The Handball Shot Guide

This week's shot to practice is:

The Direction Changer

This is a very commonly used shot all over the handball court. When performed with precision can be deadly.

The shot involves facing the direction the ball will be coming head on. Upon the ball reaching your hand inbetween knee and chest level you simply step the leg, which is on the side that you're to change the direction of the ball to, backward turning your whole body side on to the direction the ball came from. You just nudge the ball in the direction you want the ball to go utilizing the power, speed and momentum the ball has already obtained to do the work for you.
You must ensure you hit the ball down and that you move your body as you change the direction of the ball so as to prevent it hitting you.

Now this shot is similar to the pull shot but must be differentiated from it, for the Direction Changer the ball must only change by an obtuse angle. Anything more than 89 degrees is a pull shot and so will loose a lot of the speed, power and momentum which are necessary to make this it effective. The best areas to use this shot are in Kings as the ball is sent from all sides directly at you. I do not recommend playing The Direction Changer in any of the corner squares without the skill or knowledge of what you're doing as the ball will most probably land outside of the squares resulting in you getting out. This shot can be very sneaky as it is often not expected and can generate a lot of pace if used in the right situations.

Pros and Cons

A few of the Pros

• Has a very wide target area
• Can easily get you out of sticky situations by getting the ball out of dangerous areas
• Is quick, deadly and unexpected
• When placed perfectly is unstoppable
• Usually a very low shot so players are unable to header it well

A few of the Cons

• Is often hard to control with such pace
• Cannot be used in one on ones
• Can only be used in half the squares
• Usually can only be used to get out weaker players due to the high opposite low square layout

Happy Handballing!