Blind Baseball Takes Off In Hartlepool

Meet Hartlepool Monkeys who are helping vision impaired people to enjoy freedom and fun.

Transcript

00:00I went to see John. John, there's a bit of blind baseball going on. How does that work?

00:09So it's a classic cricket based around sighted game. They hit from their own hands and they

00:16run to sounds around the bases. So when they get to the base, how do they know they're

00:22there? The first base stops when they get there and they know to turn through 90 degrees

00:27and go to the second base. The second base has a sighted clapper who guides them to that

00:32base and he speeds up as they get closer. So a sighted clapper, you mean someone who's

00:37actually clapping? Yeah. Rather than a clapper board? Yeah, actually physically clapping

00:42there's some special plastic clappers that they use as a sound and that guides them in.

00:49Is it something that takes a lot of practice? It takes a little bit of practice, yeah. What

00:55we find is the actual freedom of the running is fantastic. Usually in other blind sports

01:02they get guided. They're under their own steam getting to the base. They feel the freedom

01:07is absolutely fantastic. I'm just watching now and there's a lady just ramping round

01:12behind you. It's amazing. Hats off to all the players I've coached. It's a great sensation.

01:23So do we have partially sighted and people who are totally blind? Yeah, there's a mixture.

01:29The sport itself is face brown. They all have to wear shades so they're all classed as the

01:34B1. So no sign. So that makes it equal for everybody on the field but it can be a mixture.