The purpose of a feint is to fool the opponent. You must make the opponent believe you intend to do one thing but instead do another and by doing that you will take your opponent by surprise.

A lot of coaches neglect the training of feints, because they believe that making a feint is a natural thing, which has been taught in school during catching games. That is partly correct, but a feint in team handball must be trained, as there are more elements in team handball than in school yard games - holding the ball - no more that 3 steps - dribble - limited space and more.

Feints can be made in several ways:
- Eye-feints. Looking at the player, to whom you WON'T pass the ball.
- Passing feint. Indicate a pass to one teammate, but pass to another
- Shooting feint. To indicate a shot, but doing something else instead.
- Leg - and body feint. Step to one side and then move to the other side.
- Initial feint. Running in to one side and then change direction.
- Combined feints. To combine 2 basic feints.

Common to all feints is that they must be separated into two parts.

The first part of the feint must be relatively slow in order that the opponent can see the intention and react accordingly. If the feint is made too fast, it cannot be observed by the opponent and no reaction is obtained.

The second part however must be performed very fast in order that the opponent cannot react.

However remember!! If the opponent does not react to the first slow part of the feint there is no reason not to continue in that way and finish with a shot/break through. This is especially true with shooting feints.
When feints are trained it is a good idea to leave it up to the players to decide if they will use the first or the second part in the feints in order to teach them to react to the movement of the defender.
However this requires that they have learned the feint and are familiar with it.

Feints can be well used in a match if they are varied and they are not overused. If a player only knows 1 feint and uses it all the time, the defense will soon adapt to this, and the value of the feint will be lost.