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Team handball is an indoor sport played seven against seven on a court 40 metres long and 20 metres wide, in two halves of thirty minutes. Players throw, catch and bounce a ball small enough to hold in one hand, aiming to throw it into a goal 3 metres wide and 2 metres high defended by a goalkeeper. The defining rule is the goal area: a six-metre arc in front of each goal that only the goalkeeper may stand in, so every shot is taken from outside it or from the air above it. A player may take three steps and hold the ball for three seconds before passing, dribbling or shooting. Scores are high, typically around thirty goals per team.

Seven players from each team are on court at any moment: six outfield players and a goalkeeper. The outfield positions are left wing, left back, centre back, right back, right wing and pivot, also called the line player. Teams may name up to sixteen players on the match sheet, and substitutions are unlimited and need no permission from the referees, provided players enter and leave through their own substitution zone near the halfway line. Because of that freedom, most elite teams swap several players between attack and defence on every change of possession, so almost the entire squad gets meaningful court time in a single match and defensive and attacking specialists can coexist.

A match is two halves of thirty minutes with a ten-minute interval, so sixty minutes of playing time. The clock stops for timeouts, injuries and disciplinary sanctions, which means a typical elite match takes seventy to eighty minutes in real time. Each team has three one-minute timeouts per match, with no more than two in a single half. If a knockout match is level at full time, two periods of five minutes are played; if it is still level, a second five-plus-five period follows, and if the scores remain tied the match is decided by 7-metre throws, five per side and then sudden death. In league play a draw simply stands.

A player holding the ball may take a maximum of three steps before passing, shooting or starting to dribble, and may hold the ball stationary for a maximum of three seconds. Dribbling with one hand is unlimited, but once the ball is gathered in both hands the count restarts and dribbling again is a double-dribble violation, which concedes a free throw. In practice players move in a rhythm of three steps, one bounce, three more steps, then release. The ball may be played with any part of the body above the knee; touching it with the foot or lower leg is a violation for everyone except the goalkeeper, who may use any part of the body inside the goal area.

In the men's game the two strongest nations of the modern era are France and Denmark. France hold the record with six World Championships and three Olympic golds, won mainly between 2008 and 2020, and added the 2024 European title. Denmark have been dominant since 2019, winning four consecutive World Championships in 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2025 plus Olympic gold in 2016 and 2024. Sweden, Germany, Spain, Croatia and Norway are the other consistent contenders. In the women's game Norway are the benchmark, with ten European Championships, four world titles and Olympic golds in 2008, 2012 and 2024, closely followed by Denmark, France and Hungary.

Since a 2016 rule change, a team may substitute its goalkeeper for an extra field player without any special jersey requirement, which lets it attack seven against six with its own goal empty. The extra attacker guarantees that one player is unmarked somewhere along the six-metre line, forcing the defence out of its normal sliding coverage and raising the chance of scoring. The risk is total: any turnover gives the opposition an uncontested throw at an open net from up to forty metres away. Coaches therefore use it selectively - when trailing late, when a teammate is serving a two-minute suspension, or against a defence that has been shutting down conventional attacks.