Are you ready for some handball?

I’ve been a huge fan of the Denver Broncos since 1999. It was a fairly easy decision at the time. I’d just moved to Colorado for my specialty training in family medicine, the Broncos had just won back-to-back Super Bowls with John Elway and, most importantly, my girlfriend (now wife) was also a huge Broncos fan.  

I’ve continued to root for the Broncos over the years even after returning to Seahawks country here in North Idaho. So I was pretty starstruck meeting up with Jake “the Snake”’ Plummer recently at PEAK Health and Wellness in Coeur d’Alene for an introduction to handball. I was speechless, in fact, but luckily once Jake started talking handball, he was hard to stop, like Terrell Davis running it up the middle.

His enthusiasm for handball comes from the fact that although Jake Plummer was quarterback of the Broncos from 2003-06, he was into handball long before he picked up his first football. Growing up in southern Idaho, Jake was introduced to handball at an early age because his dad was a handballer who won several state championships.  

Jake started playing handball “as soon as I was physically capable of doing it” and he’d “crawl on the court when I was a baby and watch my dad play and wait at the tournaments, and as soon as the guys would come off the court I’d go out there and start smacking it around.” He played in first tournament at 12 and “from then on I just got my ass kicked for a long time until I got OK.”

Now that he no longer plays in tournaments, handball for Jake is “just a lot of fun” and he even compares himself to a dog at the park “when you throw the ball for your dog … That's me; my tail’s wagging, my ears are back and I’m panting and I’m having a blast chasing this ball around the court.”  

He also loves handball for keeping him “in good shape and staying limber and being able to move and staying quick.” However, Jake did warn me that it’s “a brutal game — if you’re not in good cardio shape, you can’t do it.  It’s super intense … it’s fun, it’s a hell of a good time but it’s intense.”

Once we stepped onto the court, I quickly realized what he meant. The hard little ball zips around so fast that I got dizzy and exhausted just trying to keep up with it. Although I’ve played lots of racket sports before, this was unlike anything I’d ever attempted and not at all like the handball you saw in the Olympics (i.e. water polo on land).  

Although played on a racquetball court with very similar rules, in American handball there’s no racket so you’re required to use both hands equally. What became immediately apparent to me is that you need to be ambidextrous to be good at handball.  

That’s when Jake told me, “I failed to mention the real beauty of it, I think, is the balance because you’re forced to use your nondominant side.” He went on to explain that other sports use both sides, “but not quite like handball. The rally is over if you don’t hit the ball back with your non-dominant hand.” 

After retiring from football, Jake continues to play and promote handball and though he’s taken breaks from it at times because of life and family and promoting his UMBO mushroom energy bars (the functional, not the magic kind), when it comes to handball he readily admits that  “I love it — I’ll be playing it until I die.”  

He sponsored a national handball tournament here for eight years but admits that handball in North Idaho has “kind of dwindled out.” Nevertheless, Jake’s zeal for handball is contagious as he says, “It’s one of those games that kinda enters in and then goes out sometimes. You never know when the resurgence may happen.” So why not help spark the resurgence by giving handball a try?

THE GOOD: As Jake says, “I think it’s the ultimate sport. It’s actually probably the best sport you could possibly play as an athlete. It challenges you in every single possible way — mentally, physically, spatial awareness, cardiovascularly, hand-eye coordination, foot placement, foot coordination, tracking a ball, strategy. And, you know, it’s all contained in this tiny little court.” 

THE BAD: Not only are gloves and eye protection “paramount” unless you want bruises all over your hands, but as Jake put it, it’s a three-shirt sport. “It’s a very demanding sport physically. And mentally it’s a beast. It’s hard.”

THE NITTY GRITTY: PEAK Health and Wellness in Coeur d’Alene has five indoor courts that can be used for handball, but according to Jake, “All you need is a wall, a ball and a buddy … and a beer if you’re old enough.”  

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Dr. Emry is a family physician and partner at Ironwood Family Practice in Coeur d’Alene. Exercise Explorer MD will appear every other week in The Press and Dr. Emry can be contacted via email exercisexplorermd@gmail.com. © 2024. This work is licensed under a CC BY-ND 4.0 license.