Learn setting a screen in handball: block a defender legally with your body, create space for teammates and avoid fouls and injuries as you do so.
Setting a screen in handball means you position your body between a defender and his path so that he can no longer reach his opponent. The rulebook explicitly allows using the trunk to block the opponent in a struggle for positions [1]. One word in the rule comment is decisive: setting, maintaining and moving out of the block must be "passive" in relation to the opponent [1].
The honest answer to "Where is the line to a foul?": You may stand and let him run into you. You may not stop him with arms, hands or legs, push him away, hold him, or run or jump into him [1]. Create space without pushing and you are in the game. Push and you give away a free throw.
How long it takes to learn the timing with teammates depends on your team; there is no solid study figure for it, that is coaching experience. We have not read a dedicated study on screens in handball; the technique below is practice standard based on the rules.
A good screen looks as if someone is simply standing in the way.
Using the trunk to block the opponent in a struggle for positions is allowed. Blocking with arms, hands or legs, pushing away, holding, and running or jumping into him are forbidden [1]. Milestone: You can explain in your own words why "passive" is the decisive word.
Stand so that your body is between the defender and the space your teammate wants to use. Feet shoulder-width apart, knees bent, arms bent in front of the body but not stretched out. Milestone: In 8 of 10 attempts you stand so that the defender has to get past you.
The defender runs into you, you stay put and do not give way, but you do not push back either. Weight stays over the feet, contact is absorbed with the trunk. Milestone: 5 contacts in a row without pushing or stretching your arms out.
A backcourt player runs past your screen and uses the space created for a shot or a breakthrough. Timing is everything: you stand before he starts. Milestone: In 8 of 10 reps your teammate reaches the free space and you have committed no foul.
Releasing must be passive too [1]. After the block do not turn into the defender, release into the free space and offer yourself as a passing option. Milestone: You release without contact 8 of 10 times and are available for a pass.
Whoever screens stands in contact. In a video analysis of 580 injuries in men's professional handball (only absences of more than 7 days), wing and pivot players had the highest proportions of contact injuries (56.9% and 58.4%). Head, hand, shoulder and ankle injuries mostly came from direct contact [2]. That makes the screen the place where technique prevents injuries.
The rules protect you and your opponent: whoever hits the torso or throwing arm hard, or runs or jumps into an opponent at high speed, risks an immediate 2-minute suspension and, in case of danger, disqualification [1]. In an analysis of the 2017 World Championship, receiving 1 to 2 suspensions was associated with injury (odds ratio 2.77) [3]. That is an association, not proof of cause and effect. This guide explains and motivates; it does not replace supervised training or a coach.
Before the move, agree with your teammate on which side he runs past. A screen is only half as good if the teammate runs to the wrong side. A short look or a word is enough. This is practical experience, not a study. It is notable where shots hurt: at the 2015 World Championship, attackers in jump shots most often hit injured defenders with the knee (5 cases) [4]. As a practical conclusion: set the screen so that you do not stand in a shooter's take-off path.
A screen is the legal blocking of a defender with the body so that a teammate gets space for a shot, a breakthrough or a pass. It must be set, held and released passively [1].
A screen stays passive: you stand and let yourself be run into. A foul is blocking with arms, hands or legs, pushing away, holding or running into [1].
Usually pivots and wing players. In a video analysis of 580 injuries in men's professional handball they had the highest proportion of contact injuries [2].
You cannot: you need at least one partner. Train standing and contact first without a ball, then with a ball, and pay attention to passive behaviour.
Breakthrough in Handball: Past the Defender Into a Scoring Chance