Breaking down barriers, one goal at a time
Posted on
Can you imagine playing a football match and communicating with your teammates without being able to hear them?
For 22-year-old Saskia Newman, this is the norm.
Saskia was born profoundly deaf, but this hasn’t stopped her from kicking goals on and off the field.
She plays for Australia in the national women’s deaf football team as an attacking midfielder and Vice-Captain and she loves what she does.
She’s been with the team for three years after she was contacted by one of the men’s team coaches in 2021.
“I’d previously been playing soccer for many years since I was four years old and I’ve also been involved in athletics, competing as a deaf athlete, so they were able to find me and track me down.”
Since then, she’s represented Australia in an international match against the US, and the team is now gearing up to take on Japan in a home match in Sydney on 15 December.
Deaf football matches have many similarities to ones we’re familiar with – both go for 90 minutes with 45-minute halves, have a half-time break, and have 11 players on the field.
But there are some key differences.
“All the athletes do have quite significant hearing loss. The cut-off is 55 decibels in your better ear,” Saskia says.
“I have a cochlear implant – I can’t hear anything out of my left ear, but in my right ear, if someone speaks quite loudly at me, I can just hear it. All the players have that level of hearing loss, if not more.”
To make the match even, players are required to remove their cochlear ear implants or hearing aids before taking to the field.
“When I step onto the field, I pretty much can’t hear anyone calling out. I can’t hear the ref, or have a conversation with the ref.”
The team have found a way around this though, and the training sessions provide them with the opportunity to learn how to communicate visually.
“It’s a lot of eye contact, hand gestures, so if I want the ball, I have to wait for someone to either look up and see me. Maybe I have my hand up or I’m gesturing with my hand,” Saskia explains.
“It’s just doing whatever you can to be really clear about where you want the ball. … We have simple signs for different sorts of passes … we do use hand signals and special signs that we have developed in order to communicate with the help of Auslan interpreters.”
During matches, the players can’t put their devices back on during half-time, which makes it tricky to discuss game plan techniques for the second half.
“Team tactics and everything is delivered without players having access to speech. You can imagine if you’re down one-nil at halftime and you want to come up with a team plan, a lot of this tactical strategy and decision-making has to be put in place in the player’s mind before the game. … It’s not as easy to change tactics in the moment as you might with a hearing team.”
With the upcoming game growing close, the team has been busy training and developing their skills further.
“All the girls have been training really hard, we’ve learned the standard that we need to be at … the Japanese players are very technical, they’re all really skillful players.”
“Our team is working hard on developing our technical abilities alongside our strengths and communication, so I’m excited to see how we all gel together.”
For Saskia, playing with this team allows her to thrive.
“It’s made for you to succeed … it’s made for you to communicate well. Even though we might not have our hearing aids on, and maybe there are some challenges with communication, it’s a really positive environment and [it] doesn’t make you feel fatigued from trying to hear.”
But Saskia’s skills don’t just stop at the football field.
She’s currently studying a post-graduate medicine degree at the Australian National University while balancing her training and games.
“I don’t think I’ve ever really opted for the easy, focus on one thing at a time approach. I’ve always been working very hard across different areas.”
In June, she travelled to the US to face the American team.
“I came back six days before my in-person clinical exam and just 13 days before my mid-year exam, so it was quite a battle. While I was in the US, every spare minute I got I was dedicating to my studies, looking at flashcards, reviewing content, practice questions.”
It all paid off though, as she passed her exams and is now heading into her third year of the degree.
As Saskia looks to the future, she’s hoping to see a world with more deaf athletes.
“I encourage any deaf athletes no matter how old or young they are, to get involved in football or any sport of their choosing but get involved with something they’re passionate about.”
With one in six Australians living with hearing loss, it’s time we give the deaf football world some well-deserved attention and rally behind our teams.
Images supplied.
