joe79
New Member
Posts: 7
Gender: Male
Dev Status: Disabled Male
Relationship Status: Single
|
Post by joe79 on Aug 17, 2015 10:43:10 GMT -5
Any wheelchair sports players?
|
|
|
Post by Gale on Aug 17, 2015 13:58:46 GMT -5
I played basketball and handball for a time and was one of the better players in the south for a good while. Never got into it at a college level (played from 5th grade all the way through graduating high school) due to different interests, however I did travel around a lot in my time playing and even flew all the way to Wisconsin to play in a tournament once.
|
|
|
Post by rollingup on Aug 18, 2015 12:45:02 GMT -5
I didn't know wheelchair hockey was a thing. I'm not a hockey fan at all but the thought of wheelchair hockey seems cool I'm curious about it now . How does that work ? Don't laugh but .... Do you wheel on ice ?
And I don't play wheelchair sports but I'll go to the court and shoot around with my friends I actually would play wheelchair basketball but I smoke to much my lungs aren't up to the challenge
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2015 14:04:06 GMT -5
No it's on wood floors, the sticks and puck are plastic, the stick is shorter to be one handed. No icing is called. Other than that pretty similar Really? We play on ice with sled and two sticks.
|
|
|
Post by Emma on Aug 18, 2015 15:19:24 GMT -5
There is wheelchair floor hockey (I'm not sure of the exact name) that usually involves power chairs and sled hockey on the ice like the pic SOR posted.
|
|
cynix
New Member
Posts: 24
Gender: Male
|
Post by cynix on Aug 19, 2015 7:51:58 GMT -5
IPC should add it to paralympic games
|
|
|
Post by Gale on Aug 19, 2015 9:17:13 GMT -5
There is wheelchair floor hockey (I'm not sure of the exact name) that usually involves power chairs and sled hockey on the ice like the pic SOR posted. my experience with Hockey was that it was ALL power chairs. I imagine that it doesn't need to be all power chairs necessarily, but when I was playing adapted sports for my county and state team back in the day, Hockey was reserved for power chairs; manuals couldn't even play.
|
|
gmar84
New Member
Posts: 16
Gender: Male
Dev Status: Disabled Male
Relationship Status: Single
|
Post by gmar84 on Aug 20, 2015 8:24:21 GMT -5
Disabled swimmer here! And I also go to gym with wheeelchair, but well, these are not wheelchair sports
|
|
|
Post by matisse on Aug 20, 2015 10:12:53 GMT -5
As a power chair user, I would feel kind of dorky playing wheelchair "sports".....it's not as if my thumb and forefinger are going to break into a sweat....
|
|
|
Post by MarineAmp on Aug 20, 2015 11:01:09 GMT -5
As a power chair user, I would feel kind of dorky playing wheelchair "sports".....it's not as if my thumb and forefinger are going to break into a sweat.... This made me think of how awesome it would be to play wheelchair basketball in power chairs.
|
|
|
Post by Gale on Aug 20, 2015 11:08:34 GMT -5
As a power chair user, I would feel kind of dorky playing wheelchair "sports".....it's not as if my thumb and forefinger are going to break into a sweat.... I can't say for sure, because I don't really use a power chair and I never really have, but I do have that perspective of somebody who played very closely with several power chair users for many years, and to me at least, it seems a lot more cerebral of a role than playing in a manual chair. When I played handball (or wheelchair soccer, whatever you wanna call it) our county teams (I say "teams" because it was pretty much every county team in my state) were a mixture of power chairs and manual chairs. I liked this a lot, because it really tested the players on several levels. It's one thing to be able to go flying down the court as fast possible on a break and hit a lay up / shot on the goalie, but how good are you at team work? How good are you at knowing the limits of 4 or 5 other people with completely different (more than likely at least) disabilities? This is what I loved about handball and football (basketball was all manuals in our area). Power chair users actually had advantages over manuals on a strategical level - You wouldn't think so but there's actually a HUGE advantage of being essentially an immovable wall whenever you set a pick to create openings. As a power chair user, if you make a defensive play while your teammates are trying to get past people with the ball, The blockers are literally FORCED to move around you. There is NO give whatsoever if that power chair decides they don't want to move, and this can be game changing depending on positioning. I can recall several times where I've been tied up by more than person (it's not an uncommon strategy to double team certain key players depending on the team match ups) only to notice one of my teammates in a power chair position themselves lengthwise behind both the players and pretty much allow me to use my speed in combination with the disadvantageous position they were stuck in to completely ditch them and get an opening. It works even better if the people don't notice the power chair, because then they back up in the chair expecting to be able to move / follow the player and all they do is back up straight into the power chair. If the ref sees it, they'll actually call it a foul too, you're not allowed to back up into people with your chair (I know this because I've had that whistle blown in my fricken ear enough to have memorized it). TL;DR - I don't care if you feel dorky, come scrimmage with me, I <3 power chairs.
|
|
|
Post by Tek on Aug 20, 2015 13:37:00 GMT -5
Short disclaimer: I play electric wheelchair hockey in my electric wheelchair. I play for the top team in my country (4th consecutive national championship this year, also most likely the top team in the world) and I have played for the national team in the past (won all but one international tournament, counting since 1998). I sort of kind of know a little bit about what I'm talking about.
There are lots of people in a an electric wheelchair who have enough arm function to hit/control/lob/spike/punt/volley the ball with one hand, while driving their chair with the other. The awesome part about electric wheelchair hockey (or in the US better known as "Power hockey") is that anyone in a power chair can play. Some of my best teammates are functionally equal to a high quad, I've played in the higher levels against congenital quad amputees and against people with spina-bifida, any of the 'plegics' or the other disabilities you can name, probably. And in the grand scheme of things, the type of injury or disability doesn't mean much at all in the game. Sure, some people have more strength than others, but (once again) some of the best players I know are not at as strong as a Para, but have way more ball-handling or accuracy. Like Gale said, the people who have almost no hand function are specially positioned as goalies, or as offensive/defensive blockers. I can tell you with 100% certainty that I'd much rather have a good blocker on my team as an extra player, than a burly paraplegic who can 'hit ball hard in that direction' and sort of pass to other players when needed.
Our practice is done together with our manual wheelchair hockey team (and some friends) and they are also some of the top players in their discipline. It's a careful balance between manual players generally being able to handle themselves better in the situations close to the chair (scrimmages for a ball, fighting over control near a goal or the boardings) and the electric wheelchair hockey players having the advantage in the long range game (collecting a free balls, playing the high speed passing combinations around the field, break-away plays).
Yeah you might not physically break a sweat if all you can use is your thumb and forefinger, but that doesn't mean you can't be engaged in the game. Team sports are just as much about the mental game and the reading of your teammates and your opponents as it is about working hard for your team.
|
|
|
Post by hartmannwrites on Aug 20, 2015 13:41:02 GMT -5
As a power chair user, I would feel kind of dorky playing wheelchair "sports".....it's not as if my thumb and forefinger are going to break into a sweat.... Ofcourse they're not going to break into a sweat, silly! You're a well-conditioned animal, after all. You got this!!
|
|
|
Post by wheelchair1964 on Aug 27, 2015 22:37:46 GMT -5
I play wheelchair basketball, 9th year playing.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2015 14:24:29 GMT -5
I've been playing wheelchair basketball since I was 14 years old, and I'm now 27. Have played at various levels, and have trained with Great Britain from time to time. Now I'm older and a little less motivated, I play it purely to keep fit and have fun now. But there was a time I wanted to make a career out of it.
|
|