Tchoukball is a Net and Wall game!

Tchoukball remains a misunderstood game in Singapore despite its recent successes, e.g., the Women’s team overtaking Chinese Taipei to become the top-ranked team for the first time (Ganesan, 2023). In the provisional syllabus document shared by the ministry during the recent physical education syllabus implementation dialogues in May 2023, established games like Football and Softball were appropriately classified as “Territorial-Invasion” and “Striking-Fielding,” respectively, but Tchoukball was classified as “Others”. Furthermore, it is easy to confuse Tchoukball with popular Invasion games like Basketball and Netball because a first-time spectator at a Tchoukball game will find seven players from two opposing teams, passing the ball between teammates, shooting at the Tchoukball frames, and exchanging ball possession after shots made. But as one becomes more familiar with the game of Tchoukball, the features of “opposing players sharing the same court space” and “teammates passing and receiving the ball” are the only ones that Tchoukball shares with Invasion games.

Mitchell, Oslin, and Griffin (2013) classified games according to their respective rules into “Invasion,” “Net and Wall,” “Striking and Fielding,” and “Target.” For example, Basketball and Netball are Invasion games because teams score by moving a ball into another team’s territory and shooting into a fixed target (a basket). On the other hand, teams prevent scoring by stopping the other from bringing the ball into their territory and attempting to score. Badminton, Squash, and Volleyball are Net and Wall games because teams must move the opponents around the court to create the spaces needed to attack and score by hitting the ball into a court space with sufficient accuracy and power that opponents cannot return. On the other hand, teams must best position themselves to defend court space and return the ball. Because of its rules, Tchoukball is a Net and Wall game. For the brevity of this article, only rules on scoring will be discussed.

In Net and Wall games, teams score by hitting the ball into a court space with sufficient accuracy and power that opponents cannot return. In Tchoukball, a player scores a point if the ball rebounds from the frame and touches the field before a defender catches it (Rule 8.1.1; International Tchoukball Federation, 2009). Rebounding the ball on the Tchoukball frame is like Squash, where the ball must be struck correctly and travel to the front wall without going out (World Squash Federation, 2022). Also, Tchoukball’s scoring a point when the ball touches the field of play is like Volleyball, where a team scores a point by successfully landing the ball on the opponent’s court (Federation Internationale de Volleyball, 2021).

In Net and Wall games, there is more than one way to score a point. In Tchoukball, a player scores a point if the ball rebounding from the frame, touches a defender who fails to control it so that it falls on the floor or is knocked out of the field of play (Rule 8.1.2; International Tchoukball Federation, 2009). This is like Volleyball, where a team wins a point when an opposing player fails to hit the ball to a teammate or over the net, causing it to contact the floor or go out of play (Federation Internationale de Volleyball, 2021). This differs from Invasion games, where teams have only one way of scoring, i.e., shooting into a fixed target (a basket).

In Net and Wall games, teams can concede points to opponents because of erroneous shot attempts. In Tchoukball, a player concedes a point when he/she shoots and misses the frame (Rule 8.2.1; International Tchoukball Federation, 2009) or when the ball, rebounding off the frame after he shot, falls out of the field of play or into the forbidden zone (Rule 8.2.2). This is like Badminton, where a point is conceded when a player commits a fault, e.g., sending the shuttle out of the boundaries or failing to send the shuttle over the net (Badminton World Federation, 2022). This differs from Invasion games, where teams generally concede ball possession, not points (goals), after erroneous shot attempts.

In conclusion, practitioners, e.g., physical education teachers, coaches, and administrators, should now be reassured of Tchoukball’s classification as a Net and Wall game. To best support practitioners on this matter, Tchoukball Association of Singapore has requested a position statement (Tan, Tan & Heng, 2023). You can download the position statement via this link: https://repository.nie.edu.sg/handle/10497/25198

Article Contributed by:

Mr. Tan Shern Meng

Mr. Tan is a Lecturer with the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Currently, he is the program leader for the Diploma in Physical Education and conducts courses for various physical education teacher education programs. Through the Instructional Strategies in Physical Education course, he teaches pre-service physical education teachers to teach games using the Game Concepts Approach, a local interpretation of the Tactical Games Model proposed by Mitchell, Oslin and Griffin (2013).

Email: shernmeng.tan@nie.edu.sg

Office: 6219-6296

REFERENCES

Badminton World Federation. (2022). Laws of Badminton. Retrieved from https://extranet.bwf.sport/docs/document-system/81/1466/1470/Section%204.1%20-%20Laws%20of%20Badminton%20-%2014%20November%202021%20V1.2.pdf

Federation Internationale de Volleyball. (2021). Official Volleyball rules 2021-2024. Retrieved from https://www.fivb.com/-/media/2022/coorporate/volleyball/rules%202021-2024/fivb-volleyball_rules_2021_2024.pdf?la=en&hash=436AA7E84054DCEF348817B820979949

Ganesan, D. (2023, 8 Feb 2023). Tchoukball? History-making Singapore women’s team propels unknown sport into spotlight. Straits Times. Retrieved from https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/tchoukball-history-making-singapore-women-s-team-propels-unknown-sport-into-spotlight

International Tchoukball Federation. (2009). The official Tchoukball rules. Retrieved from https://tchoukball.org.sg/wp-content/uploads/2022/ER-01_OfficialTchoukballRules_en.pdf

Mitchell, S. A., Oslin, J. L., & Griffin, L. L. (2013). Teaching sport concepts and skills: A tactical games approach for ages 7 to 18 (Third ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Tan, S. M., Tan, K. S. S., & Heng, S. M. K. (2023). Position statement on game classification for Tchoukball. National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University (NIE/NTU), Singapore. Retrieved from https://repository.nie.edu.sg/handle/10497/25198

World Squash Federation. (2022). World squash doubles rules. Retrieved from https://www.worldsquash.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/2022-International-Doubles-Squash-Rules-V2.pdf