The projects : GOALBALL – www.youaca.eu

Social inclusion through physical activities

TITLE

GOALBALL

Topic: Sport for people with disability
Location:Catalunya
Request: Concept Note
Duration: 1 day
Typology: Championship
Brief Description: From UCEC we propose an approach to Goalball. The aim of goalball is to score goals with your hands on the other team’s goal. Teams are composed of three players. It is based on the ear to detect the trajectory of the ball, which carries rattles in it and weighs 1,250 grams. Orientation in space is also important, which is achieved through touch thanks to the lines of the playing field.

OBJECTIVES

Objectives

The aim of proposing an approach to GOALBALL is based on the specificity of being one of the few sports created for people with visual disability. In this sense, what the initiative searches is:
– Bring all WSG athletes closer to a specific sport for people with disabilities (not an adapted conventional sport).
– That WSG participants understand the difficulty of playing a sport with the privation of a sense such as sight.
– Achieve the integration of conventional athletes into a sport created for athletes with disabilities (form of reverse integration).
– Raise awareness about the difficulties suffered by athletes with disabilities.
– Achieve the collaboration of entities / associations of visual disability able to provide brief training / raise awareness to interested participants, and eventually become stable members of the WSG movement.
– Bringing local audiences (from the place where the WSGs are held) closer to the Games ’own initiatives and allowing them to participate.

IMPACT

Impact

The impact of this initiative can be sustainable over time. From one side, in advance, the development of the initiative must make possible to visualize in the host country of the WSG, the CSIT commitment to the development of sports aimed at the disabled. This also means added value to the organization of a prestigious event such as the WSG.
At the same time during the event itself, it must be explained that the initiative is being carried out. A way to do that is with the dissemination of all the collaboration agreements with the local entities / associations of visual disability people signed to do so.
Likewise, as this is an “open” activity that should allow not only WSG participants to practice it, but also the local population, we will be able to increase with more participants the WSG event.
Therefore, this is an action that we can understand as a “corporate responsibility” of the CSIT, but it is also an action that allows synergies with local entities and brings local experiences of exchange with the delegations of the different countries of the WSG.

ACTIVITIES

Activities

We propose to create in the framework of the WSG a kind of non-competitive dynamics (non-league, non-championship…), of essentially demonstrative type consisting of:
1st. Brief dynamic of awareness and introduction to Goalball by a blind practitioner. This is where the collaboration of a specific association / entity should be sought. Get used to feeling the ball, making passes, being deprived of the sense of sight.
2nd. Once these initial briefings have been developed, we propose to play a 10-minute match (2×5-minute parts).
The idea is that with independence of the sport played by a WSG participant, they can experiment in a sport aimed to people with visual impairments.
The relationship with the entities that will offer the introduction to the sport, must allow, in the future, to create the world championship of this sport that has a great implantation in different countries.

TYPOLOGY OF PARTICIPANTS

Typology of participants

The activity is aimed to all kind of participants:
– WSG participants
– Visually disabled athletes
– Local audiences who want to try the experience

PARTNERS, IF ANY

Partners, if any

It is essential to locate local entities / associations of GOALBALL and / or blind people. These entities, must provide the material to practice the sport, and also will play an active role in explaining and bringing the experience to the participants.

REQUIREMENTS

Requirements

Track: Goalball is played on a 9x18m track. The track can be indoor / outdoor. If no tracks are available, large spaces such as civic centres may be enough. Indoor spaces are recommended due to the silence required to play the game and to ensure that the surface will not have foreign bodies (players are on the ground)
An independent space of the playing field is also needed. A place where simultaneously, during the matches, the dynamics of briefing / introduction to the sport can be done.
Relief marks for the different playing areas (to facilitate orientation)
Specific goals (9×1.30m)
Goalballs
Masks
Economically, it would be necessary to sign an agreement with the local entity / association where in exchange for a financial contribution, they would provide the material needed to play and at the same time to be in charge of doing the training part, and the monitoring / arbitration of the matches. It is possible that some administrations may join the Agreement by offering the economic part, and the CSIT only the dissemination platform within the framework of the WSGs of the activity itself.

REQUEST FOR IMPROVEMENT

Request for improvement

We would like to know how the registration of this activity should be. Is there a need for dissemination and information before the WSG?
We are also interested in knowing what format might be most interesting: a one-day dynamic open to everyone or a kind of permanent workshop throughout all the WSG?
Do you think it’s feasible for the CSIT to assume the minimum costs of an agreement with a private entity / association to promote this sport, thinking on the return it may have a posteriori if it ends up being incorporated as a specific discipline in the WSG in the future?

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