‘Quiet please’. The phrase is known for umpires to use during a tennis match. But in the sport goalball the announcement for everyone to be quiet is much more used and is spoken by the referees in a more compelling way. That’s because the ear-hand coordination of a goalball player, who is visually impaired, is hugely relevant. Competitors need to hear where the ball rolls on the court. At the European Para Championships in Rotterdam Discover the Games sees, listens and feels what the sport is about.
Goalball is a sport designed for the visually impaired. In a three against three match players must throw a big blue ball, with a diameter of about 24 centimeters, into the opponent’s goal, which is about 18 meters long and covers the whole field. Inside the ball a bell is embedded, so the defenders can hear the ball coming. They are allowed to block it with their whole body. Again: just by guessing where the ball is, by listening to the bell. To be sure the players can’t see anything (some are blind, some are partially sighted) there are some extra precautions taken. Players get a white eye patch stuck on their eyes and on top of that comes a black eye shade.
In goalball it all comes down to orientation, coordination and communication. “We always talk about orientation”, Spanish player Genís Quiroga says. “You have to know your position, you have to be very precise to scoring the point where you are told to do. Searching for the weakness at the defense of your opponent. That is very, very hard, because obviously we can’t see the opponent nor the goal. I don’t know whether the defender is lying with his arms or his legs to the right or the left. That makes it really difficult.”
Distract
In defense the three players of a team are taking position before their goal, using their hands to feel the lines on the floor. It is important to close the ranks tight so no balls can pass. “For players it’s important to get a routine in that, to know automatically what you are doing and where your position is. Your focus can’t be dropped, you have to be concentrated all the time”, the Belgian player and commentator Tom Vanhove explains.
To a certain level, it is allowed to distract your opponent. The player in the middle can beat with his hands on the floor for example or the team mate at your left can pretend to throw by making a fake run-up. “If you want you may sing your national hymn”, Vanhove jokes. “That is until the act of throwing begins, when the arm of the player throwing the ball goes backwards, from that moment on, everyone must be quiet.”
The event in the huge indoor arena complex Ahoy attracts the attention of more spectators the players are used to. On the day of the finals people rooting at the stands for the teams. The tournament is a European championship in the C-division. Sweden wins the gold by defeating Hungary with 11-5. The match for the bronze medal is a tight one: Spain takes the third place by winning 6-5 over France, gaining also promotion to division B. “I can’t believe it, we did it”, Sergi Barón says. With just eleven seconds on the clock Barón, who scored three goals in the match, got the order from the coach to throw a slow ball, rolling it slowly over to the other side. “I was so nervous! It is difficult, because I had to change my mindset. It’s completely different than throwing a normal ball, which you throw fast to the opponent’s goal. Now, I had to take it slowly. But it worked, we got the bronze amazing.”
Dream come true
The Spanish players are proud to show their skills at such an event with so many people. Dutch player Jeroen Meyer (31), is a goallball player for twenty years, he never experienced a tournament like this, playing for his home crowd. “This is incredible, like dream come true. We are not used to such a large crowd, sadly tournaments in para sport does not draw that much attention. But this time it is amazing. It’s playing with four people in stead of just the three players on the pitch.” And because of a partnership with social media platform TikTok, people from outside are embracing the sport as well. Sometimes the numbers of viewers of short goalball-clips are over 400.000 people.
They can see what the players only can hear. The phrase ‘Quiet please’, then two short whistles and after that the referee shouts ‘Play’. Silence on the stands, attention for what’s going on on the court: there is a ball rolling, you can hear it because of the bell inside.