Hockey Programs for Blind Players
Craig, Vianca, Mark, and David demonstrate how competitive even recrecreation level Blind Inline Hockey is.
There are more than two dozen "blind hockey" programs in at least five countries developing at this moment. The first was the Toronto Ice Owls, reported in 1972, followed by the Montreal Hiboux, in 1976. The New York Nightshade claim the heading of first U.S. program, in 2014. The El Paso Mooses point to the November 2012 article in The El Paso Times, highlighting their club and players. The Mooses have been playing since the summer of 2012.
All these early programs were developed by partially sighted players with various levels of vision. The games they devised were minimally adaptive versions of sighted hockey, so that players with partial vision, "legally blind," could play effectively. The games they devised were not truly intended for totally blind players to fully participate. In fact, these early programs didn't even have any total-blind players. Currently, blind players are allowed to play in minorly functioning positions but are greatly limited in contributing to their team's success. Some programs even discourage blind players from joining the team, unless they want to play the singular position of goalkeeper.
These games were designed for persons with impaired, partial vision, but not for total blind persons.
Blind persons playing hockey with partially sighted and sighted persons, everybody playing with no use of vision, is the challenge of play that all the blind players deserve. The task is not to design a game where the "poor, unfortunate, blind players" can go off and play by themselves. The task is to produce the game where all players can play equally well. Blind players are only served by the game that places all players on equal footing.
The El Paso Mooses have always approached hockey from an equal-opportunity perspective. From the very beginning, the Mooses' objective was to provide the regular game of hockey to blind players in an environment where they could take on anybody and succeed. Blind persons have no vision to use. We cannot give blind persons the vision equal to other players. Eliminating all players' use of vision is the only way to make all vision equal.
Blind players deserve the game where they can play and achieve success at the highest level, not just against other blind players, but against anybody, sighted players included! Sonic Hockey provides the blind player with the opportunity to learn as much as the sighted player. The blind player has the ability to play just as well as the sighted player. The game the Mooses have developed dictates exactly that: a blind person can play even up with a sighted person; can learn, practice, and develop the same as a sighted person, and can have success in play equal to, or even greater than a sighted person.
Sonic Hockey is the game where everybody plays with no use of vision, all players of all vision levels are therefore equal in their ability to learn and perform the skills and tactics of the game.
There are more than two dozen "blind hockey" programs in at least five countries developing at this moment. The first was the Toronto Ice Owls, reported in 1972, followed by the Montreal Hiboux, in 1976. The New York Nightshade claim the heading of first U.S. program, in 2014. The El Paso Mooses point to the November 2012 article in The El Paso Times, highlighting their club and players. The Mooses have been playing since the summer of 2012.
All these early programs were developed by partially sighted players with various levels of vision. The games they devised were minimally adaptive versions of sighted hockey, so that players with partial vision, "legally blind," could play effectively. The games they devised were not truly intended for totally blind players to fully participate. In fact, these early programs didn't even have any total-blind players. Currently, blind players are allowed to play in minorly functioning positions but are greatly limited in contributing to their team's success. Some programs even discourage blind players from joining the team, unless they want to play the singular position of goalkeeper.
These games were designed for persons with impaired, partial vision, but not for total blind persons.
Blind persons playing hockey with partially sighted and sighted persons, everybody playing with no use of vision, is the challenge of play that all the blind players deserve. The task is not to design a game where the "poor, unfortunate, blind players" can go off and play by themselves. The task is to produce the game where all players can play equally well. Blind players are only served by the game that places all players on equal footing.
The El Paso Mooses have always approached hockey from an equal-opportunity perspective. From the very beginning, the Mooses' objective was to provide the regular game of hockey to blind players in an environment where they could take on anybody and succeed. Blind persons have no vision to use. We cannot give blind persons the vision equal to other players. Eliminating all players' use of vision is the only way to make all vision equal.
Blind players deserve the game where they can play and achieve success at the highest level, not just against other blind players, but against anybody, sighted players included! Sonic Hockey provides the blind player with the opportunity to learn as much as the sighted player. The blind player has the ability to play just as well as the sighted player. The game the Mooses have developed dictates exactly that: a blind person can play even up with a sighted person; can learn, practice, and develop the same as a sighted person, and can have success in play equal to, or even greater than a sighted person.
