Featured Image: Alan Peebles
Who are we?
We are the National Governing Body of Handball in Scotland, responsible for the governance and development the sport across the country. The sport of handball is currently a hidden gem in the Scottish Sporting landscape. Internationally, handball is one of the most popular team sports with 27 million registered players (approx.). The Men’s Handball Euro 2020 Championship was watched by an audience of 1.1bn globally.
Photo credit: Andrew Perry
The game is fast, action packed, high scoring and a great workout for the mind and body. It is also fantastic for teaching children physical literacy. As catching, running, throwing, and jumping are the essence of the game, it is perfect for teaching key physical skills. It is also brilliantly accessible and with limited equipment needed, easy to set up and go! At the SHA, we believe handball will soon become a mainstream team sport offering at a Primary and Secondary school level across all parts of Scotland
We currently run a growing number and range of national senior, development, and age-group club leagues and competitions across Scotland. We are an associate member of the European Handball Federation and the International Handball Federation. Scottish national handball players feed into the British Handball Performance pathway.
Photo credit: Andrew Perry
Why did we choose .scot?
We chose .scot domain to emphasise our pride in our distinctively Scottish sense of identity, culture and ambitions.
We are enthusiastic collaborators with the wider Handball family across the UK, Europe and the World. We may be a developing country in Handball terms (even although we are about to celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2022) but that doesn’t mean that we are parochial in outlook – or afraid to punch above our weight in contributing to further development and innovation in our own and indeed other sports.
The .scot domain helps emphasise our strong national heritage of helping foster learning, innovation and commitment to building relationships at home and across the globe. It is literally a statement of where we are coming from, and the type of organisation and people that we aspire to be.
This is especially valuable in the sporting landscape, where we interact with Handball friends and others from over 200 countries, many of whom are unaware of the nuances and complexities of the intra-national relationships, federations and associations across the UK.
Scotland and its people are well known, well liked and widely respected across the globe – it is an instantly recognisable, hugely inclusive, and warmly welcoming statement to be Scottish – why would we not want to share in that?
Photo Credit: Richard Brooks
For more information, please visit www.handball.scot