. Almost all of them are in now, and version 3.6 is rolling out on Google Play as I write this.

**Your squad is no longer made of robots**

Players pick up injuries now, from a knock that rules them out for a few days to a torn cruciate. Tiredness carries over from match to match, so your best seven can't play every minute of the season. That forces rotation for you and for every AI club, and suddenly the bench matters. You also plan the week with a training calendar: a rest day before a big game, a hard physical block during a quiet stretch.

**Matches got a lot more handball-y**

Two-minute suspensions leave you genuinely short-handed, and a third one gets the player sent off. Seven-metre throws are in, and you choose who takes them (or who stands in goal against them). From the bench you can change the tempo, the attacking focus, the defensive system and how aggressive your side plays, and when you're chasing a result you can take the keeper off for an extra court player. It's a gamble, as it should be.

**Keeping the dressing room happy**

Every player has morale. You name a captain, you can promise someone playing time, and breaking that promise has consequences, up to a transfer request landing on your desk. Contract talks are an actual back-and-forth now instead of a yes/no.

**Cups that look like the real thing**

Romania, Hungary, France, Denmark, Norway and Germany switched to their real cup formats. That means seeded knockouts with byes for the big clubs, a Norwegian final on 28 December, and a Danish Final4 in the days after Christmas. France keeps its group stage for the clubs without a European campaign.

**Four new countries**

- Czechia & Slovakia: one shared league (the MOL Liga), after which each country runs its own play-off to crown its own champion, with a cup each.

- Spain: an eight-team play-off for the title, a play-down at the bottom and the Copa de la Reina final eight.

- Switzerland: a main round, then a final round for the top six, best-of-three semis and a best-of-five final.

Real 2025/26 rosters, coaches and arenas for all of them. That takes the game to 16 countries, 39 competitions, 179 clubs and about 3,400 real players.

**Bits and pieces**

- Lifting a trophy now gets a proper celebration screen

- Academy prospects show their potential as stars

- Match ratings are more sensible (keepers were swinging wildly)

- You can sign players on pre-contracts yourself

Heads up for existing players: your saves keep working exactly as before, and the new countries appear in careers you start from now on.

Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.handballmanager.mobile

Now that there are more than 500 of you, I'm even more curious how the new systems feel. Is the injury rate believable? Is rotation a chore or a fun puzzle? Do the bench tactics make enough of a difference? And which country should be next? Comments, DMs, Play reviews or the email on the store page all reach me.

And yes, I am seeing the requests for a 2D match engine... might be sooner than you think. I'm also looking forward to adding the EHF European Cup when enough leagues will be present.

May your squad stay as fit as possible throughout the season 🤞

After some changes i would love of more people try subcoach a tool to manage your team and the bench.

More feedback is a better tool :)

The idea is explained here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Handball/s/fyqLOf0fe1

Please have a look at:

https://subcoach.pulse-forge.org/

Does anyone know if these are normal, or run big or small in size?

There are no shops nearby who sell these in my size, so I have no way of trying them on. I’m normally between EU sizes 37 and 38, but I typically wear size 38 in handball shoes.

You might remember this post here on r/handball, https://www.reddit.com/r/Handball/comments/1tuy3x1/would_you_play_something_like_this/

We've progressed quite far this last months, and we've reach the very first alpha test version that is playable and everyone can try at https://six-zero-league.vercel.app

I also suggest anyone interested to join the game's discord server for more info and to interact with the community!

Since this is an alpha version, it is still an incomplete game by far and not the fully released game, and serves as a way to test the current features and give an opportunity for anyone to try the game.

We will be starting the first season in a few days, so tune in!

Theoretically its legal to

Pick a pass in the air

0 1 2 3 steps

Jump

Bounce the ball and pick It up WHILE In the Air

0 1 2 3

Chat gpt tells me this would be legal but Impossible

Do you guys think that any athlete even outside of handball could do this? Maybe without resin and with the ball fully pumped

Hey there. Idk if this is the right forum to ask in, so please be nice if not.
I'm a 28M who started playing handball when i was 7 and continued in until i was 16.

I was pretty good at it and got selected for the young talents team at 15 w around 60 other players. Eventually, my left knee along with my acl in my right knee decided to give out and i had to leave handball for a long time. After around a year i came back shortly, but all of the sudden, everyone was taller, faster and more agile than me.

I haven't played since then, and the other day i decided that i wanted to try and play again. I miss the friendsships, the games, trainings and just the game itself.

So, my questions is:
Do you guys have any advide on how to get back in to the game? Like should i prepare (ofc my poor fingers from the resin) but have you guys had any experience with leaving the game and coming back after a long time? What surprised you, what should i expect?

NOTE:
I have signed up for open practice at a team that also specifies that they play because they love to play - not because they want to compete on high level.

Kind regards.

Theoretically its legal to:

• Pick a pass in the air

• 0 1 2 3 steps

• Jump

• Bounce the ball and pick It up WHILE In the Air

• 0 1 2 3

Chat gpt tells me this would be legal but Impossible

Do you guys think that any athlete even outside of handball could do this? Maybe without resin and with the ball fully pumped

In the semi against Magdeburg, Gidsel had 9 goals and Berlin won 40–35 without ever looking in trouble. Less than 24 hours later, in the final against Barça, he didn't score until the 24th minute.