Sonic Hockey is the game where everybody plays with no use of vision, all players of all vision levels are therefore equal in their ability to learn and perform the skills and tactics of the game.
Origin of the El Paso Mooses Inline Hockey Program for Blind Players
Mickayla, original player of the El Paso Mooses, defends the pond hockey goal at the Mooseville Arena, during our 2012 halfcourt hockey league season. She was seven years old at the time.
Summer of 2012, Mark sat next to Danny at a recreation league hockey game at the Nations-Tobin Sports Center. Mark knew that Danny had started a small hockey program for kids. He asked if his daughter, Mickayla, seven years old, could join? Bring her on over was the reply. "Only one problem," allowed Mark, "She's totally blind." Danny thought about that for about five seconds and said, "Yeah, we can do that." Mickayla started playing at the Blue Mooses Sports Club for Kids the following week.
As part of his job as a program coordinator for the El Paso Parks & Recreation Department for twenty years, Danny would experiment with sports equipment. in 1986-87, Danny coached a soccer team with eight visually impaired teenagers playing indoor soccer. The major piece of equipment was a sounding buzzer placed inside a proper-weight and size, foam soccer ball, so that blind players could hear the ball's location and movement.
The next winter hockey season, Danny directed an indoor roller-skate hockey program. As part of that program, Danny created a buzzer-in-a-hockey puck, largely just to see if it could be done. Yes, it worked, but we never got into blind players playing hockey at that time.
In 2007, Danny directed a private indoor sports facility called "Xtreet Sports," and Danny and two young hockey players played around with the buzzing, blind hockey puck, but no program ever came out of that, either.
So, when Mickayla, in 2012, asked to play hockey as a blind player, Danny had some background knowledge of how that could be done. The key was not to get the blind player to struggle along, trying to keep up with the sighted players, but the opposite, make the sighted players play under the same conditions as the blind player. Everybody plays with no vision!
The sounding puck, a sounding mechanism for the goal, and opaque goggles would enable non-blind players to play blind, making the game even for everybody. The Mooses began to explore how to play. They practiced moving around the rink, making passes, defending, and scoring goals. They played a game almost every week. Other than the sounding devices, they played the same game as the regulation, sighted game.
Later, the Blue Mooses Sports Club closed down, the Mooses Sonic Hockey program moved to play daily at the Nations-Tobin Sports Center. The Mooses continue to develop the game played by sound and touch, with no use of vision. Anyone can play, not just blind persons.
Summer of 2012, Mark sat next to Danny at a recreation league hockey game at the Nations-Tobin Sports Center. Mark knew that Danny had started a small hockey program for kids. He asked if his daughter, Mickayla, seven years old, could join? Bring her on over was the reply. "Only one problem," allowed Mark, "She's totally blind." Danny thought about that for about five seconds and said, "Yeah, we can do that." Mickayla started playing at the Blue Mooses Sports Club for Kids the following week.
As part of his job as a program coordinator for the El Paso Parks & Recreation Department for twenty years, Danny would experiment with sports equipment. in 1986-87, Danny coached a soccer team with eight visually impaired teenagers playing indoor soccer. The major piece of equipment was a sounding buzzer placed inside a proper-weight and size, foam soccer ball, so that blind players could hear the ball's location and movement.
The next winter hockey season, Danny directed an indoor roller-skate hockey program. As part of that program, Danny created a buzzer-in-a-hockey puck, largely just to see if it could be done. Yes, it worked, but we never got into blind players playing hockey at that time.
In 2007, Danny directed a private indoor sports facility called "Xtreet Sports," and Danny and two young hockey players played around with the buzzing, blind hockey puck, but no program ever came out of that, either.
So, when Mickayla, in 2012, asked to play hockey as a blind player, Danny had some background knowledge of how that could be done. The key was not to get the blind player to struggle along, trying to keep up with the sighted players, but the opposite, make the sighted players play under the same conditions as the blind player. Everybody plays with no vision!
