Wheelchair basketball
Being a paraplegic sportsperson is a lot easier these days than it was in the past. In olden times it seemed that if someone who had lost the use of his or her legs and wanted to be an athlete had to find something else to do. Now we live in better times, with many options and different sports that disabled athletes can choose from. If they are good enough they may even get to compete in the Paralympics Games, which are held every four years for physically disabled athletes. We seem to have come a long way in supporting disabled athletes and one of the most exciting sports for disabled athletes to watch is wheelchair basketball.
Wheelchair basketball is exactly what it says on the tin, it is basketball played with athletes who are physically disabled and utilise wheelchairs. The athletes have to be very physically fit in order to compete in the sport and it is a very demanding game. The rules of the game are similar to basketball, “Wheelchair basketball retains most major rules and scoring of basketball, and maintains a 10-foot basketball hoop and standard basketball court. The exceptions are rules which have been modified with consideration for the wheelchair,” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheelchair_basketball).
What is interesting about the wheelchair version of basketball is that it retains the 10-foot high basketball net and a regular sized court. Before finding out about the game I had assumed that the basketball net would have been specially designed to fit the game but it was left as a standard net. It could be that wheelchair basketball just utilises standard basketball nets and courts that are in the area where a game is being played.
The wheelchairs that are used by these talented athletes are specially designed and are nothing like ordinary wheelchairs. These special wheelchairs have to be extremely sturdy and able to withstand a lot of punishment from being hit against other wheelchairs during a game. Also they have to have specially engineered wheels and have to be able to turn at an instant when the person sitting in it pulls it one way or the other.
The manoeuvrability of these wheelchairs is a key factor to their designs because the whole point of the game is to be able to be flexible in the wheelchair to get into a scoring position or a defending position or even a good passing position. The whole game depends on the ability of these athletes to slide into position when they are needed and that ability gives them the capability to score points and win games. So a lot of the game depends on just how good the wheelchairs that these athletes use are.
An interesting observation that I had while researching this article was that sometime in the future perhaps it would be possible to combine able bodied and physically disabled athletes to compete in the same match or the same game. Would a scenario like this work and if so could it work in basketball, could physically disabled athletes compete against able-bodied athletes in a game of basketball? Would it work and if so why would it work and if not what would stop it from working? The first obvious factor is that a game of basketball where able-bodied athletes compete against wheelchair bound athletes would not work at all.
But maybe mixed teams might work. It might be that the basketball court is modified to become larger and wider maybe to accommodate the extra space needed for both sets of players. Also if the rules were modified slightly so that able-bodied players were not able to block a shot by a disabled player and a disabled player was not able to steal the ball from an able bodied player. Beside these two rules where each side has a distinct advantage it may very well work. What is interesting to note is that sometimes an able bodied person can get into a wheelchair and play against physically disabled players on a basketball court.
That is a step in the direction I am talking about but I mean full integration. It may never come to fruition but who knows the world might realise one day that besides being in a wheelchair there is not too much difference between disabled and able-bodied basketball players. Now all we have to do is get people involved in this merging of two sports movement.
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