Goalball

Goalball is a Paralympic sport popular world-wide and is played in more than 100 countries world wide. 

The court:

The sport is played under blindfold (eye shades) on a volleyball size court (9m x 18m) with raised tactile lines to support orientation and spatial awareness.

The Aim:

The aim of the sport is the roll or bounce a basketball sized audible ball past your opponent into their goal.

Game:

The sport is played in two 10 minute halves with players changing sides at the end of the first 10 minutes.

Each team has a maximum of 3 players on a court at one time.  While playing all athletes must wear blindfolds or eye shades to ensure that all athletes have no light perception and must track the audible ball with their ears.

Offence:

When throwing, players only have 10 seconds to throw the ball and when the ball is thrown it must touch the floor before the 6m line (high ball line) and again before the opponents 6m line (long ball line), seen in the court diagram shown below.

Defense:

The goalball defense is what makes this sport so unique, and during a game, spectators will observe players sliding across the court to block the ball from entering their goal.  When defending their goal players must have part of their body touching the team area (highlighted in the diagram below).

Noise Rule:

Finally during play, players must not talk when they are throwing the ball, and spectators must not make noise until play is stopped by the umpire.

Penalty:

If any of the rules above are broken the infringing player must defend the goal against the attacking player of the oppositions choice.  Covering the whole 9m goal solo is quite difficult and will often result in a goal.

Goalball is a fantastic sport, and while high level competition is only played by athletes with an official classification as long as all athletes are blind folded it possible to play this sport with mainstream athletes and students.

Visual acuity ranging from LogMAR 1.0 to 1.40 (inclusive) or 6/60 to 6/160 (inclusive) OR visual fields less than 10 degrees diameter and visual acuity better than 0.5  or 6/19 (B4) 

Goalball is a continually growing sport in South Australia with a team of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers helping to promote and grow this incredible sport.  SASSVI has a close relationship with Goalball SA and each year runs after school clubs for students in SASSVI and in mainstream schools.  In 2020 Goalball SA and Australian coach Olivia Muller also delivered a lunch time training session with enthusiastic students at SASSVI to help the students to continue to grow in their ability to throw and track audible balls.  As a culmination with these training opportunities SASSVI works with School Sports SA and Ascot Park Primary School to offer a State Schools Goalball Championships each year.

In 2019 South Australia hosted the National Goalball Championships with great success.  Goalball SA was able to produce some amazing performances with many SASVI and ex-SASVI students heavily involved.

If you would like more information on opportunities in Blind Sports in South Australia please contact:

Kent Dredge (Sports Development Officer)

Email: kent.dredge@blindsportssa.org.au

Visit: blindsportssa.org.au