The game, the court and attacking skills

1Why this matters

Goalball is a team sport designed for athletes with a visual impairment. Every player wears blackout eyeshades, so a player who is blind, a player who is partially sighted and a fully sighted player all compete on exactly equal terms. You play by listening and by touch: a bell inside the ball tells you where it is, and lines you can feel tell you where you are. It is a Paralympic sport, and it can be played in any school hall or on a flat, smooth outdoor court.

2Where it comes from

Goalball was devised in 1946 by Hans Lorenzen, from Germany, and Sepp Reindle, from Austria, to help soldiers who had lost their sight in the Second World War. It became a Paralympic sport at the 1976 Games in Toronto. Its world governing body is the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA).

3The court

The court is 18 m long and 9 m wide, often a volleyball court, and it is divided into six sections of 3 m.

Figure 1. The goalball court. Diagram: Ganzaa.

• The team area is the section in front of your own goal. You defend from here.
• The landing zone is the next section. Its front edge is your high-ball line.
• The two middle sections make the neutral zone.
• The goals stretch across the whole 9 m width at both ends.

The lines are made by taping over string, so players can feel them with their hands and feet. Short extra marks in the team area help players find their positions.

4Players, ball and time

• Three players a side: a centre and two wings, with up to three substitutes.
• The ball weighs 1.25 kg, is about 24 cm across and has bells inside. Lighter balls, of about 0.9 kg, are made for younger players.
• A game has two halves of 12 minutes.
• Silence: the players track the ball by its sound, so spectators must be quiet while it is in play. The referee calls "Quiet, please!" and then "Play!".

5A legal throw

Teams take turns to throw. The ball is rolled or bounced by hand, never kicked, and it scores when it completely crosses the opponents' goal line.

• It must touch the floor in your own landing zone. If it does not, it is a high ball.
• It must touch the neutral zone. If it flies over it, it is a long ball.
• It must reach the opponents' team area. If it stops before, it is a short ball.
• After a defender first touches the ball, the team has 10 seconds to throw it back over the centre line.

For a penalty, one player from the team that broke the rule must defend the whole goal alone against a single throw.

6Attacking technique: the roll throw

1. Orient. Stand on your orientation mark. Touch the goal post, the crossbar or the lines to be sure you face straight up the court.
2. Prepare. Hold the ball in your throwing hand at your side; point your other hand at the target.
3. Step and bend. Step forward with the foot opposite your throwing hand and bend low.
4. Swing and release. Swing the arm back and through, close to the floor, as in bowling, and release the ball before your high-ball line so it touches your landing zone.
5. Follow through, then recover. Your hand finishes pointing at the target. Return quickly and quietly to your position, ready to defend.

7Attacking tactics

• Aim for the gaps between two defenders, and for the corners beyond the wings.
• Throw quickly after your team blocks, before the defenders are back in position.
• Change the angle. A throw from one wing towards the far corner travels diagonally and is harder to judge than a straight one.
• Stay quiet. Soft footsteps give the defence less to hear. Making unnecessary noise to hide the ball is a penalty.

Worked example

Niyonzima throws hard and flat. The ball flies through the air and first touches the floor in the neutral zone.

Decision. A high ball: the ball did not touch Niyonzima's own landing zone. It is a penalty, and he must defend the whole goal alone against one throw.

8The session (about 40 minutes)

Warm-up without eyeshades (7 minutes). Jog and side-step around the court; walking lunges; hip circles; arm circles; gentle trunk twists.

Orientation with eyeshades (8 minutes). Put your eyeshade on. With a partner nearby, kneel at your goal and follow the tactile lines with your hands to the front of the team area, find the orientation marks, and return to the goal post. Swap roles.

Throwing drills (17 minutes).

• Throw to a clap. A partner at the far end claps once; you roll the ball towards the sound. The partner moves after every throw.
• Target gates. Stand two plastic bottles 1 m apart on the far goal line. Roll the ball between them, eyes shaded. One point for each clean pass through.
• Legal-throw check. Throw with two classmates watching the landing zone and the neutral zone. They call "high", "long", "short" or "good" after each throw.

Cool-down (5 minutes). Eyeshades off. Walk, then stretch the shoulders, back and legs for 20 seconds each. Talk about what helped you find your direction.

9Safety

• Use a lighter ball at first. With no goalball, a soft ball wrapped in a plastic bag with a few bottle tops makes a rattling training ball.
• Wear knee and elbow pads, or long trousers and long sleeves, because defenders slide on the floor.
• Use a clean eyeshade or cloth for each player, and do not share them without washing.
• Clear the area around the court of benches and bags.
• The whistle means stop at once. Anyone who feels unwell or anxious may take the eyeshade off and step out.

Practice

Solution. Short ball: the ball did not reach the opponents' team area.

Solution. So that they can be felt as well as seen. Players in eyeshades use touch to find their positions.

Solution. It keeps you balanced and lets you get low and swing the arm freely, so the ball is released close to the floor.

Solution. Throw quickly, towards the space she normally covers, before she gets back into position.