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Trivial Pursuits => People & Places => Topic started by: robot_god on July 07, 2010, 08:08:13 am

Title: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: robot_god on July 07, 2010, 08:08:13 am
Do you have alot of courts?  Did you play as a kid?  Still play?  Have some emotional attachment to the game?

It's pretty big, handball popularity in Queens, probably moreso then Brooklyn, Manhattan and Long Island.  But alot of it stems out of the fact that the handball court was where all the g's hung out when you were a teenager.  Go there to cop trees, blaze trees, sit around, drink 40's at night.  And since the handball court was there, people would play.

It's a big part of people's pasttimes here, really, is what I'm saying, across many generations.

This season I'm gonna do it big, FUCK IT.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: theinevitable on July 07, 2010, 08:18:59 am
I do not know what Handball is. So I guess that answers your question in re: Charlotte, North Carolina.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: KeithHernandez on July 07, 2010, 08:35:41 am
I have never seen or heard of someone playing handball, except for Jake Plummer.  That is OKC and Denver, though could conceivably be popular in Denver.

I do know that "burning tree" is my favorite way to describe burning up.  I'm on fire. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjpKb3rb2Qc)

Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: robot_god on July 07, 2010, 08:45:45 am
Jeez guys.  This.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFuMaviVvmU
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: KeithHernandez on July 07, 2010, 09:51:37 am
Oh.

We played racquetball and wall ball.  Seems pretty fun.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: Doc on July 07, 2010, 10:24:50 am
Being in an urban school with limited greenery Handball was the choice recess game. I feel old suddenly because I can't remember all the slang associated with it.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: wombat on July 07, 2010, 12:38:13 pm
This post made an old lady from the Bronx feel very nostalgic. I HATE that. Especially the craving for a jelly doughnut.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: miles on July 07, 2010, 12:44:23 pm
Come on people, it's an Olympic sport. With that said, no one in Utah plays it.

We played racquetball and wall ball.  Seems pretty fun.

Wall ball. Hell yeah, that was the best.

Edit:

Jeez guys.  This.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFuMaviVvmU

Whoa, totally different than the Olympic sport. That does seem cool.

Edit 2:

I do know that "burning tree" is my favorite way to describe burning up.  I'm on fire. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjpKb3rb2Qc)

I fuck*ng love this song. Mike Watt + Madonna = awesome
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: AugustWest on July 07, 2010, 01:09:16 pm
Handball?  Well, it's a free kick for the other team unless it happens in the penalty area...
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: Doc on July 07, 2010, 01:31:49 pm
Jeez guys.  This.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFuMaviVvmU

Ok, should have looked at that first, that is way different, and much more competent than the primary school game I knew which was more like 4 way tennis.
This  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juqHbzFCz4E&feature=related)is the best video I could find, there isn't much actual play here but there is lots of guys giving shit to each other, which was possibly the more important aspect.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: greenkoolayd on July 07, 2010, 03:07:28 pm
i have heard the name, but this is a foreign concept to me.  in middle school and jr high, hackey sack used to be a thing among the wanna-be-hippies, but i never got into it.  you guys can play with your balls all you want, but i wont be joining you.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: AugustWest on July 07, 2010, 03:10:52 pm
Looks like fun.

you guys can play with your balls all you want, but i wont be joining you.

Who asked you?  God forbid somebody has fun in a way you don't approve of.

Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: greenkoolayd on July 07, 2010, 03:12:33 pm
Who asked you?  God forbid somebody has fun in a way you don't approve of.

douche-ness was not my intent.

friggin-a........
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: jaydub on July 07, 2010, 03:45:12 pm
My dad played hell of handball back in the day.  To the point it caused nerve damage in his hands. He went to grad school at Dartmouth and I guess its what you do in New Hampshire during winter, which lasts from October to May.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: robot_god on July 16, 2010, 07:51:52 am
I played handball hard as hell today.  All of the clothes touching my body got completely soaked through with sweat.  At my current weight, it's the only activity I can go at 100+% and not have any joint pain.  I have a soccer kickaround, medium effort, ankle is destroyed, one day recovery.  I go running, endurance challenge, ankle is destroyed, two days+ recovery.  Handball, I can play until I'm nearly passing out and I'll be ready to do it again the next day.  It's like the miracle sport.