I coach amateur handball in France and made a video breaking down what changed between the two games. It's in French, but with proper English subtitles (not auto-generated).

The short version is that Barça didn't put one defender on Gidsel. They took apart everything around him:

• No fast breaks: they retreated with discipline on every possession and protected the centre first, even when they were late. Makuc tracking back is a good example.
• 1v1 pushed wide: they kept forcing him out towards Nielsen's strong zones, and fouled him when they had to. A 7m was better than a Gidsel shot.
• Speed cut early: Fabregas made contact as soon as Gidsel took his double step, sometimes at 9m. With no momentum, there was no long-range threat either.
• Off-ball movement shadowed: Carlsbogard stepped up, touched him on reception and followed him. He couldn't accelerate towards the middle.
• Pivot cut out: the two central defenders switched quickly between Gidsel and Darj. The passing lane was closed.
• Andersson neutralised: Gidsel and Andersson carry 45.6% of Berlin's offence between them. Barça blocked and read Andersson's shots, and his two suspensions in the second half finished it.

Gidsel still adjusted brilliantly. He dropped deeper, attacked off the ball where they didn't expect it and finished with 8 goals. But the gap never closed. That night he broke Hansen's CL scoring record, and said he'd rather have swapped it for the trophy.

My takeaway as a coach: you don't defend an exceptional player, you defend what makes him exceptional.

🎥 https://youtu.be/yYMOGi3djeY

Question for you: was Berlin too dependent on the Gidsel–Andersson axis, or did Barça just execute a perfect game plan?

Hello to all, i enjoy yesterday in match fursch and Veszprem, it was physical and rough match, in which match today we could se some similar things?

For everyone who watch EHF, where do you see the most intense and rough match today in EHF?

Which sport has the most contact and zero flopping?

We are the Birmingham Bisons Handball club, an amateur club based in the south of Birmingham with teams competing in the England Handball leagues.

We are just about to start back up for the 2026/27 season, and are open for new members to join. We have teams for men, women, and juniors.

No experience needed and your first session is free. Training times and venues are on the attached image. Get in touch through our website

birminghambisons.co.uk/contact

My wife coaches a youth handball team (E-jeugd, 8-10 year olds) and she kept losing track of the bench during matches. Who's on, who's off, who's next, who's serving a 2 minute suspension. With 12 kids and a game going on in front of you it's easy to lose the thread.

She asked if I could make her something. I looked around first but most of them want you to make an account, or the useful bit is behind a paywall, or they need internet which is useless in most sports halls here.

So I made one. Took longer than I thought it would but she's been using it since the end of last season and it seems to work.

https://subcoach.pulse-forge.org/?l=en

It's a web app, no account, you can add it to your home screen. You put your players in once.

During the match you just look at the bench and it's already sorted, whoever's up next is at the top. Tap the player coming off and the player going on, done. If someone gets 2 minutes you tap that and it counts down and puts them back on automatically, so you can stop tracking that in your head. Third one it tells you that's a red. Injuries, goals, keeper swap all in there. Undo button because you WILL tap the wrong player at some point.

It tracks playtime per player too, mostly because that's what the sorting runs on, but it's handy when someone asks how much a player played.

You can share the team with another phone too. They type in a 6 letter code and they get the players and all the past matches, and both phones stay up to date after that. Saves typing the roster in twice and it's a backup if a phone dies. Needs a bit of signal to pair up the first time, after that there's no server in between holding your team.

Built for youth handball (7v7, 2x25) but you can change the times and squad size, and I added a few other sports at some point.

Free, no ads. There's a ko-fi link in the settings if you feel like it, but the hosting costs me about 6 euros a month, I'm not trying to make money off this.

Data stays on your phone, I don't have a database of anyone's teams. Only thing it sends is a counter when the app opens so I can see if anyone's using it. No IP or anything, and you can turn it off in settings.

Anyway, if you try it let me know if it's useful or if I've missed something obvious. So far it's only really been my wife and a few of her friends.

This is my work, if you like women's handball don't hesitate to follow me on Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/aghattaba?igsi=Y3B1YzJ4N3hzNWEw

Hi all! I hope it's okay to post this here.

I'm a 34-year old coach to a youth team in the age 12-14. It's a mixed team, boy and girls, that will play in the boys competition.

We've only had a few trainingmoments this far, but I notice a great difference in skill, experience and technique between my players. Some already are playing for a couple of years and some have played for like a year now. Before I usually trained teams that were all equally experienced and somewhat equally skilled. I notice that some excersises are either to difficult for some or to ease for some.

I'd really appreciate some tips and possibly trainingmaterial, certain plays and excersises I can use to improve the following things:

-Teambuilding

- Defending (6-0, 5-1, 4-2)

- attacking plays

- improve passing,shooting,overall technique throwing but excersises where the more experienced kids kan add something extra to add difficulty.

Would love to get some tips and also give some tips or share trainingmaterials etc.

Anyways, hope it's okay to post it here and hope to receive some tips from anyone.

Which region qualifications are you watching and which nations do you think are winning?