RNC’s Blind Football Academy offers you the opportunity to build football training into your programme of studies and experience blind or partially sighted football at the very highest level. This could be just the platform you need to develop your footballing skills.
The College provides an opportunity for you to develop all areas of your game through expert coaching from trained, experienced staff, with the view to producing players with the ability to compete in both national and international competitions.
RNC Blind Football Academy participates in national blind and partially sighted leagues, playing matches in Hereford and travelling across the country at weekends.
The rules
What surprises most people about blind football is the speed. This game is similar in pace and intensity to the one played by sighted teams, with players demonstrating the same skills, passion and commitment to their fitness. There is, though, obviously more to it than that.
How it works
- Five players, rather than 11, make up a blind football squad – four blind players and a sighted goalkeeper.
The ball contains loose ball-bearings so it rattles when it moves, allowing the players to locate it as they play. - Players learn to keep the ball close, and perfectly controlled, as they dribble across the pitch, only letting it away from their feet when ready to pass to a team mate or take a shot.
- Concentration is everything because, as well as hearing the ball, they’re guided by the voices of other players as they pass the ball.
- The coaches play an important roles as well. During the game a coach will stand behind the attacking goal, directing the forward players, another coach stands on the side-line and will instruct the midfield players, while the sighted goalkeeper will help organise his defence.
- During a penalty, the attaching coach will tap both the vertical posts and cross bar, so that the player will know where to place their penalty strike.
- Specially designed acoustic boards around the pitch create an echo that allows the players to determine their own position (by clicking their fingers) and to locate each other and the ball as it goes in and out of play.
- Importantly, all players must shout the word “voy” when in defensive situations. This allows the attaching player to determine the position of the defensive players on the field.
The most important things a player has to learn are how to run, stop and start again, and to change direction, with or without the ball. Without these but crucial skills, they will be in danger of hurting themselves or each other. At the RNC Football Academy we spend a great deal of time coaching and developing these skills as well as basic ball control, before moving on to a competitive game.
The programme
The RNC Football Academy offers you up to eight hours a week of dedicated football training, focusing on:
- General nutrition, health and fitness
- Strength and conditioning
- Sports psychology
Technical football skills - Rules and regulations of blind or partially sighted football
- Skill-related games
- Shape and formation
- Development of football skills
- Principles of team and set piece play
- Fitness testing and monitoring
- Team and match preparation
- Speed and agility programmes
- Circuit-based football training.
Recent achievements
Season 2019/2020
- Winners, Brian Aarons Cup (qualifying for the Blind Disability Cup Final)
Date Venue Opposition Score 18/02/20 Away Merseyside Blind Football Club 1-2 - Winners of the National Blind League
- Winners of the National Cup
- Other achievements include:
- having 3 International senior players including the Great Britain and England Captain and also the current ranked number one Goalkeeper in the world
- having 2 England talent pathway players who now engage in the U23s programme
- being the only team in the league to have female players
- being a trailblazer team with the first female in modern history to play within the league system, with future indication of an international female team (World Games 2023)