Take Power Soccer Defense Up a Notch

I think today is an appropriate day to return to the topic of power soccer. I was thinking about our upcoming match on July 25, and I was thinking about how we might adapt our game to bring something new. What I am thinking about it so we potentially might be able to improve our defense for a more efficient system.

As I have said many other times, this game relies on communication. However, this is easier to say than to do. However, I think that the advantage to playing defense is that you only have two dimensions to defend. The ball can go forward and backward or left and right. In regular soccer, you need to worry about up and down as well. Therefore, even though double teaming is not allowed, we have three defenders to cover the two dimensions that can be played. Therefore, that leaves us with one defender who needs to attack the ball. The two players who will be covering the two passing dimensions would be more than 10 feet away from the ball, so that one remaining defender needs to play the ball. Most people do not seem to hold the ball in power soccer; it is a very attack driven game. Therefore, the defense needs to be constantly challenging and attacking the attackers or else the offense will continue marching forward. However, if that one player from the offense continues attacking, we need to employ what is known in basketball as "help defense." If that one defender goes out to challenge the attacking player and gets burned, the rest of the defense needs to be aware and come to help. However, the difference between power soccer and basketball is that only one defender can come to help because of the rule against double teaming. Therefore, even more communication is necessary between not only the first player, but also the second and third players need to be talking to make sure that they know who should be covering the now unguarded attacker.

I could keep going on, but I will save some of that for tomorrow!

Photo by adobemac on Flickr

Soccer, We Are Go!

Customization never hurts, and often times it definitely improves performance. Personally, I am hoping that this is the case with my new power soccer guard. I purchased the adjustable fiberglass guard from the Power Soccer Shop based in Minnesota. However, because I ride a red tilt-and-space Quantum 6000Z at roughly a 30° angle, these guards do not fit my chair. Therefore, because I'm not very technical, I needed help. It is always good to know people who know how to do things that you don't know how to do. The dilemma consisted of crafting a lightweight structure to attach a fiberglass guard to the frame of my wheelchair so that it could withstand the head-to-head collisions that power soccer sometimes involves. Enter Clark Agnew, a family friend as well as skilled carpenter. After exploring the various attachment points and potential hangups for less than an hour, he had a design beginning to develop. Tonight, I got to pick up the final product and have already begun to push my 13 inch black and gold soccer ball around the house, putting my family’s personal property in perhaps substantial danger (just kidding, I really am most of the time an overly cautious driver).

This is the value of personal craftsmanship in that a product that would be marginally useful to me at best is now perfectly adjusted to me. I am not blaming the Power Soccer Shop at all because they do provide high-quality products that satisfy the needs of most of the wheelchair market, and as a business major, I understand that businesses cannot fulfill the individual needs of every person in the potential market. However, having a personal connection in this area made this product that is of a high quality in and of itself, useful for me. I am very grateful that we were able to have a friend who was able to make this game much more solidly accessible to me. Now, I don't worry about how to attach the guard to my chair; all I need to worry about is how to put the ball into that goal beyond the swiftly spinning wheels of the opposing goalie.

On a totally unrelated note, tomorrow is April Fools' Day. While I will not explicitly write about April Fools' Day, you might see it integrated into my blog. Sports Illustrated fans might have some idea where I'm going with this...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wjarrettc/ / CC BY 2.0

Me, the Athlete?

Well, since yesterday was all business, today is all sports. However, for once, instead of telling you about a sport I had watched; today I'm going to tell you about a sport I played.

I first met Patrick Standen, the founder of the NDAA, just under a year ago while I was writing an article for The Bridge regarding individuals with disabilities who had been particularly successful in the workplace (the link to this article is on the right-hand side of this blog). This year, I ran into Patrick again at UVM, and he told me about a sport that I had never heard of: power soccer. The game sounded simple enough; you use a guard attached around your feet to ram the ball into the goal. Even though the team has been around for a little while, due to conflicts, today was the first time that I could actually attend a practice. Any of you out there in wheelchairs should really get out there and play this! Many of you have known me for a while, so you will remember that I like to play hockey with a very short stick. Therefore, I was somewhat used to pushing a ball around in front of my wheelchair. Nevertheless, this was much different simply because when I played hockey, I used a curved stick. The guards are flat, so it is much more difficult to turn the ball left and right. Also, it is hard to do what is called a spin shot where you turn your chair as fast as possible to the left or right to hammer the ball when you can't get a running start. However, I have a slower turn speed because I would hate to spin around and wipe out the average pedestrian. Therefore, I think that a visit to my wheelchair mechanic in order to pump up the turn speed as well as my reverse speed.

So, any power wheelchair users who live in this area need to come out for this. I will keep you posted on how this goes and if perhaps I will get any good. Here is a video of how good some power soccer players can become (no offense, guys, but we are not this good... yet).