Defending skills and a class game

1Why this matters

In goalball every player defends, and every throw tests the whole team. The ball arrives fast and you cannot see it, so good defence depends on a ready body, sharp listening and teammates who talk to each other. This lesson teaches the defensive skills and the basic team formation, and then shows you how to run a full class game with everyone taking a role.

21. The ready position

Between throws, wait low in your team area, on your knees or crouching, facing the thrower, hands ready. Keep still and quiet so that you can hear the thrower's steps and the release of the ball.

32. The layout block

1. As soon as you hear where the ball is coming, move into its path.
2. Lay out: slide down onto one hip, stretch your arms above your head and your legs out, so your body is as long as possible across the ball's path.
3. Keep your arms up beside your head to protect your face.
4. Stop the ball with your body, then control it with your hands.

Some players block with the chest and absorb the ball; others block with the legs and let it roll up into their hands. Part of your body must stay touching your team area when you block. Blocking with no part of the body in the team area is illegal defence, a penalty.

If the ball bounces off a defender, or off the crossbar or posts, and rolls back over the centre line, it is a ball over, and the other team gets the ball.

43. Team formation

The usual formation is a triangle: the centre near the front of the team area, in the middle, and the two wings further back, near each side. Staggering the players stops them colliding when they dive towards the same ball, and lets their laid-out bodies overlap so that no gap is left across the goal.

Figure 2. The triangle formation, with each player's reach when laid out. Diagram: Ganzaa.

54. Communication and anticipation

• Agree short calls before the game and use them between throws: where the thrower is ("right wing throwing"), who takes a ball that stops between two players ("mine!"), and when the ball is held ("got it!").
• Listen for footsteps, the release and the bells, and move early into the line of the ball.
• Learn each opponent's habits: some always throw to the same corner.
• If a teammate is down or out of position, shift to cover the gap and say so. After each block, everyone returns to their marks using the tactile lines.

Worked example

Mutesi, the centre, blocks a hard throw. The ball bounces off her arm and rolls away towards the opponents, over the centre line.

Decision. Ball over: the opponents get the ball. To avoid it, Mutesi should cushion the ball and pull it in, and her wings should be ready to stop a rebound.

6The session (about 40 minutes)

Warm-up (7 minutes). Jog, then mobility for the hips, shoulders and back. Practise the layout without a ball: from kneeling, slide onto your right hip and stretch out, return, then to the left. Five each side.

Blocking drills (12 minutes), eyeshades on.

• Slow rolls. A partner rolls a soft ball slowly towards you from 6 m and calls "now" as it leaves the hand. Lay out and stop it. Ten each, then swap.
• Triangle defence. Three defenders in formation; a thrower rolls to the left, middle or right. Defenders call and block, then return to their marks.

Class game (16 minutes).

• Teams of three, all in eyeshades. Two halves of 5 minutes: a class adaptation of the official 12-minute halves.
• The rest of the class take real match roles: a referee, who calls "Quiet, please!" and "Play!" and gives penalties; two goal judges, who signal goals and return balls that leave the court; a ten-second timer; and a scorer.
• Rotate after each half so that everyone plays and everyone officiates.

Cool-down (5 minutes). Eyeshades off; walk and stretch. Each team names one call that helped it defend.

7Inclusion

Goalball is one of the few team sports in which a classmate with a visual impairment and a sighted classmate play on exactly equal terms. Before the game, describe the court aloud and let every player walk and feel the lines. When you guide someone, offer your elbow and ask before touching. Use accurate, respectful words, such as a player with a visual impairment, or a blind or partially sighted player.

8Safety

• Pads or long clothes on hard floors. Arms up by the head when you lay out.
• Start with soft or light balls and slow throws; the thrower waits for "Play!".
• Stop at once on the whistle.

Practice

Solution. The defender slides onto one hip and stretches the arms above the head and the legs out, making the body as long as possible across the ball's path. Part of the body must stay in the team area.

Solution. So that players diving for the same ball do not collide, and so that their laid-out bodies overlap and leave no gap.

Solution. By using an agreed call: the player taking the ball shouts "mine!", and the other stays in position.

Solution. Any three of: referee, goal judge, ten-second timer, scorer.