Czech Republic

Goalball is a great game played especially by the blind and visually impaired. They play on the field, mostly in the hall and with the ball. Since you certainly don’t have the time or mood to read the fifty pages of rules that are available on the web, I will try to explain briefly how goalball is played. By the way, in addition to Czech, you can read the rules in English, French, German… but I do not recommend it, I myself know badly in the Czech ones as well.

So what is goalball about? It’s easy, shoot the gate! And even simpler – the gate is wide across the course. Would you be able to do that too? Even with my eyes closed? Really yes? So try to play goalball! The playground, 9 × 18 meters, which is mostly across the entire gym, has a gate at each end. This is defended by a three-member team that tries to prevent a goal from being scored. Shooting is not the right word, the gates are balled similarly to skittles, because the ball has to roll on the ground from the middle of the shooting opponent. As already mentioned – at the goal, where it is heading, we find a three-member team that is trying to catch the ball. You ask how when they don’t see him? They hear him! He has the ball inside the jingle, so when it rolls, it rings like Grandfather Mrazík’s sleigh from a well-known fairy tale. However, this also means that there must be silence on the goalball as on tennis.

What do opponents do while they expect their shot to hit the sopera’s gate? They are going to return the shot immediately if the opponent catches the ball. If both teams are successful, they catch well and the ball ends up off the field, a series of shots follow each other. But it’s definitely not easy. No matter who plays, no one can see on the field. They all have eye protection, which is called goggles. Don’t be fooled by the name, they are antibrylls. It is completely dark in them! Each player, regardless of sight, has their own great darkness. Can you already imagine how demanding the game is to speed, orientation on the field and coordination of the team’s movement, if it is played in complete darkness? If you want to know more, watch the video or go into the detailed rules