With all eyes on the World Cup final, Stuart Danker turns his sights on a lesser known but developing sport — blind futsal
THE crowd hushed in anticipation. A guide walked to one side of the goal post and shouted, “Left!” before tapping it with a metal rod. He ran over to the opposite side, doing the same thing, shouting, “Right!” Then he made his way to the centre and clapped. Using these auditory queues, Mohd Azwan Azhar formed a mental image of his target. It was the deciding penalty shot in the game. Rubbing sweat away from his blindfold, Azwan stepped up and took the shot.
The ball whizzed past the goalkeeper, finding nothing but net. The game was won and Azwan ran towards his teammates to celebrate. Enter blind futsal, where players overcome their visual impairment to pursue their passion for sports. If you haven’t heard of this sport, it’s probably because blind futsal is fairly new by international standards, with the first world competition taking place in 1998. Head coach Sunny Salesh says the national team has a shot at the world title if it continues developing at this pace.
“We first competed in 2009. We didn’t win but it was a great experience for us. We realised that we had an opportunity in this sport and since that loss, we’ve trained harder and harder,” he says.
The training regimen for blind futsal calls for more than physical fitness. Players need to hone their sense of hearing, and be confident enough to react appropriately. Sunny trains his players with hearing drills as much as he develops their endurance.
“We do a lot of listening drills. The game relies so much on hearing that it is usually played in silence. Even spectators are required to keep quiet. They can only cheer when the ball is out of play or after a goal is scored. This is to prevent them from distracting the players,” he adds.
As more games unfolded throughout the day, it was apparent that silence did make for a more conducive environment. While the stadium was drowned in noise, it mostly came from the coaches, guides or goalkeepers. To the uninitiated, it may sound like a mesh of noise common to futsal matches but for the players, every sound gives them a specific set of cues.
Guides help the players judge the position of the goal posts. The coaches align their formation, the goalkeepers coordinate the defence and the ball itself is filled with bearings to reveal its movement. The guide, coach and goalkeepers are not allowed to give instructions outside their allocated areas, which are their respective thirds of the court.
Even the barriers — primarily used for keeping the ball in play — work as a sound pocket for the players to judge their position on the field. Balls and sounds alike bounce off this apparatus, alerting players to passes or the presence of other players.
WONDERS OF THE BRAIN
The feats on display were simply amazing and one major contributing factor is the utilisation of neuroplasticity. In its simplest term, neuroplasticity is defined as changes in the brain catering to a person’s habits. One famous study that shed some light on neuroplasticity showed that cab drivers in London possessed larger hippocampi in their brains compared to the general population. The hippocampus is a part of the brain that processes memory and spatial navigation.
On a similar note, German researchers found that blind people comprehend speech twice as fast as sighted people. In these cases, scans showed that the parts normally used for vision were being rewired to handle tasks relating to speech. Of course, it also depends on the activities the person does when it comes to the brain’s evolution.
But even with these finely tuned senses, accidents do happen and clashes frequently occur, especially when running at high speeds. However, there are precautions put in place to discourage these mishaps, creating a safe environment for the players.
Being a newcomer in the sport, Malaysia has grown by leaps and bounds, and is looking to perpetuate this trend. “When we first competed in 2009, Iran beat us 8-0. Four years after that, they struggled to edge a 2-0 win over us. This shows that our hard work is starting to pay off. We’re focusing on being the top in Asia. After that, we plan to participate in the World Cup, which is held every four years,” says Sunny, enthusiastically.
He notes that in the Asean Paralympic Games, the first, second, and third rankings are held by Thailand, Malaysia and Myanmar respectively.
LIFE ON AND OFF THE PITCH
Each player brings his own experience to the field and as the players will admit, it’s not an easy sport to train for. Azwan shares: “I have always loved playing football. I had some tough moments in life and futsal was an outlet for me. In a sense, it’s my way of reminding myself that I can overcome any obstacles.”
Azwan wasn’t born blind. In an unfortunate accident, Azwan was poked in the eyes, causing trauma and irreversible nerve injures, which slowly robbed him of his vision. He admitted that the adjustment period was a tough time in his life.
