Teams required for Tchoukball tournament

Students and staff are invited to enter the inaugural Leeds Met intramural Tchoukball tournament.

The competition will take place on Tuesday 23 March at 3.20pm in the Green Sports Hall where teams of five will be battling it out for Tchoukball glory.

Tchoukball was invented in the late 1960's and combines the pace and excitement of handball, netball and volleyball.  The teams will use their 'tchouk' skills to fight through the round-robin stages of the tournament and make it through to the knockouts to be crowned Leeds Met intramural Tchoukball champions.

There are prizes for the winners and runners up, and entry is only £5 per team.

To enter a team, or for more information, please contact:

Sarah Humphreys, Sports Participation Officer, on 0113 812 4851, or at s.a.humphreys@leedsmet.ac.uk

About Tchoukball

Tchoukball is a new sport, invented in the late 1960s and first played in 1970. Combining the pace and excitement of handball and volleyball, tchoukball is the fastest handball sport in the world today.

Tchoukball is played with two 'frames'. These frames, as they are called, measure 90 centimetres square and are situated at both ends of the court. A line runs 3 metres from the centre of the bottom of the frame around in a semi-circle. This area is known as the 'forbidden zone' or more familiarly, the 'D'. The court size varies greatly depending on the ages of the players; a full size international standard court is 40m by 20m in size. One of the main things about Tchoukball that surprises people is that players can attack and defend at both ends.

On each side there are 12 players named for any one game, 9 players and 3 substitutes. Although there are specialised positions in attack and defence, players are allowed to do either. Players fall into three categories; 'shooters' who's main aim is to score points, 'inners' or 'end pivots' whose role is mainly defensive, and a 'centre pivot', who spend most of their time in the centre of the court to distribute play from one end to the other.

Put quite simply, the object of the game is to throw, or 'shoot' the ball at the frame, so that it lands over the line of the D. The opposition's job is to catch the ball, and then 'shoot' it. This sequence continues until a point is scored.

Everything works in 3s. You have 3 seconds with the ball, 3 steps with the ball, and 3 passes with the ball before it has to be thrown at the frame. Tchoukball is a non-contact sport. There is no tackling involved and the only time play switches from one team to the other is when the ball is shot into the frame by the attacking team and caught by the defence.

To shoot the ball at the frame you have to jump from outside the safety zone, and release it before you land.

When the ball is shot by a team into the frame, the opposing team has to defend around the line. Typically they will be on their knees to catch the ball. The two other players behind the defence are known as 'second line defenders'. They are defenders from the other end of the court who are there in case the ball is deflected upwards and behind the 'front line' of defence.

In order to score a point the player that has shot the ball into the frame must ensure that the ball lands outside of the 'D'. If it lands inside, it is a point to the defending team. Play will then restart from behind the frame the point was scored at.