In a backlash against the aggression and general unpleasantness of many modern team sports, a group of physical educationalists are pinning their faith on a new game; by starting from scratch they believe they can eliminate many of the warts on the face of sport.
The game is called tchoukball and it has the backing of the International Physical Education Association, whose joint secretary is Mr John Andrews, a senior PE lecturer at St Paul’s College of Education, Cheltenham, and chairman of the British Tchoukball Association.
Mr Andrews explains the problem: “Some of our national team games show the growing gulf between the PE ethic, the sports ethic and top professional competition”. You have to start worrying when you see 11 and 12-year-olds squaring up for a fight during a football match.
Tchoukball, he says, came into being through education and one of the aims of the international federation is to keep it on a sound educational level. It is not another gimmicky sport with a commercial pay-off. It is a game for schools, for leisure, for recreation and for the family.
“Tchoukball grew out of a study of the educational and non-educational effects of team games. Instead of just pulling them to bits, the idea was to create a new game.
“It is primarily a game for the educational world. We want to develop it at grass-roots level and in the schools, although it can be played by people of all ages.”
Tchoukball was invented by a Swiss scientist, Dr Hermann Brandt, who is much involved in the world of sport. The international federation liked what they saw, endorsed the new sport and asked all representatives to give tchoukball their full backing.
