Chinese Handball - Australian Variation

Australian Variation

A game very similar to Chinese handball is still very popular in Australian schools, where it is known simply as "handball". Some schools even have specially designed handball courts, which are divided into one-and-a-half metre or two-metre squares.

The Australian version of the game has enough variation to be considered on its own merits. Historically, as the wall version was mainly introduced through primary and secondary schools, despite its incredible popularity from the 1950s to 1970s in countries like Australia and New Zealand, it has experienced a gradual demise in many sections of these and certain other countries since those times. This 'trend' seemed to be more the result of a changing policy by education itself rather than a conscious decision made by young people, to "update" and build new and alter existing schools to include narrow paths and garden beds of various kinds around the perimeters of the school walls. Thus this newer policy prevented the playing of this game against the wall in many instances.

Nevertheless, with such a great number of different games and activities now being referred to as "handball" and with the advent of the quite different Olympic game of same name, in order to reduce confusion, the wall handball game in Australia (previously also called "downball" - which also carries other versions) is currently under some consideration for a name change to "Rebound Handball" by one of the game's former associations in Australia, the Victorian Downball-Veeball Association, though this has not yet come to full fruition at this stage. See Australian Handball