Learn to catch in handball: how to receive the ball securely with two hands, protect your fingers and know how many steps you may take after the catch.
Catching in handball means taking the ball with both open hands and giving with it instead of stopping it hard. After that you have at most 3 seconds and 3 steps before you must pass, shoot or dribble [1]. If you catch cleanly, both hands are free for the next action immediately.
The honest answer to "How hard is it?": the movement itself is understood quickly. It gets hard when the ball arrives fast, you are running and an opponent is in the way. How many sessions you need to feel secure depends on where you start; there is no reliable study figure for that, it is coaching experience.
Why you should not take it lightly: in a survey of 296 adolescent elite-squad players (average age 14), 42 % reported at least one hand or wrist injury in a season. Most often hit were the middle finger joints (47 % of cases) and the thumb (29 %), mostly as sprains [2]. That is almost every second player. The survey does not break down how often this happens while catching, but fingers and thumb are the contact points of the ball.
A clean catch is the foundation for every pass, every shot and every feint.
Stand shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent. Hold your hands open in front of your chest: thumb and index finger form a triangle (a "window"), the fingers are spread and slightly bent, the palms do not touch the ball. Milestone: You can take and hold the shape with your eyes closed.
Your partner passes the ball to you, alternating between a direct pass and a bounce pass (the ball bounces once), as described in the BASPO exercise [4]. You catch with the fingers first and draw your arms to your chest like a soft cushion. Milestone: 10 balls in a row without fumbling.
Take your eyes off the ball early and look at your partner. Your hands "know" the way. Milestone: 10 out of 10 catches while keeping your partner in view on every pass.
Walk, then jog, and catch. The step rule matters: after the catch you have at most 3 steps. If only one foot touches the floor when you catch and you then put the other down, that already counts as the first step. If you catch in the air, landing does not count as a step [1]. Milestone: You can explain the rule aloud and obey it in 8 out of 10 catches.
Catch, look around and play on in rhythm. If you do not catch the ball securely at once, touching it several times is allowed as long as you had not yet controlled it [1]. Milestone: 10 catch-and-pass combinations in a row at brisk pace.
Catching is harmless when the hands are prepared and unpleasant when they are not. Warm up your fingers and wrists before play. After a hit on a finger with swelling, misalignment or pain lasting several days: have it checked. In the youth study, 36 % of moderate and severe injuries (more than 7 days of absence) were not treated by a physician [2].
The legs play a part too: in a laboratory study of 51 female handball players, a change of direction in which a ball was caught first loaded the knee measurably more than a simple change of direction [3]. So do not catch at the last second, catch early and stable. This guide explains and motivates; it does not replace supervised training or a coach.
Catch the ball with your eyes first. When your partner releases the ball, your hands move the last few centimetres toward it rather than waiting for it to arrive. This reaching out lengthens the braking distance and protects your fingers. A training game: the partner fakes the pass and you do not twitch your hands until the ball is really on its way.
After catching you may take at most 3 steps and hold the ball for at most 3 seconds before you must dribble, pass or shoot. If you catch in the air, landing on one or both feet does not count as a step [1].
Catch with spread, slightly bent fingers and give with your arms instead of stopping hard. In a survey of adolescent elite-squad players the middle finger joints and the thumb were affected most often, mostly through sprains [2]. Warm up before play.
As a beginner, yes: with two hands you catch on a larger surface and have the ball under control at once. The rules allow catching and stopping with hands, arms and torso [1]. One-handed catching comes later, once the two-handed catch is secure.
If it slips away before you had controlled it, you may touch it again. That counts as "fumbling" and is not penalised under the rules. If you had already controlled the ball, you may not touch it again before it has touched the floor, a teammate or the goal [1].
The Overarm Pass in Handball: The Standard Pass Step by Step