The sounding puck, a sounding mechanism for the goal, and opaque goggles would enable non-blind players to play blind, making the game even for everybody. The Mooses began to explore how to play. They practiced moving around the rink, making passes, defending, and scoring goals. They played a game almost every week. Other than the sounding devices, they played the same game as the regulation, sighted game.
Later, the Blue Mooses Sports Club closed down, the Mooses Sonic Hockey program moved to play daily at the Nations-Tobin Sports Center. The Mooses continue to develop the game played by sound and touch, with no use of vision. Anyone can play, not just blind persons.
Differences Between Sonic Hockey and other Hockey Programs
Mickayla in her patented stance, turning the puck to line up her pass/shot.
In North America alone, there are over thirty hockey programs for visually impaired persons. Total blind persons are allowed only minimal participation, and sighted persons are not allowed to play. These games are specifically for those partially sighted; their vision falls in the "legally blind" category.
The total blind player, the truly blind player, gets left out of this game. Some clubs have a playing rule that dictates the blind player play only a static defensive position, and is not allowed to go up into the offense to try to score. Some clubs even tell blind players that they are not allowed to play at all if they don't want to play the position of goalkeeper. These differences in game rules, participation level, equipment, actively prohibit a blind player from playing effectively, if at all.
The El Paso Mooses Sonic Hockey program is the game of hockey, designed specifically for the blind player. Any other players may join in if they commit to playing with their vision eliminated, so they are just like the blind player. The Sonic Hockey game dictates that players of all vision levels will have success, with and against each other, fairly and equally.
In North America alone, there are over thirty hockey programs for visually impaired persons. Total blind persons are allowed only minimal participation, and sighted persons are not allowed to play. These games are specifically for those partially sighted; their vision falls in the "legally blind" category.
The total blind player, the truly blind player, gets left out of this game. Some clubs have a playing rule that dictates the blind player play only a static defensive position, and is not allowed to go up into the offense to try to score. Some clubs even tell blind players that they are not allowed to play at all if they don't want to play the position of goalkeeper. These differences in game rules, participation level, equipment, actively prohibit a blind player from playing effectively, if at all.
The El Paso Mooses Sonic Hockey program is the game of hockey, designed specifically for the blind player. Any other players may join in if they commit to playing with their vision eliminated, so they are just like the blind player. The Sonic Hockey game dictates that players of all vision levels will have success, with and against each other, fairly and equally.
How are Blind Players Different from Sighted Players?
(and Frankly, a lot Better!)
(and Frankly, a lot Better!)
Carina, about to take a practice shot forty feet from the goal.
This section posits several comments about how blind persons, visually impaired persons, and sighted persons play hockey without use of vision. We cite no scientific research nor source material for such concepts, but rather base them on general knowledge of neurology, physiology, kinesiology, and the technical, psychological, physiological, and tactical aspects of the game of hockey.
We note several ways that the blind player learns about the physical world and themselves in it. The sighted person processes up to 97% of the information that their brain receives through their sense of sight. The blind person does not have that ability. However, the blind person does have the ability to receive, process, and remember any and all information that the sighted person does.The information must simply be received through other senses.
When the blind hockey player trains, the player must learn information through other than the sense of sight. The game of hockey that the blind player plays must provide the ability for the blind player to receive the same information that a sighted player does.
Basic, "game in play" information that a hockey player needs to function and play effectively:
1. location of the player on the field of play, dimensions of the field of play, how the field of play is oriented (directions of movement, parts of the field),
2. location of teammates and opponents and movement of other players,
3. location of the object of play, variant movement of the object of play,
4. location of the object goals.
Because the blind-since-birth person never had the sense of sight to begin with, this person has developed "avenues of information" through the other senses. The blind hockey player brings certain, already developed tools thereby to process information about playing the game. Interestingly enough, when you take away the vision of the sighted player to play the game, the sighted player loses his main method of information input and processing. The blind player brings his already-developed tools to bear, and thereby can actually outperform the sighted player up to the point the sighted player develops these tools (if ever).
