Adapted Sports

Today in my Adapted Physical Education and Sports class we discussed some of the different opportunities to play competitive sports for people who have vision impairments. The first sport that we learned about was called “Beep Baseball”. This game is very similar to baseball with a few adjustments. The ball makes loud beeping noises once the pitcher pitches it so the batter knows when to swing. There are only two bases and the bases also make the loud beeping noises so that the batter knows when to run once he/she has swung and hit the ball. It seems like a really awesome game!

Another game that we learned about is “goal ball”. This sport was actually designed by people who have vision impairments and specifically designed to be played by people with vision impairments. The game consists of two teams. Each team is defending their goal. The game is traditionally played with three people on each team, who are trying to score the ball in their opponent’s goal. The key to the game is that the ball has little things inside it that jingle so the players know where the ball is at all times. The game gets very competitive and intense. It is played in the Paralympics and there are World Championships played each year. When I went to the New York State AHPERD Conference I went to an adapted physical education presentation and we got to play goal ball. We played with blindfolds on and it was actually quite difficult! It was a lot of fun though and interesting to experience what it would be like to play a sport with a visual impairment.