Blind football heads to the USA

A major development initiative to introduce blind football to the USA will take place in the coming months aiming to tap into growing interest in blind football in the USA and North America in general.

The International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) Football Committee will partner with the United States Association of Blind Athletes to deliver a development camp to identify players and coaches interested in competing in the sport.

The camp will be held at the Maryland School for the Blind in the city of Baltimore from 25-29 June.

Coaches and athletes will be recruited from state schools for the blind and regional and national sports clubs from the USA and Canada, and athletes with B1, B2 and B3 classifications will be welcomed.

The camp will be split into two sections: a coaching clinic (aka “Train the Trainer”) and an athlete development camp. An experienced IBSA blind football coach will direct the camp, empowering the coaches in attendance to get hands-on experience with athletes on the field of play.

The goal of the camp is to provide coaches with the necessary tools and knowledge to create blind football programmes in their local communities, and for athletes to hone their fundamental skills for the game. The camp will also serve as an identification event for future national team selections.

The involvement of an IBSA blind football official will ensure that North American coaches and athletes will have the tools to grow the sport exponentially across the region.