Abstract

Whereas goalball coaches can adopt performance diagnostics from other competitive sport games to test the physical condition of their players (i.e. strength, movement velocity, general endurance, etc.), the diagnostics for sensomotor abilities has to be blind-specific. This feature is of special importance, because the traditional research dealing with sensomotor abilities like anticipation in sport games is mainly focused on the development of effective visual search strategies. Further on, according to a field inquiry conducted at the European Championships 2005, goalball-specific performance diagnostics testing audiomotor abilities still do not exist. In this contribution we present the development of a goalball-specific performance test based on an Interactive Sonification System for Acoustic Motion Control (“AcouMotion”, cf. Hermann, Höner & Ritter, 2006). In a first step of evaluation we tested the international German Goalball team. The results validate important parts of the test and also provide new insights for further modifications. Verf.-Referat