Playing Goalball

Fancy having a go at playing Goalball? The South Wales Goalball Club meets in Cardiff every two to three months. The Club meets at Fitzalan High School, Lawrenny Avenue, Cardiff, CF11 8XB. You don’t need any previous experience to join in and participants can be met from the nearest train station, Ninian Park Station. The Club welcomes family and friends.

Goalball is a team sport. Played indoors on a rectangular “pitch” that has dimensions corresponding to a volleyball court, tactile markings help the players to determine where they are on the court. There are goal posts positioned on each team’s base line.

Each Goalball team consists of three players with a maximum of three substitutions on each team. Players alternately throw or roll the heavy, audible ball along the floor with the aim of getting it across the opponents’ goal line. The defending team tries to prevent this by diving across and behind the ball. Players must remain in the area of their own goal in both defence and attack.

Open to both male and female visually impaired athletes, sighted players can also play domestically. All players wear eyeshades so they are completely blindfolded. In competitions, all players must wear eyeshades that are impervious to light.

Goalball was devised in 1946 as a rehabilitation programme for visually impaired World War II veterans by Hanz Lorenzen (Austria) and Sepp Reindl (Germany). Goalball was included as a demonstration sport in the Paralympic Games programme for the first time at Toronto 1976. It was officially included within the Paralympic movement in the 1980 Summer Games in Arnhem. To find out more about Goalball, click here.

For more information, contact Megan Pryce via email [email protected]