Broken Down

So, some of you might think that I am sitting in my power soccer chair right now because I can't get enough of power soccer. You would be somewhat right. The real reason I'm in this chair right now is because my other one decided to break. We are not sure what went wrong, but it decided to die while I was going up the ramp. That normally wouldn't be a problem because you just shift my chair into manual and roll it in. However, the problem with that would be that the tire locked up and wouldn't turn at all. Of course, that didn't go well, but eventually I ended up inside, and then my chair ended up inside. That would be why I am in my other chair. I am going to end early today because I want you all to look at this story. Last night, the Vermont Chargers were featured on the Fox 44 news in Burlington. I wish I could find the video, but it was sweet.

Alternatives Exist

I think that power soccer is pretty awesome as you all know. I love playing, and I think it is a great competitive outlet. Also, I think that it is a very interesting commentary on disability in general. Recently, at least since the Americans with Disabilities Act, there has been more equality for people with disabilities. I think that that is awesome of course. However, I feel that the best part is that alternatives exist. Take power soccer for example. Somebody like me could never play normal soccer just because the logistics of the game just wouldn't work. However, now we have a game called power soccer, and it allows people like me the ability to compete in our own game. That is the point. Power soccer is different than normal soccer because logistically people with disabilities like me could never play regular soccer. It's an alternative that is ever increasingly growing. Obviously, we are nowhere near the popularity of normal soccer, but the point is that there is an alternative that allows people in wheelchairs to compete. I believe that disability is a difference, but everyone is different honestly. Incidentally, I really don't like the cliché "differently-abled" because I feel like it is simply a play on words that it needlessly redundant since no two people are identical in nature. People with disabilities simply live in a slightly alternative way just like power soccer is an alternative sport. Both can be enjoyed, and they both can make a difference.

Passion Grows

You know what really surprises me? There is no USPSA team based in New York City. The largest city in America does not have an official power soccer team. I wonder why? Maybe some reader in New York City (if I have one?) will see this and decide that there needs to be a team there. That is how I believe power soccer is going to grow. It needs to be word-of-mouth and it needs to be because of passion. I am not going to say that power soccer is a cheap sport to start. That is where the passion needs to kick in. The sport requires technical equipment that is much more than buying a basketball from Wal-Mart. Even power soccer balls run around $70. Nevertheless, people keep on playing. Why? Well, because most of the time passion comes without regard to price. For many of us, this becomes the one sport that we are able to compete and excel at. We get excited and decide that we want to elevate our game. We develop technique and strategy to become students of the game. That is how the sport will grow. It will grow through excitement and passion.

Now Playing

I think that it is very interesting how perception changes your perspective. Like I said yesterday, my power soccer spin speed looks a lot slower on video than it feels in real life. Similarly, when I watch power soccer on the Internet it seems like it is moving so much slower than it feels like it does in real life. I'm not quite sure why that is. However, it is good because I get to see both perspectives and develop different thought processes. I get to see the real playing experience of being on the court but also seeing the overhead perspective and the formations. I think that every player should try to understand both perspectives. It is not enough just to play because from that vantage point it is difficult to see how proper spacing is executed. We talk a lot about spacing and rightfully so because the two on one is definitely avoidable with proper technique. Therefore, watching this video and understanding all of this strategy is largely important. I know that I have learned so much from watching the vast amount of talent available on the Internet, and xable.com is one of the best websites I have found so far.

Turn Up the Turning

I think that the best part about today is that every day from here on out is longer than the day before! It is 4:30 and already dark outside. It's kind of crazy! Another great part about today is we finally have a justification for all the ridiculous snow that is on the ground. Not that I love it anymore than I did, but at least I feel like it should be here now. Anyway, I was watching a little bit of footage from our power soccer clinic on Saturday and I noticed that my turn speed feels a lot faster than it really is. I'm not really sure how to fix that other than to turn it up gradually and adapt to every new step slowly until I'm finally able to hit my top turn speed. Another important consideration is the fact that I ride tilted. Therefore, I need to make sure that I am stable and will not tip over sideways. Of course, this will happen every time and eventually I will zero in on the perfect speed. For now though, I will keep working and figure out how to use what I have for now.

