The fact that has generated interest in rescuing the practical acts that had as objective to suit the Handball game for people with disabilities, was the meeting of three professional trajectiories: of Professor Ms Decio Roberto Calegari, of Professor Dr José Irineu Gorla and Professor Ricardo Alexandre Carminato. Decio Roberto Calegari has a lot of experience in the modality, having already worked as athlete, referee, coach and manager. Added to this, there was the pleasure proportioned by the work with Disabilited People, through the Project of Adapted Motor Activities (in portuguese, AMA). The project was idealized by Prof. Dr. José Irineu Gorla, and coordinated by Prof. Ricardo Alexandre Carminato, in the P.E. Course of Universidade Paranaense (UNIPAR).
Initially, an exploratory study was made, and it provided, besides the identification of the initiatives that already existed in this modality, the intention of stabilishing initial parameters for the inclusion of the modality in the AMA Project and the estabilishment of theoric references to the introduction and development of the modality in the National and International Paraolympic Movement levels.
First of all, it was identified, through searching tools in the internet (such as Google and Yahoo), the already existing initiatives to adapt the Handball to wheelchairs.
It is important to register that this is not a definitive text, and if anyone had an experience of adaptation of Handball and would like to register it, can send an e-mail with documents, pictures and statements, and the experience will be registered in this Historic.
NATIONAL INITIATIVES
Handball in the Third Age In national scope, there were identified actions of development of Handball for the Third Age in the cities of Itajaí/SC, Descalvado/SP and in the Methodist University of São Paulo.
Special Handball It is known that a team from Curitiba/PR has disputed an international competition, and achieved an expressive result. We are waiting for the material!
INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES
In the international scope, the research showed that there are adaptations of Handball for deafs and mental disabilited, and the modalities are part of the Deaflympics (Olympic Games for the deaf), and of the Special Olympics, where Handball is played in three different ways.
Deaflympics
In the Olympic Games for the Deaf, in Melbourne/Australia, in January of 2005, five male national teams have played for the gold. In the first phase, the five teams played among themselves in a single round, and the final classification has determined the semifinal games. (www.deaflympics.com, 2005)
Croatia, that ended the classification round in first place, won Denmark (4th place), for 30x22. The USA (3rd) surprised everyone, and won Germany (2nd) for 24x22.
In the dispute for the bronze, Germany won Denmark for 26x20, and Croatia got the gold medal by winning USA (silver) for 43x26 (www.deaflympics.com, 2005).
What is interesting about the Handball played by the deaf, is that it follows the IHF rules, easing the integration and the motor development of the deaf.
Special Olympics
Some modifications are necessary in the Special Olympics.
First of all, the athletes must go through classification exams, which include four kind of tests: Target shooting; Pass speed; Dribble and Shooting strenght.
All the players do the test, and the score of the team is determined by the amount of the seven best scores divided by seven.
The competitions are played in four different situations:
a) Teams with 7 players, as in regular Handball, with 5 back-ups allowed
b) Teams with 5 players and 4 back-ups
c) Mixed teams with 5 disabilited and 3 regular players
d) Individual tests for athletes that have no condition to participate the team competitions, made of three tests: pass with target; 10meter dribble and shooting. (www.specialolympics.org, 2005)
PRECURSORS OF WHEELCHAIR HANDBALL
The bibliography used as base for this study was an article published by the student Daniela Eiko Itani, oriented by prof. Dr. Paulo Ferreira de Araújo and prof. Dr. José Julio Galvao, in which the student presents the conditions where the handball in wheelchair was developed in UNICAMP (University of Campinas).
ITANI (2004) says that, as main difficulties to adapt the rules for the disabilited, there were the size of the court and the amount of players, that went through many changes, preventing the practice of the game with seven players.
A doubt that is not cleared by her article, is about the wheelchair impulsion. Considering that there can be three impulsions, it would provide the player a great displacement..
These points of the article deserved distinction because of their importance in the development of the proposal that was implanted in the AMA Project (developed by Universidade Paranaense in Toledo/PR).
Isolated initiatives were identified from Santos, São Sebastião and Jundiaí City governments, in the state of São Paulo. In the state of Rio de Janeiro, from the City government of the capital, and from Educational Center Santa Mônica. In Bahia, the initiatives were through the Nucleus of Physical Education and Adapted Sports of Feira de Santana. In Campinas/SP, through the Hípica Society.
SÃO PAULO:
- Santos
– São Sebastião
- Jundiaí
- Campinas: Sociedade Hípica
RIO DE JANEIRO
- Municipal City Hall
- Educational Center Santa Mônica
BAHIA
- Nucleus of Physical Education and Adapted Sport of Feira de Santana.