It definitely is a popular game amongst young teen g's because at that age it's the sport you can play without breaking a sweat.  All the kids try to learn a tricky, wrist flick opponent-tricking style so they can hit killers without any effort.  Trying to show off for all the 15 year old, pigeonhead hoes, is all it is.  None of the old vets buy it though.  Once you're willing to sweat, you can return almost any ball.  Also all the kids are afraid to play singles, because it's too much running for them.

If I can lose these ten, fifteen pounds, I can probably step up to the next level of competition.  Play heads that are scary good, killing the ball all time, return aces like crazy, serves that are nasty as fuck.  I like to serve it straight to my opponent for the most part but then they always start pulling out their trick serves and then they force me to show the true face, right corner serves high as shit right in front of the long line, left siders straight down the line.  Left arm better be in shape if you're gonna give me your lame-ass serves.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: jaydub on July 16, 2010, 03:01:21 pm
#*#*# god is bringing the heat.  Homeboy smackdowns all up ins.  Can you play effectively with one hand holding up your #####?  Doubles of course.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: robot_god on July 16, 2010, 08:45:11 pm
What I definitely should have that shirt for is foosball.  Without exaggeration I could probably go professional at that game.  Also, FYI, pro foosball does indeed exist.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: jaydub on July 16, 2010, 10:30:20 pm
Keep it up man, you gonna be in the niche-sport hall of relative-fame. Jaydub can join you there.
Pff, I am so unfamous in my niche sport that the biggest trophy on my shelf is an anonymous picture on a website of me winning a faceoff.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: Drygioni on July 17, 2010, 12:09:45 am
Robogod, I would fuck*ng destroy you at table football. I have won money on the damn thing.

I call you out for a match
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: robot_god on July 17, 2010, 12:42:16 am
Hah hah hah, oh would you now, I was winning money on challenge matches back when you were a spermatozoa.

I've beaten entire bars one handed without giving up a single goal.  My students, whose entire skill sets comes from just trying to beat me, have shutout entire festivals.  I'm talking like fifteen games, only one goal conceded, 150-1 aggregate.  I woulda made it 150-0.

I hold the ball and my opponents shudder in fear and anticipation.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: wombat on July 17, 2010, 01:15:02 am
I keep thinking the title of this thread is "What's your area's hairball scene like?"
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: KeithHernandez on July 17, 2010, 02:27:15 am
My dad helped put himself through law school by betting on foosball.  He lived in Germany when they had it there but not in the states, so he had quite the advantage when he came back to the US.  Me?  I blow, and because of that do not like it.  I have a friend who is really good though.  He can beat me with his non-dominant hand only.  I would have to be lucky to score a goal.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: pmcd9 on July 17, 2010, 07:51:32 am
I love to play foosball, but I have never been very good at it.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: robot_god on July 17, 2010, 09:05:20 am
The ground floor [of this house that I am in] is a deli.  The basement is pretty big and I hang out down there on a typical weekday night.  That is where my foosball tables have been kept.

The first foos table I had down there was just some table top thing someone found being thrown out of an apartment, we put it on a folding table and used a golf ball for the ball.  It sparked the crowd's interest and a dude and I went half on a $60 table from Sears, very italian-style (tornado-style) but a cheap piece-a crap.  The next table was a floor model of a $250+ table on clearance for like a buck and change.  Solid wood, german style.  It was never assembled right (floor model had to be transported intact, OMGGGG what a project) eventually became very loose at the joints and fell apart when two dudes fistfighting rolled into the legs.  My current table was $400 bucks, a Christmas gift to myself, I led the team through a great assembly and it is still strong after I think about four years.

(http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v171/106/117/779015721/n779015721_1875235_5106.jpg)
(http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-ash1/v171/106/117/779015721/n779015721_1875239_6313.jpg)
(http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v171/106/117/779015721/n779015721_1875240_6623.jpg)

Badass german-style, tornado is for tossers.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: Drygioni on July 17, 2010, 02:52:37 pm
Hah hah hah, oh would you now, I was winning money on challenge matches back when you were a spermatozoa.