Almost Game Time

Well, tomorrow I head down to University of New Hampshire with my teammates to take on the Northeast Passage Power Cats. As I normally do before practice, I am going to outline some of my goals and what I hope I'm able to do individually tomorrow.
• I need to think about my teammates. Of course, I try to think about them often, but in the flow of the game, we all have a tendency to play what our coach Sandy calls "magnet ball." Not only does this lead to collisions, but it also inevitably causes the 2-on-1 which is entirely unnecessary.
• I need to remember that spinning is a good and powerful weapon. Note that it must be done with some caution because of the risk of a penalty, but it definitely should not be avoided. I have been working on them on my own and during practice, so hopefully I will remember them tomorrow.
• Finally, I need to remember to keep on the pressure. I tend to want to step back. Nevertheless, I need to remember that you only need to allow 15 feet on a free kick. From what I can gather, power soccer is about field position, so I need to take full advantage of it.

Programming

I think that it is interesting how each individual will drive their wheelchair differently beyond the scope of brand differences. Recently, with the help of my mechanics, I have been trying to hone in on the ideal power soccer speed. Obviously, my forward speed should be 6.2 mph because it is the speed limit. However, I am working on the ideal turn speed right now. There is a fine balance between spinning hard enough to hit the ball really hard and spinning too hard and flipping over. There is a balance somewhere between them, but I definitely need to try to find out what exactly suits me and doesn't put me in danger. I tend to be more of a finesse player who tries to slip the ball through the hole rather than jam through with my wheelchair. So, I'm not sure. We play a week from tomorrow in Durham, New Hampshire, so I would like to have this figured out by then. We don't go on the road very much, but when we do, I want to be in top form. It is so important to have a good relationship with mechanics. A lot of things are working together to help me enhance my ability, so let's see where they go from here!

The Great Wheelchair Debate

The other day I wrote about all of the different types of power soccer guards on the market. Today, let's talk about the soccer chairs. Basically, the models are different but the two predominant brands are Quickie or Invacare. I have heard varying reports. I used to drive Quickie wheelchairs when I was younger, and I even had a P200 which by many reports is the ultimate power soccer chair. However, now that I need tilt and space, that chair would not be an option anymore. Therefore, I have become an Invacare user. As to where I lie on the debate, obviously for me Invacare is the best choice because I could not play in the alternative. I have also seen some highly successful players use both types of chairs. For example, Michael Archer who many people regard as one of the best players in the world uses a P200. However, it is not just the chair that makes him great; he has amazing court sense to go along with a very long guard to help him make plays that most players could not. On the other side, Jerome "Pika" Durand uses an Invacare and that has not stopped him from garnering consideration as one of the best in the world. He is incredibly smart and uses his teammates better than anyone else I have ever watched. So the verdict comes down to individual skills. Obviously you want your chair to be able to spin kick well as well as go the maximum 6.2 mph forward, but it seems to me that both companies build a few models of wheelchairs that put you on a level field for playing soccer. The difference comes from the individual player if the only thing different between the chairs is brand.

Sheer Domination

So first, congratulations to the Texas Rangers. They made their first ALCS ever as they knocked off Tampa Bay last night. Personally, I'd like to see them knock off the Yankees and play the Phillies in the World Series. Honestly, I feel like the Phillies can defeat either team, but I would feel a lot better playing the Rangers. However, I watched a crazy blowout last night. At last year's America's Cup in Georgia, the Synergy squared off with Team Québec. Now, to be honest, I downloaded this game film in French because that was my only option, but I wanted to see Team Québec just in case we ever end up playing them (Montréal isn't that far away). Anyway, when the game started, I didn't think Québec was that bad. However, playing Atlanta is a tall order for anyone. Quite honestly, Atlanta slaughtered them. Of course, the commentary was in French, so I had no idea what the final score was until we panned the scoreboard at the end. The final score was 21-0! Again, I didn't think Québec was that awful, but they were just overmatched. If you want to watch the game, here is a link to it. The most dominating performance I have ever seen.

