What Wheelchair Sport, if Any?

What wheelchair sport, if any, would you play? People assume that just because I’m a wheelchair user, I want to be a Paralympian. Surprisingly, I didn’t want to be a Paralympian when I was discharged. I wanted to get back to work and my life, and yes, if I found a hobby, great. 

I played basketball for 12 years and had a great 12 years. However, I didn’t want to be a significant sportsman or represent my country. I enjoyed being part of a team and all the banter and laughs that were a part of it. I did learn a lot from my peers.

During the years of playing, I met a great bunch of people—people I could say were peers. Not everyone had a spinal injury, which I admit was a weird conception. For some reason, I assumed only people with spinal injuries played wheelchair basketball. Alas, no.

What wheelchair sport? Looking at the variety of sports now available at the Paralympics, there’s a lot to choose from. But what wheelchair sport should I have participated in, or would I have considered? Wheelchair rugby gets a lot of interest. It’s a fast, active game, and the athletes are at the peak of their fitness as they would be for any other sport. I recall from my experience playing wheelchair basketball that it was fast and relatively violent but not nearly as violent as wheelchair rugby. Indeed, I don’t think wheelchair rugby would’ve been me.

If anything, I wish I had tried wheelchair racing, as I enjoy going for pushes in my wheelchair. However, I suppose racing would have been at a totally different level. 

What Wheelchair Sport?

Mastering the correct pushing technique for the racing chairs would, I suppose, be fairly easy. I use an effective pushing technique when propelling my wheelchair now, making sure I use my shoulders well and make the wheelchair do the work for me. So I can roll further without having to propel the wheelchair.

It’s obvious taking part in a wheelchair marathon, or Paralympic race would be utterly different from pushing along the road. But I enjoy it, especially in places new to me. I’m not sure I could handle the dedication required to maintain a good diet and regular Gym sessions to keep up with my fitness and muscle strength and to make sure I was at the best of my ability to beat my opponents.

Although if I wasn’t able to cut the mustard and be good enough for a wheelchair racing team, I think power canoeing would’ve been pretty cool. Even so, I’m not sure whether they do whitewater canoeing in the Paralympics. It would have been interesting to have had a bash that. Although I would have probably capsized on the first peak of white water, flipped over, and had to get pulled to safety. Looking stupid! In the same way, I’m confident it would’ve been fun!

The last time I took part in canoeing was at the Calvert Trust Centre in Keswick, and we canoed on Bassenthwait Lake.

What Wheelchair Sport?

To support the National Spinal Injury Centre at Stoke Manville, I participated in a table tennis trial-a-thon to mark the 80th anniversary of the support, care and rehabilitation they give people. I was an inpatient at the 50th anniversary, so it’s good to see it progress and support people over all these years. Taking part in table Tennis, I thought I was doing well; should table tennis have been my wheelchair sport? That was until the Brighton tennis team turned up. They were there to support the challenge and bring awareness and some publicity to the event, but I got annihilated playing two of their players.

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