We find most sighted players who commit to playing with their vision eliminated can develop the tools to some degree, even very well, but they always seem to be slightly worse off than the "native user" (the blind player) of these tools. We note a similar degree of separation between the abilities of the blind-since-birth player, and the formerly-sighted-now-blind player. A visually impaired player, with even a small degree of vision, behaves largely as a fully sighted player, when learning to play with vision eliminated. Let's examine some of these tools. We will include some anecdotal narrative as exemplars in this discussion:
Spatial/Dimension Awareness
A blind-since-birth person learns quickly to gauge spaces as they physically move through the world. From their immediate environment as an infant, they do not have the luxury of looking back or taking a second look to gauge distances moved, travelled, or yet to move to get to things. Instead, the brain catalogues each step, and keeps the records permanently locked into memory. The brain very quickly learns to do this. If not, the infant would not move about very much at all. We note that sighted players, upon first encounter with playing blind, are extremely hesitant in even taking a single step, let alone moving at all, about a rink they have played even thousands of hours upon.
Without the use of vision, the brain gauges changes of direction, motion, and orientation as it moves about. A blind person comes into the hockey rink ready to catalogue a new, blank slate of an environment. We usually use a flat, tactile diagram to initially orient a blind player to the hockey rink design. Sometimes we have eschewed doing this, as the handheld diagram holds no physical comparison to a hundred foot area on a hockey rink. We have asked our players, "What physical shape is a hockey rink?" The original answer likens the curved corners to another face of the floor shape, and the answer is, "Octagon," which of course is correct under the given circumstances.
A blind player becomes used to the distances and directions between parts of the floor quickly compared to a sighted player, playing blind. From the slot back to the neutral zone, across the floor, from the wing to the slot: a blind player can move back and forth many times, and follow the same "trail" darn near exactly. Sighted players playing blind are, at first, all over the place.
Currently, the Mooses have primarily B1 level players. Of these, two skaters have been blind since birth. We note that these two platers move about the floor with markedly greater ease and certainty than the rest of us. So much so, that early on, we developed the communication component to orient yourself if you were unsure of your position in the offensive zone. Essentially, this was, "Find Mickayla!" Since Mickayla was unwaveringly, unerringly in the central mid-slot position, you could always find the goal area by learning where she was. Once you knew where Mickayla was, you could easily orient yourself as to position and direction. You will frequently, hear teammates calling, "Mickayla!" for this orientation purpose.
We ask our sighted and visually impaired players from time to time put on their equipment while blind. Obviously, the blind players excel in this by comparison. At our local ice rink, there was an occasion when the electricity was off in the area of town. The entire arena was dark. As we arrived for our early morning blind hockey session, the players from the activity scheduled to occur before us were all outside the front door, hanging out or milling around. The rink manager came out to explain to the group that it looked like the power was going to be off for a time period more, and they must cancel their session for this day. At that point, the manager glanced over and saw us over to the side of the group. He directly offered, "Oh, well, you guys can play." And we did. In the dark, we put on our stuff, set up our equipment, and played about forty minutes of our hour before the lights came back on. Was a lot of fun.
Development of Sense of Touch
The blind hockey player "pays more attention" to how their skates feel on the playing surface, and to differences in the surface, than does their sighted counterparts. Touch is one sense that sighted players largely ignore, because texture and feel can be gleaned by sight. As an infant, the blind person's brain learns to catalog every touch of the body to the feel of all other surfaces.
We have reports of our blind players momentarily confusing the lines painted onto the inline playing surface vs the tactile blue lines, their feel of the floor with the stick toe is that good. The blind player has an easier time of acquiring the skill of catching the puck by laying their stick shaft on the floor, and identifying (by feeling with their hands on the stick) where the puck has come to a stop in front of them, than our sighted players.
Mickayla once scooped all the change out of the coin compartment in the car's console, counted the coins out at a rapid pace, one hand to the other, then shoving the whole cache back into the compartment, she announced, "$9.78." She had determined each coin amount with her fingertips, and did the addition mentally as she went. Her count was correct, and with almost $10.00 in pennies, nickels, dimes, and only the occasional quarter, this amounted to almost 200 coins. Took her about 10 minutes, she was just occupying the time on the ride to the rink.
Development of Sense of Hearing
Hearing is the sense that takes up the largest portion of information-gathering that lack of sight leaves behind. The blind person does not have any better hearing acuity level than the sighted person. The blind person just pays attention more to their hearing than the sighted person, because they obviously have to!