Opening Eyes

I have been thinking about power soccer a lot lately simply because I think that I am going through withdrawal since we didn't practice last week due to Labor Day and our venue being closed. In the United States, if you watch the elite teams or even the national team, you will notice that every player is using a rear-wheel wheelchair. In fact, if you watch most games, most players will use rear-wheel drive due to the obvious advantages that I've talked about before. However, I was watching a short video clip on YouTube the other day that featured a matchup between Team Canada and Team Denmark from the last World Cup. What struck me about the team from Denmark was that many of their players used front-wheel. I wonder how much of that is circumstantial simply because, like myself, when they bought their chair they were not thinking about power soccer. However, I also wonder how much of that is due to the general state of power soccer in Denmark. For example, when we played New Hampshire, my mid-wheel chair seemed more than adequate to play power soccer competitively. However, when we played Syracuse, it became obvious that rear-wheel was the way to go. So I wonder if that was what happened in Denmark. At home they were able to get by because of less competition, but when they brought it into international competition, I am sure that they realized the benefits like I did.
Photo by @boetter on Flickr

Spin Kicking in a New Way

So, I took my new chair out again to play power soccer today. What I discovered was that once you figure out how to spin kick correctly, it really is much easier in a rear wheel than a mid-wheel. In order for me to get even decent power on a spin kick in my mid-wheel, I would need to take a full 360° spin and even that wasn't too accurate. However, now if I'm able to back into the ball and swing, I can nail the ball pretty well. It is actually a lot easier to back straight up and swing than it was to make that full swing that I often backed into the ball with. However, I definitely still need to practice, but I think that I will be able to learn it pretty quickly. An important note to remember though is to make sure that you have support when you're spinning because that chair (or at least my chair) spins very quickly (or at least much more quickly than I am used to). Even though it is a new drive setup, I used to drive rear wheel for about 10 years, and the power I gained in this chair is much more valuable to my game.

My New Chair

I think that it is interesting how a rear wheel drive wheelchair can make so much of a difference in hitting the power soccer ball. We unwrapped my new chair today, and even though it wasn't perfectly suited for me yet, we could put my sister in it to hit the ball around. It's pretty amazing how even at about half speed it was able to hit the ball just as hard as I can at full speed in my mid-wheel. Again, as I've mentioned in previous posts, it all comes back to physics and the idea that a longer turn radius allows for more angular velocity which conveys more force to the ball and therefore hits the ball harder. I wasn't really that much of a believer however until we played CNY United last month. I had watched videos on the Internet, but I was not sure how hard the ball was really hit simply because sometimes videos can distort reality slightly because of angle or lighting. I had two different games between the Circle City Rollers and the Atlanta Synergy, but it looked like in one of the games they were hitting the ball so much harder simply because of the low angle of the camera. Anyway, I'll try out my new chair hopefully tomorrow night at power soccer practice, and I hope I remember how to drive rear-wheel.I think that it is interesting how a rear wheel drive wheelchair can make so much of a difference in hitting the power soccer ball. We unwrapped my new chair today, and even though it wasn't perfectly suited for me yet, we could put my sister in it to hit the ball around. It's pretty amazing how even at about half speed it was able to hit the ball just as hard as I can at full speed in my mid-wheel. Again, as I've mentioned in previous posts, it all comes back to physics and the idea that a longer turn radius allows for more angular velocity which conveys more force to the ball and therefore hits the ball harder. I wasn't really that much of a believer however until we played CNY United last month. I had watched videos on the Internet, but I was not sure how hard the ball was really hit simply because sometimes videos can distort reality slightly because of angle or lighting. I had two different games between the Circle City Rollers and the Atlanta Synergy, but it looked like in one of the games they were hitting the ball so much harder simply because of the low angle of the camera. Anyway, I'll try out my new chair hopefully tomorrow night at power soccer practice, and I hope I remember how to drive rear-wheel.
Photo Courtesy of Power Soccer Shop

