In China they have only been trying to get in to handball in the last 20 years.  Instead of starting players at an early age to train for handball, as you would with other sports, the system for recruiting handball players has been to take them from the basketball teams when they are about 15 years old.  They do this because handball requires height and strength, and young Chinese are often short and light weight during their formative years.  Therefore, recruited players only have about ten good years in the sport, because of their late start.  These late bloomers have to spend a lot of time learning the rules of the game, instead of just honing in on their strengths and actively playing to improve their form.