Shop and help raise money for PTC
What is Tchoukball?
Tchoukball is a high-speed, non aggressive handball sport. It was designed by a Swiss sports biologist as the 'perfect sport'. It didn't just 'happen' like so many other sports, but was designed, analyzed and improved rather than luck, peer pressure, financial involvement and interference. If you can throw, catch and run, you can play!
What makes it different? Tchoukball is completely non-contact - you won't get injured as a direct result of another player - no tripping, pushing, intercepting, blocking, etc. Does that make it boring? NO! That means you can play faster and push the limits of sport much harder without fear of the opposition injuring you. The result is a high-speed, highly tactical game without sinister or 'dirty' play that was once described as 'chess with a ball'!
Tchoukball is played with two 'frames'. These measure 90 centimeters square and are situated at both ends of the court. A line runs 3 meters from the centre of the bottom of the frame around in a semi-circle and 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, but can be played on a 20m by 10m beach court. One of the main rules about Tchoukball is that players can’t intercept or block the opposition, However, the most surprising is that players can attack and defend at both ends
In international / national competitions there are 12 players named for any one game with 9 players on court at any time and 3 substitutes (substitutions are unlimited amongst the 12 players). Although there are specialized roles in attack and defense, players are allowed to do either, unlike (for example) netball where players are restricted. Players fall into three general 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 controlling play from one end to the other.
For your team to score a point a player must throw or 'shoot' the ball at the frame so that it lands on the floor outside of the forbidden zone (the ‘D’). The opposition can stop the point from being scored by catching the ball before it lands on the floor. If the opposition catch the ball they play on, attempting to score a point. This sequence continues until a point is scored. Once a point has been scored the team that lost the point take ball and start play from outside of the court at the end where the point is scored.
As for the general rules, everything works in 3’s - You have 3 seconds with the ball, 3 steps when holding the ball, and 3 passes with the ball before it has to be thrown at the frame. Tchoukball is COMPLETELY non-contact no tackling or blocking 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 defense or a mistake is made.
Tchoukball is a complete team sport. When one team is attacking all players on the other team are defending forming a layered defense of first, second and third ‘lines’. This improves the chances of the team catching the ball on a ricochet or ‘dig’ from another of their players.
© All content on this website is copyright Portsmouth Tchoukball Club 2008. All rights reserved.