European Handball

European Handball Adaptations

European handball is fun, energetic, and skillful game that is becoming more popular as part of some Australian school's physical education programs. While there are no international competitions in European handball for athletes with vision impairments, there are certainly ways that the sport can be adapted to ensure it is accessible for students or athletes with vision impairment.

Like all information on this website it is important to understand that these are just possible adaptations and for further information please contact your advisory teacher or Andrew Whisson (PE teacher at the SA School for Vision Impaired).

Potential Rule Changes

Communication is key in all sport adaptations and European handball is no different. Enforcing that all students or athletes playing the game communicate their position allows athletes with vision impairment to feel confident on the field. This can be done by enforcing all athletes to communicate "Voi" when intending to take possession of the ball, either as an offender or defender. The failure to do so results in a penalty or foul from this point on the field. In enforcing this rule, we are able to ensure that an athlete with vision impairment can have confidence in where their peers are, not have the ball as easily stripped from them when dribbling and be less likely to colide with a peer when attacking the goal.

Reducing the number of players in each game or drill also acts to reduce the confusion, clutter and any reserved reactions from athletes or students with vision impairment. Rather than playing 1 full field game with 10 players and 1 goalkeeper on each team, half the size of the playing area and reduce the teams to 5 players and 1 goalkeeper on each team.

Similarly, enforcing students to throw bounce passes acts to reduce the fear that the ball will hit them without warning. The bounce pass enforces the ball to always be traveling in the same direction (up towards the athlete) and then allows them to prepare for a more predictable movement and pass from their peers. The bounce pass also forces the ball to make sound before reaching the student or athlete with a vision impairment.

Equipment

Depending on the individual students the equipment will differ greatly. For all student's, however, the choice of ball is an important first step to ensure an inclusive unit or lesson. Depending on the vision of the individual student it may be important to include a blind soccer ball, chime balls, or a ball of high contrast to the environment being played in (see PE adaptations pages). Blind soccer balls are audible balls with rattles sewn into the seams to ensure they are able to roll true and with a sound that is easily tracked by the students or athletes with vision impairment. Chime balls are hollow, firm foam balls with large bells held within their hollow centre and offer a range of sizes, including a ball the similar size to the European handball.

Two different sized chime balls

The photo shows a blind soccer balls sitting on grass.

Blind soccer balls can make great audible balls

Audible markers for the goals are also useful, this allows athletes to orientate themselves while playing. An audible marker in soccer can be simple buzzers (see below) or a volunteer, coach or teacher behind the goal clapping or tapping the goal with a relay baton or tapping the relay batons together.

A buzzer or beeper allows the teacher/coach to walk away from the goals to support the play and is a constant audible orientation tool for the student or athlete with vision impairment. The downside is the buzzer or beeper does not move as the athlete does to always give the centre of the goal and unless the correct beep or buzz is produced it can bounce off of hard surfaces or not give a clear positional reference.

Clapping or using batons allows the sound to rotate around the goal to give the correct shooting angle to the athlete or student as they move laterally on field. Simultaneously the coach, teacher or volunteer behind the goal can give short instructions like "shoot now" or "top left" so the student has more confidence in their attack. This method also allows the parameters of the goals to be tapped to give a clear representation of where the ball can be kicked to attack the goal. This method does, however, take personnel to work and in many cases this is not possible all the time.

Depending on the number of students with a vision impairment in the game or drill it may be only necessary to audibly mark one goal, as it may just create unnecessary distraction having both goals marked if not required.

Hands clapping as an audible marker

Image shows two batons, one red and one yellow, tapping together

Batons tapping as an audible marker

The photo shows a black pouch with a grey buzzer attached to a red and black wire travelling into the pouch and then travelling out the top to a battery snap with a batter attached.

A simple buzzer can be used as an audible marker

The image shows a coach tapping a baton on the frame of a soccer goal.

Relay baton used to tap the side of the goals

Relay baton used to tap the top of the goals

Considering the field marking is also important and the use of high contrast cones or drop lines are important as the generic grass marking or court markings may not be accessible or visible to all athletes (see PE adaptations pages). If possible even the introduction of tactile lines can help to provide a tactile indication of location, position, orientation and the court boundaries (see PE adaptations pages).

The image shows 5 cones sitting on grass. One white, one yellow, one red, one blue and one green. This high lights the importance of colour contrast to the grass.

Selecting the correct colour of cone to ensure high contrast to the environment and surface is important.

The image shows four yellow drop down lines on a dark surface, two straight and two corner lines.

Use of drop down lines can be a simple and effective way to ensure the field lines are marked clearly with a tactile element.

Image shows a hand touching a black tactile line taped to a wooden gym floor.

Tactile lines are useful to support students or athletes orientate themselves on court.

How can all students be involved?

By ensuring the adaptations above, the lesson, unit or training will automatically become more inclusive and encourage all students or athletes to be involved. However, further rule changes could also encourage inclusive practice. The could be as simple as all students must touch the ball before a goal can be scored. This forces all students to turn to their team members or peers and support their involvement in the game. Reduce or remove the time that the athlete or students with a vision impairment spends in goal as a keeper, not only is it very difficult to trap or effectively stop a fast moving shot it may also reduce their opportunity to be involved in the game at all.