“When it came to this sport, I had to slowly get used to navigating through sound. It took two years before I could start running with the ball. Before that, I felt clumsy and unable to dribble and kick as I used to. But I still went at it, kept training hard and today, I can do it all comfortably,” he adds.
Another player, Ahmad Hairul Amidi, shares that the act of excelling in blind futsal helped him develop his senses for other areas in life. “Because I’ve trained my hearing so much for the game, I realise that this skill is beginning to help me in other day-to-day activities too. I feel more aware of my surroundings.”
Setting his sights on becoming a lecturer, Hairul is juggling studying and futsal training, limiting his time for other activities. He says: “Now, I’m focusing on the two main things in my life. When it comes to training though, the lack of facilities available outside the stadium makes it inconvenient for me to do futsal related drills, which is why I stick to general fitness when training on my own.” Both players encourage the visually impaired to try the sport. It may look scary at first, says Hairul, but it’s a lot of fun.
DIFFERENT KIND OF CHAMPION
Facilities need time and effort to be put into place and many parties need to come together to help drive this growth. Columbia Asia is one such group championing the growth of paralympic sports in the country. Its Southeast Asia CEO, Kelvin Tan, says that the initial plan was to create awareness about the benefits of healthy living. He believes that healthy living should encompass sporting activities and that’s the healthcare provider’s initial plan.
“In the process, the opportunity arose for us to support the Paralympic Badminton and National Blind Football team. We take this role seriously. As the only hospital group in the country to champion the cause, it was a matter of coincidence and we are happy to be given the opportunity to help the less abled and hopefully make a difference in the quality of their efforts to aspire to be champions in their own right,” he says.
CHALLENGES
But generating awareness in this obscure area proves to be a difficult task. At the heart of the matter, the most important factor is to encourage a constant stream of players to sign up. Local talent for this sport is hard to come by. The sport’s initial success will flounder if new athletes do not take interest in the sport.
Resources such as time and money are also important aspects in development, especially to create a proper environment for the players to train in. As Hairul points out, players find it hard to train specifically for the sport when outside the stadium. This is a great inconvenience to athletes who wish to get better on their own.
When asked to comment on the needs of the sport, Tan says that greater endorsement from the media, national institutions and corporate partners was crucial in enhancing the speed of progress.
“Getting the media to commit is a challenge. The majority of mainstream media are often reluctant to cover topics regarding paralympic sports. Without the support of media, bloggers and social media, there will be no visibility, so we hope to generate more awareness through this channel.” Tan adds that the public should demonstrate its belief that achieving excellence belongs both to the able as well as the less able.
Sunny is calling for more volunteers to participate in these events. “While financial backing is important, contributions need not be all about money. There’s also the need to help bring water, set up, transport the players, support the games and help generate awareness, all these play an equally important role in the contribution to the sport.”
The indomitable spirit of these athletes coupled with the selflessness of the parties involved serve as a reminder for us to continually strive to achieve our goals and take risks. But perhaps the more important lesson is that we should take the time to appreciate the things we have in our lives and to take in stride any challenge that presents itself.
The rules
• Blind futsal is played with a ball embedded with bearings so that players can detect its position.
• The sport is separated into three categories: B1, B2, and B3. B1 covers players that are fully blind, with B2 and B3 being different grades of partial blindness.
• The game is played with four players on each team, excluding the goalkeeper.
• The goalkeepers are sighted, and are limited to a small space between the goalposts.
• B1 players are required to don blindfolds.
• Players without the ball are required to shout “voy” when near the ball. This is so that the player with the ball can be cautious of collisions.
• Coaches are contained to the middle of the field at the substitution bench.
• Guides are limited to standing behind the opposition team’s goalposts.
• Goalkeepers give guidance to the defensive players, but they can only do so within their allocated area.
• A public address system is important in this sport, letting the players know of the game’s developments such as substitutions, fouls, and time-outs.
• Spectators and members of the public are advised to be silent to avoid interfering with the players’ hearing cues.
World championships
BLIND futsal is also played internationally, with the IBSA (International Blind Sports Association) Blind Futsal World Championship seeing teams such as Korea, Japan, Greece, and Colombia vying for the top spot.
Here are the competitions held so far:
Year, Winner, Venue
1998, Brazil, Brazil
2000, Brazil, Spain
2002, Argentina, Brazil
2006, Argentina, Argentina