New Look at Power Soccer Defense

It was interesting yesterday to learn more about power soccer defense. I never really understood the teamwork involved in playing defense and the communication that is required. For example, the one thing I heard more than anything yesterday is "face forward." If I am moving in the same direction as the offensive player, there's no way I'm going to stop the ball because I'm keeping the momentum forward. Therefore, I should challenge at the offensive player from the side until one of my teammates can come to challenge him from the front. As I see him coming, I need to back off to avoid a two on one and then rotate behind the defense to be his backup if the offensive player gets by him. This really relies on communication. If I do not let my teammate know that I am coming to challenge from the front, we are going to get a two on one every time which can be very costly if the other team can execute off of the free kick. Also inherent in this strategy is the need for some contact with the ball. Whoever is charging to defend from the front needs to stop the ball or else there will be two defenders out of position. I think I understand slightly better how we need to rework our defense. Hopefully, we can improve and actually have a solid system to run through.

Need Deception

Given the popularity of my post yesterday about where King James would go, I wish I had had another dream last night about where Chris Bosh would end up. Unfortunately, no such luck. However, I will celebrate the Dutch victory! I was very excited to see them move into the finals. However, today is going to be a post about power soccer again. Today, I feel like it is necessary to talk about ball control. I've been recently working on different moves to attack with. As I have emphasized in previous posts, I know that my mid-wheel drive wheelchair cannot hit the ball very hard relative to a rear-wheel drive chair. Therefore, I have been trying to work on deception. I am trying to work on ways to propel the ball right but end up making my shots to the left or vice versa. I think that I need to somehow employ the sharp turns that my wheelchair can make to outmaneuver the goalkeeper who may very well have a rear-wheel drive. However, if anybody else can think of some other great ideas on how I can create deception with my wheelchair, please let me know since the Internet has been just about no help.
Photo by albany_tim on Flickr

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

World Cup Soccer vs Power Soccer

The Phillies won yesterday which is always good, but the bad news is that the US World Cup team is tied for second behind Slovenia. Somehow I doubt that Slovenia will be able to hold that top slot for very long with the United States and England right behind them, but it's kind of ironic anyway for the time. I was watching Germany versus Australia yesterday afternoon, and I began to wonder about some of the differences between soccer and power soccer. The biggest difference I noticed is that power soccer is much more dribble oriented while the World Cup match was much more focused on passing. However, I think that this difference can be accounted for by the fact that it is very difficult to lift a power soccer ball. I've only seen it lifted once or twice on YouTube and was only able to be elevated one or two inches. Therefore, power soccer players cannot make runs and try to beat the defender one-on-one while waiting for a pass to come over the top from the midfielders. Any long pass will probably get picked off by some defenseman without ever getting anywhere near its target.

Another difference I noticed was that almost every attack was based with some sort of cross to get the ball into the middle. We do cross sometimes in power soccer, but we mostly attack the middle of the field to challenge the goalie. I think this difference can accounted for because there are many fewer people on a power soccer team, so it is much easier to penetrate the middle. Since only one chair can be playing the ball at a time, why not take it to the goal?

The World Cup continues, a hopeful America can finally live up to the hype that it has brought to the past couple of Cups and put together a nice run.
Photo  by 1Happysnapper (photography) on Flickr

Strategic Gaming

Let's talk about power soccer strategy again. It seems as if an effective way to get around the defender is to use the defender him or herself to bounce the ball off of. It seems like if the ball bounces off of the back tire in such a way that most players cannot turn on it. I know that that is my weakest area. Therefore, I think that is what I have to do use a similar strategy to the one that confuses me on my opponents. Also, I think that by playing off the back tire forces the defender to either stop or go in reverse which I would assume would be weaker than going forward. Also, if they're going backwards, they will need to pay more attention to where they are driving since it is a more difficult skill. Now, you will have turned driving forward versus an opponent who will either be driving backward which would be his or her weaker direction, or he or she will have to turn and therefore you will be long gone. With one defender down, you will have a three on two fast-break out of which there are millions of possibilities to finish off the goal.