The blind person can develop the skill of Echolalia to a high degree. They can hear solid objects as they approach them: walls, large objects like furniture, other persons, etc. Once had a blind player simply walk around the inside rink perimeter, and she could identify the bench areas, the scorekeeper's area, the corners, the high glass on the end walls, the lower glass on the wing walls, etc., all by her hearing how the ambient sounds in the air (background noise) bounced off the face of the wall beside her.
The blind person develops selective hearing, the ability to "tune out" the undesired sounds to focus on the desired sound. Curiously, sighted persons develop this ability if they focus well enough. Early on, we had players focused on the sound of the puck so much that they "couldn't hear the goal," and asked the coach if the goal sounding device had shut off. When told that the goal sound was functioning just fine, they "re-listened" for it and declared, "Oh, yeah, now I hear it."
On the hockey rink, the blind person notices any diminishing level in the sounding devices much before the sighted players. As the batteries need replacing, it is most often the blind players that identify this.
The blind players can also identify the slightly different pitches and frequencies of the two goal sounding devices, differentiating them much more easily than our sighted players.
Early on in our development of play, I, the coach, and Mickayla, the player, were to play one-on-one in the slot. As a defender, I explained to Mickayla not to become to discouraged if I were able to disrupt her play nine out of ten times, because defense was much easier to play then offense. I wanted her to learn to persevere in the face of failure. Wow...Wrong! Mickayla got the puck, turned it, and shot it successfully seven out of ten times, with five shots past me or through me on goal! I did manage to dispossess her three times and clear the puck into the neutral zone. She beat me to loose pucks, tracked incoming passes, and touched and turned the puck most of the time before I could even take up the correct defensive position, let alone make a play. Mickayla's use of her hearing was waaaay better then mine, no kidding! Mickayla was eleven years old at the time. I have since developed my own hearing abilities somewhat, but that exercise taught me that all things even, the blind player has a big advantage over the sighted person playing blind hockey.
Development of Sense of Balance
A sighted player uses vision and depth perception in all body movements to adjust to and augment their inner ear sense of balance. If you don't believe that, try taking a shower with your eyes closed the entire time. A blind player has only their sense of inner ear balance to use. In playing hockey blind, the blind player is using their normal tool to balance themselves. The sighted player has a major tool of his taken away. To the sighted player, playing blind seemingly takes away more than half of his balance tool kit...The blind player can balance a lot better than the sighted player who is playing blind. We note that most visually impaired players with some minimal vision, and sighted players, actually do fall down some when first learning to play blind. This includes the player that already knows how to skate before playing blind. I have been one of those guys. For no reason I could discern, I would just fall down on occasion, especially when turning on the skates to move to a new position. This more specific reliance on the inner ear sense of balance helps the blind player to outplay their sighted counterparts playing blind in one-on-one play, and other situations where agility and flexibility must be coupled with balance: finding the puck, accelerating with the puck, and turning the puck, for examples.
Development of Learning and Memory
By now, you get the idea that the blind-since-birth infant has needed to rely on, and develop, his other senses as tools to simply live and get around at all. It becomes obvious that this infant has trained his brain to remember things at a rate that exceeds the infant who can continue to rely on visual cues to remind and reinforce learned behaviors. The little blind kid cannot simply check his vision, or look at it again, to remember how to do it. This occurs in the blind brain at all levels, auto, cognitive, and reasoning centers, etc. The blind little kid, adolescent, and adult places a need on themselves to commit to memory any and all important information necessary to function. This does indeed help the blind player to learn and play blind hockey very well, compared to the sighted counterpart.
Conclusions:
It is dead-flat wrong to conclude that blind players are at a disadvantage vs sighted players playing blind. The advantage, in many ways, is to the blind player. When playing blind hockey, the blind player and the sighted player, even the sighted player who has learned to play before playing blind for the first time, are all incumbent to learn the blind game, each starts even to the other. The opportunity to learn the game is the same. Whoever works the hardest, learns the best, practices the most, will prevail. Isn't that how its supposed to be in any sport, or human endeavor?