Grassroots Games 2016: Goalball
The Paralympics is under way in Brazil, and the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) is focusing on the sports that you will see, hear or read about over the next two weeks.
With 22 different disciplines on show in Rio 2016, EFDS takes a look at grassroots participation back here in Britain.
Today it’s Goalball, with Charlie Woodhead telling us about making friends but being competitive.
I play goalball, which uses a ball with bells in it so it’s audible.
There’s a lot of diving onto the floor to stop it going past you and into your goal. You have to stay within your own half for the duration of the game – at my level it’s four minutes per half, but the international standard is 15 minutes per half.
Even if you are blind and cannot see a thing you still have to wear a blindfold.
It allows a level playing field, so that everyone has zero vision. I’m visually impaired myself, with 10% of standard vision and photophobia, which means I can’t handle certain lights.
I enjoy playing goalball partly because of the group of people.
It’s a very friendly atmosphere and it’s one of these sports where, whether you’ve won or lost, you’ll have a chat and joke around. Every team knows each other, and of course I’ve been able to meet over 100 visually impaired people and I now have friends from all over the country. It’s invaluable experience for me – I’ve learned a lot.
As much as there’s a very friendly atmosphere, goalball is competitive.
We play nationally and we also have a local rivalry with the team from York. We’re all good friends but it’s always very hard-fought. Goalball is a competition, not just a bit of fun.
Before goalball I barely did any exercise.
The most active I used to be was running for the bus. Now it’s nice to be able to reflect on the fact that I now play quite an energetic sport. It’s a very fast-paced game and though you don’t need to be very fit to play it helps.