I've beaten entire bars one handed without giving up a single goal.  My students, whose entire skill sets comes from just trying to beat me, have shutout entire festivals.  I'm talking like fifteen games, only one goal conceded, 150-1 aggregate.  I woulda made it 150-0.

I hold the ball and my opponents shudder in fear and anticipation.

Yeah, well, maybe you'd do alright.

I've won money but mostly due to other people not being as good. We have a decent Garlando at home which I've spent many hours practicing on so I can beat most chaps.

I'm alright defensively, but my real strengths are good control when sideways knocking between the strikers and the wrist flick strength of a rhino. A rhino with wrists.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: robot_god on July 17, 2010, 08:27:14 pm
The best part of my game is probably defense in a 2 on 2 game.  I make reaction saves that I can't even believe I make.  Then I take angled shots from the two man stick that are absolute torture for both opponents to try to save.

I take mostly drag shots.  I either control the ball and drag it around back and forth, or to be really dramatic I'll plant it dead stopped on the pitch and just stand next to it and WAIT........ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


. . . BAM!  Out of nowhere I drag it past the defender, usually dragging the ball inside towards the goal, and at light speed as soon as I clear the defender shoot it like a rocket, at an angle, towards the posts.  I do more of a fingertip roll than a wrist flick, but my secret is that it's like throwing a punch, the momentum of the shot starts in the floor and twists through the hips before it gets to the fingers, and if I'm nice and loose, no man can react quick enough to get infront of it.  Sounds like the table is gonna break when the ball clacks against the back of the goal.  Left hand, I wrist flick.  Usually once a game I'll be flashy and use my right hand on a typically left handed stick and it usually confuses most players ideas of typical defense for a pretty powerful SOG.

To be pro level, all the best players have a shot that is described as 'unbeatable' or 'unblockable' pretty much how I describe my drag shot above, but all the top players' shots are described as 'unseeable.'  All you do is hear the sound of the ball in the goal and the only way to play defense is by guesswork.  Unreal intimidation.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: littlefallsmets on July 17, 2010, 08:43:45 pm
(http://homepage.usask.ca/~jnp129/Eradicator.bmp)
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: Drygioni on July 17, 2010, 09:41:13 pm
Well you'd probably rape me at table football by the sounds of things. Still, we don't get many serious players this side of the water. Every guy my age can play pool to a reasonable degree, darts maybe a little, but table football is a strictly 'fun' thing.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: robot_god on July 17, 2010, 10:02:49 pm
Yeah it's pretty much the same thing over here, except that all my polack friends are extremely competitive at everything so everything is like "go hard or shut your pussy mouth" or it's not fun for anyone.  This one dude I beat in a game of eight-ball like ten years ago, I sunk the eightball on a bank shot, and he picked his cuestick over his head, slammed it as hard as possible flat on the rubber mat floor, AND IMMEDIATELY WALKED OUT he was so mad.  OMG, god forbid a polack loses in ping pong.  They go fuckin apeshit.  Well, we're all adults now, they don't go literally crazy, but they get pissed.

I'm kinda detached from the mentality, since I'm only half polish and basically straight American, but all the first born or only child polacks, children of immigrants... man, they really don't like to lose at anything.

That's why being the God of Foosball is so sweet.

In handball I can beat all of em except that cuestick dude, he is a God of Handball.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: robot_god on July 18, 2010, 09:13:38 am
Well you'd probably rape me at table football by the sounds of things. Still, we don't get many serious players this side of the water. Every guy my age can play pool to a reasonable degree, darts maybe a little, but table football is a strictly 'fun' thing.

No snooker?  Like, do any young dudes play it?  Hey, what is the ratio snooker/pool tables at a typical British hall?  Or snooker/pool/carom?

I guess over here it's kind of random, but if there are any non-pool tables at all it would be like 5-10% carom and the rest pool tables, and maybe at a really big hall it would be 2/30/6 snooker/pool/carom respectively.
Title: Re: What's your area's handball scene like?
Post by: pmcd9 on July 18, 2010, 06:17:12 pm
Back in the day the tables we used to play on were Dynamo.  Are they still around?  Are they considered good?