Dr Hermann Brandt was an eminent Swiss biologist. It was through his research into the effects of physical activities that the idea of Tchoukball had its foundation. In Dr Brandt’s time, and arguably now as well, many sports produced shocking injuries that stopped even the strongest of athletes from participating further. After discussing these concerns in the book ‘From Physical Education to Sport Through Biology’, Dr Brandt presented his now famous paper ‘A Scientific Criticism of Team Games’. This won him the coveted award of the ‘Thulin Prize’, presented at the University of Lisbon on August 16th 1970.

Within this paper, Dr Brandt explored ways in which to construct the perfect team game whilst paying heed to his key concern of reducing injury. The practical expression of his ideas, stemming from his critical study of existing games, is the game we have come to know as TCHOUKBALL. This strange-sounding name comes from the ‘tchouk’ sound of the ball rebounding from a tchoukball frame. Dr Brandt felt this would be universally accepted. He died in November, 1972, but not before he saw some of his high hopes realised.