Most sports, at least the ones we think of as sports, requirehand (or foot)/eye coordination. From basketball, to tennis to autoracing, and everywhere in between, hand-eye coordination is astaple of sports.
This is not the case with goalball.
Goalball was invented in 1946 by an Austrian and a German asrehabilitation for blind World War II victims. The game is now anofficial Paralympic sport.
The game is relatively simple, in concept. Two teams of threeplayers try to roll a ball across the other team's goal line.Sounds like a low scoring game, right?
What if they were blindfolded?
That's right, the players in goalball are completelyblindfolded. The players in goalball must rely on their othersenses, like touch and hearing to tell them about the location ofthe ball and themselves.
The game is played on a volleyball court, and all you need is agoalball (which, like everything, is available on the Internet),two rolls of Duct tape and six blacked-out pairs of swimminggoggles to blindfold all the contestants. The referee is notblindfolded, despite what you may think.
The Duct tape is used to outline the court. In front of the goalline you place two rows of Duct tape to form a box that is threefeet wide and nine feet long. This is the area that the playersspend most of the time in.
Because the players need to know where they are, three lines ofDuct tape are added into this box. One line of Duct tape goes fromthe center of the box -- the side facing the opponent's goal, thatmeasures half a meter long -- and two lines on each wide side ofthe box one and a half meters long.
Plus, it's always good to have Duct tape.
There will also be a line in the center of the court (where thevolleyball net would be), as well as two overthrow lines betweenthe goal and the center. Each section should be three meterslong.
The players then take the ball and throw (or roll it) to theother team. If the other team is able to stop the ball, they haveeight seconds to roll it back.
Like bowling, how you roll the ball is up to you, but it canhave an impact on how well you do. The players often dive or slideon the floor to attempt to block it from entering the goal.
While developed for the visually impaired, goalball has becomemoderately popular among those looking for a challenge.
Write to Will at wjohargan@bsu.edu
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