As in traditional handball, there are seven players in each one of the teams, with 7 back-ups, and a total of 14 players for each team.

PLAYING TIME

The game is played in two periods of 30 minutes each, and a 10 minutes break.

PUNISHMENT

Exclusion: when the player commits an unsportive attitude, they have to be excluded of the game until their team recovers the ball ownership.

Each athlete can be excluded only once in each set.

In the second exclusion, the athlete is hindered to return court in this set, having to be substituted after their team recovers the ball ownership. The punishment is signaled with the negative signal (thumb pointed dawn).

Expulsion: In case that the player makes an unsportive attitude (aggression or violent attitude) they must be banished by not being allowed to return to the game. They also have to abandon the bank of reserves, being subject to discipline sanctions in posterior judgment.

THE COURT

 The court must have the dimensions of 40m X 20m meters of game area, measures required for competitions of the IWHF.

The court must be delimited by lines, observing the same distribution of the official court of Hall Handball.

The wheelchair must adjust certain standards to guarantee security and competitiveness. 

The chair can have 3 or 4 wheels, being two great wheels in the side, one or two in back part and two in the frontal part. 

The back tires must have the maximum diameter of 66 cm and must have a support for the hands in each back wheel.

The maximum height of the seat cannot exceed 53cm from the floor, and the support for the feet cannot have more than 11cm from the floor when the front wheels are directed frontally.

The low part of the supports must be appropriate to prevent damages to the surface of the court.

The player will be able to use a cushion of flexible material, where the tips must be touched when forced.

It must have the same dimensions of the seat and it cannot have more than 10cm of thickness, except for classroom players of 3,5, 4,0 4,5 and 5,0 points, where the thickness will have to be in the maximum 5 cm.

The players must use bands and supports that fix them in the chair or bands to fix the legs together.

The orthopaedics and prosthetic devices cannot be used.

The players classification card  must inform the use of similar bands and indicate all the position and adaptations of the player in the chair.

Black tires, direction devices and brakes are forbidden.

The referees must check, at the beginning of the game, the chairs of the players, to confer if these chairs are in accordance with the established norms.

Handball in wheelchair is a game for people in physical deficiency conditions.

The system classifies the players, based in the comment of its movements during a performance of abilities of Wheelchair handball as: to give propulsion to the chair, to dribble, to pass, to receive and to  hurl.

The classes are: 1,0 - 1,5 - 2,0 - 2,5 - 3,0 - 3,5 - 4,0 - 4.5 and 5,0. 

To each player a value in points is attributed that represents their classification. The points of the four players who will be in court are added to form a team that reaches a certain amount of points.

For the official events of the Handball, the teams cannot exceed 18 points. 

Each player has a classification card that must be used during the game. The card shows the classification of the player, also indicating any modifications in their wheelchair and the use of bands.

Violations are infractions to the rules, and the team that commits it loses the ball ownership for the other team, through the free shot from the place where the infraction was committed.

      A player is out of court when their chair is out of the limits of the court, and, in this condition, the violation will be punished only if it gives any advantage to the infractor.

If a player throws the ball in an opponent intentionally, and it goes out of the court, the opponent  will have the ball ownership.

The player can push the chair for, in the maximum, three times before dribbling, passing or launching the ball. They are not allowed to lead the ball on the legs.

A player cannot remain for more than three seconds with the ball in his hand. The referees can be tolerant with players whose kind of deficiency makes it difficult the accomplishment of the pass and the reception of the ball.

Faults are infractions to the rules, involving physical contact with the opponent and/or unsportive behavior. The faults are marked against the other team and the punishments are applied using the same criteria of the Hall Handball (verbal admonition, warning, exclusion and disqualification).

The frontals and laterals contacts are tolerated, but the contact of the front of a chair with the lateral or back of another one must be punished. For all these faults, the chair is considered as part of the player, and the accidental contact between chairs also constitutes a fault.

Touch the adversary chair with the hands will be considered a fault.

Lateral Shot: A part of the wheel chair has to be above the lateral line from where the ball left.

The seven meters shots, the throw-in and free shots observe the same rules of the Indoor Handball and must be beaten next to the 6 meters area.