NEWS

The University of Rwanda-College of Education Women and Men’s Goal Ball teams participated in the 4th round of national goalball championship organized by National Blind Sports Association RWANDA in Bugesera District at Nyamata Court.

The WOMEN’s team faced the team of Rubavu District, then UR Huye. Their brothers played against Rwamagana District, Ngororero District and UR HUYE.

What does this kind of game consist of ?
You can wonder how Goal ball played. Well, in goalball, two teams of three players each face each other across a court that is nine meters wide and 18 meters long. The object of the game is to roll a basketball size ball with bells inside over the opponent’s goal line.

Your opponent listens for the oncoming ball and attempt to block it with their bodies. Once they can stop the ball and take control of it, they become the offensive team.
As far as court and rules of goalball are concerned, the player’s zone is marked at either end of the court by taping a heavy string down to the court for the players to feel with their hands or feet. The player zone is 3 meters deep and extends the width of the court. Each player zone has three orientation lines which the players use to line themselves up and maintain their orientation to the court. Three meters in front of the player’s zone, is the highball line.

The goalball must touch the floor at least once before crossing this line or a penalty is given by an official. Other common penalties include holding the ball too long and touching your eyeshade without permission from an official. When a penalty occurs, the guilty player must defend the entire court by himself. The game consists of two 12-minute halves and takes about an hour to play a full game. However, it is possible to play 7 minutes. This was applied to these game .

The defensive team usually sets up a zone defense. The player in the middle of the court is called the center. The center is the primary defensive player. He or she plays at the front of the player’s zone and defends a majority of the court. The players to the right and left of the center are called wings. The wings are usually the primary offensive or throwing players. De-fensively, they play behind and to the left and right of the center defending their respective areas.

During the game, the center will usually stop the ball and pass it to a wing. While the wing is throwing the ball, the center will reorient themselves to the center of the court. Knowing that a thrower is slow to return to his defensive position, or that a player might not be in his defensive position, many teams will attempt a “quick throw” hoping to catch their opponent out of position. Curve balls, off speed balls and various other balls are sometimes thrown hoping to confuse the other team. Players may quietly change wing positions with the ball hoping to surprise the defending team by throwing from a different side of the court.

Click on the following links to watch the games :
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GT1qVJomm0
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZS_pjJ2l3M

Congratulations to UR-CE teams for playing nice games.