The purpose of this study is to survey visually impaired goalball players' awareness about referees who are responsible for coordination of goalball matches; determine potential effects of referees' judgments upon actual goalball match; deduce potenti...
The purpose of this study is to survey visually impaired goalball players' awareness about referees who are responsible for coordination of goalball matches; determine potential effects of referees' judgments upon actual goalball match; deduce potential complainable factors and issues in various judgment situations of referees; and explore into possible positive ways to restore a relationship of trust between players and referees in the interest of developing goalball.
In order to achieve these goals, this study used a restructured questionnaire to survey total 86 goalball players who participated in a visually impaired goalball tournament of the 28th National Games for the Disabled in Korea. And all survey data collected from them were statistically processed and analyzed to meet the goals of study. As a result, this study could come to the following conclusions:
First, according to analysis on our visually impaired goalball players' awareness about referees depending upon their sex, it is found that female players have a tendency toward higher awareness on reliability of referees than male ones, whereas male players have a tendency toward higher awareness on fairness and influence of referees than female ones.
Secondly, according to analysis on visually impaired goalball players' awareness about referees depending upon their match results, it is found that runner-up and 4th- or lower-ranking team players have a tendency toward to higher awareness on the promptness of referees than champion team players; champion, runner-up and 4th- or lower-ranking team players have a tendency toward to higher awareness on the reliability of referees than 3rd-ranking ones; and runner-up, 3rd- and 4th- or lower-ranking team players have a tendency toward to higher awareness on the fairness of referees than champion ones.
Thirdly, according to analysis on visually impaired goalball players' awareness about referees depending on their goalball career, it is found that 6-year or longer career group has a tendency toward to higher awareness about the influence of referees than 1-year or shorter career group.
Fourthly, according to analysis on visually impaired goalball players' awareness about referees depending on whether they ever have experiences in unfair judgment of referees, it is found that ‘unexperienced’ group has a tendency toward higher awareness on reliability and specialty of referees than ‘experienced’ group, while ‘experienced’ group has a tendency toward higher awareness on the influence of referees than ‘unexperienced’ group.
Finally, according to analysis on visually impaired goalball players' awareness about referees depending on their age, it is found that all of three age groups have a tendency toward ‘moderate’ or higher awareness about referees, but there is no significant difference among groups.