Saturday, March 13, 2010

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).

2 comments:

  1. It sounds great Zac!! Can't wait to hear more as you practice and progress!

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  2. thanks so much! I hope I continue to progress!

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