What is this game called... "Asia ball"?

July 10, 2013 5:29 PM

Earlier today I watched a short clip of 2 teams playing a game of... what, exactly? It was an indoor game, and there were field hockey / small soccer goals on each end of the court. Like soccer there were around 10 people for each team, but unlike soccer players seemed to use only their hands to pass the ball -- they couldn't kick it or dribble it, but they could bounce it to each other or into the goal. The ball itself was smaller than a basketball, maybe about the size of a small volleyball. Anyone know what this game might be? This game was between teams from mainland China and Taiwan and the clip was from a Hong Kong news show, so that all leads me to suppose this might be a game played only in Asia. Bonus points if you know the name of it in Chinese!
posted by ditto75 to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (5 answers total)

Most likely team handball. It's an Olympic sport.
posted by briank at 5:33 PM on July 10, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks briank...dunno why I didn't think of handball!
posted by ditto75 at 5:37 PM on July 10, 2013

Yeah, that's it. We played it in gym in school (Maryland, USA) under the name "European handball."
posted by drjimmy11 at 5:55 PM on July 10, 2013

Oh, and here's the Chinese Wikipedia page on the subject. (Don't ask me how to pronounce it, though.)
posted by Johnny Assay at 7:42 PM on July 10, 2013

"Don't ask me how to pronounce it, though."

手球, Mandarin shǒuqiú, lit. 'hand ball'.

Also reminds me of Sepak takraw/kab taub.
posted by jiawen at 6:12 AM on July 11, 2013