Scrimblog: Wheelchair rugby

Wheelchair rugby

Today I went and played wheelchair rugby for the very first time. I had a lot of fun but boy did I find out that it’s hard work and quick.

I have been in a wheelchair for 8 years, and today’s rugby wheelchair has to be the most difficult in my case anyway. It was just different from my daily wheelchair as there was nothing to hold on to when pushing, just had to push off the wheels.

I was by far not the fastest; in fact it’s safe to say I was the slowest.

I should add the wheelchair looked totally badass, like something out of Mad Max.

The first part of the session was just running drills, doing laps in the wheelchair and doing ball work. I have to say I shit myself a little when that ball came out, why? Because of Friedreich's Ataxia I lack in coordination and trunk function (that’s why I was slow) I let a couple of passes go that I should have held onto, but all in all I was better than I thought I’d be.

We finally got round to ramming each other in a drill, and let me just say you feel it... reminded me bumper cars at the fair.

Who know it could be so much fun banging into each other.

In part two

We played a little game and during the coach probably felt like a jackass saying it, but he stopped the game and said me and this other guy were not runners as were not quick enough we were pickers the defensive type player. (That’s was cool with me, I wasn’t there to be flash and score goals I’m much happier to give some else the ball to score) I did make one really good play, I intercepted a pass which lead to my team scoring a goal.