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

Radical Sport

I think that I should invent a new sport. As I sit here in my hotel room in Lake Placid, I'm looking at a framed photograph on the wall of the Olympic ski jump towers that were used in 1980. How awesome would wheelchair ski jumping be? No, you don't have to call the cops; this is not some sort of odd suicide plot. I just think it would be awesome to have wheelchairs flying through the air given the fact that the landing would be something that I could do more than once. However, I do have proof that wheelchairs can fly without wings or jet engines. Don't believe me? Watch this YouTube video. I'm convinced that some type of device of this sort could be rigged to make a wheelchair fly off of a ski jump tower. Granted, this wouldn't really be ski jumping in the classic sense, but I think that obviously a way that would not be deadly would be worth compromising the original sport slightly. Also, I wonder how you could adapt this for a much heavier wheelchair such as my own. It would need to be a pretty major sail. I don't know, but it seems that people are so resourceful that somebody will develop wheelchair ski jumping for those people who in my opinion would be crazy enough to try it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifeontheedge/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

History of My Chair

I was asked an interesting question today. When was the power wheelchair invented? So, that is what we're going to be addressing today. The simple answer is to be found on Wikipedia; the electric wheelchair was invented in the 1940s. Why was it invented? George Klein was working for the National Research Council of Canada and needed to develop a device for wounded veterans from World War II with limited mobility. The obvious benefits to the power wheelchair allowed people such as me who have limited upper body strength to move around independently. However, it's not much fun to just drive around with nothing to do, so what else is there to do but create games? Yeah, you probably knew I was going to go there. In the 1970s, French gym teachers developed a way for students who used power wheelchairs to participate in competitive soccer matches with each other. Meanwhile, an alternate version was created in Canada in the 1980s. This was the version that eventually permeated America through the traditionally progressive Cal-Berkeley. Another version of power soccer was also being developed in Japan and that version was adopted by England as well. However, in 2004, an American coach traveled to Belgium and through collaboration in Belgium as well as France decided to create an international body to govern power soccer. That, my friends, is a history of the power wheelchair and how to have fun with it. Check out the links to see where I got my info from, and keep reading!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/photo2217/ / CC BY 2.0

Power Soccer Practice

Most of you will probably know that I like to have a routine. I don't mind changing that routine, but I like to at least have some idea of where I am going. This being said I have found it very valuable to see where I want to be going in power soccer as well. By watching the US national team, I have seen where I want to elevate my game and how I can keep improving. After playing again today with some great competition, I've thought about how really I need to rearrange my thought process in order to succeed.

The first thing I realized was that if the ball goes towards your back left tire, you should not turn to the left as you normally would to attack face on. The reason for this is that, assuming that you were moving towards your goal while attacking, when you turn to the left, the ball will hit your chair or guard and bounce back towards the other goal. Obviously, you don't want to allow the other team a fast-break like Nate took on our team today (although it is awesome to see tenacious defense from other members of my team since I'm not really the most aggressive player on the court, and I need someone to compensate for my shortcomings). If you pivot around to the right, you'll be able to use the right side of the guard to send the pass back towards whatever teammate sent you the pass and keep the ball moving forward. Intuitively, I should want to turn left, but I'm attempting to rearrange my thoughts so that I will be able to get my guard on the ball and push it up the court quickly.

Another important thing I learned is that the only way to hit a spin shot is to get a backing start before swinging around and hammering the ball. When I first started playing, I knew that it would be easier to just turn into the ball. However, that did not give me enough momentum to hit the ball with any force. By gathering the velocity of backing up and then converting it into the turn, I was able to hit the ball much harder. Also, it is very important to make sure that turn acceleration is maxed out. My mechanic Eric maxed out my chair on to help me ram the ball and put it in the goal.

So, I'll try to keep you updated on some stuff I'm learning while playing power soccer, and I hope that I will always be able to show the game to a bigger audience.

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