Wheelchair rugby: a full-contact Paralympic team sport.
In 1991 this was changed to a functional classification specific to wheelchair rugby, in order to include those with polio, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis and amputations. According to Sport England (2010) 68% of wheelchair rugby participants have a spinal cord injury, compared 6% with cerebral palsy and 4% with muscular dystrophy.
Wheelchair rugby athletes, because of the unique and varied nature of their muscle function, demonstrate combinations of varying stomach, back, chest, arm and leg movement in performing the wheelchair rugby skills of ball handling, such as passing, catching, carrying, and dribbling; and wheelchair skills that include pushing, starting, stopping, directional changes, tackling and blocking.
Wheelchair rugby is a full-contact Paralympic team sport played indoors on a basketball court. According to the Wheel Blacks website (2018), this sport is also known as quad rugby and was created in 1976 by five Canadian wheelchair athletes.
Wheelchair rugby classification is the seven class system that assigns players a point value based on functional mobility to insure parity in athletic ability on the court at any given time. Classification is handled by the International Wheelchair Rugby Federation. 1 Definition 2 Governance.
Disabled Sports Essay 2574 Words 11 Pages When one looks at the word “disability”, it immediately conjures up an idea of what someone cannot do, or something physically wrong with an individual, that prevents them from doing something as the majority of society can do.
Wheelchair rugby first appeared in the Atlanta 1996 Paralympic Games, when it featured as a demonstration sport. Its debut as a full medal sport followed at Sydney 2000, when the USA beat Australia 32-31 to win the gold medal. Only five countries — Australia, the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Japan — have won medals in wheelchair rugby.
Each wheelchair rugby player has a different classification based on their muscle function and strength: this can be between 0.5 and 3.5 points. While there are 12 players in a wheelchair rugby team, only four can appear on court at any one time.
Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby. 6.1K likes. Wheelchair rugby is the only full contact Paralympic sport. It is fast, exciting and open to everyone who wants to get involved. To find out more, visit.
Wheelchair rugby classification is conducted by personnel with medical training, usually physicians, physiotherapists, or occupational therapists. Classifiers must also be trained in muscle testing and in the details of wheelchair rugby classification.
Wheelchair rugby is originally for athletes with spinal injuries that affect all four limbs, such as quadriplegics and tetraplegics. However, any athlete with a disability that affects all four limbs can play the sport which uses a classification system based on muscle function and strength. 0.5 is the least able player and 3.5 is the most able player.
GBWR, in conjunction with the charity Help for Heroes, also provides coaching and support for the Invictus wheelchair rugby team, where Great Britain took the gold medal in 2015. Wheelchair rugby brings together elements of rugby, basketball and handball, and is one of the toughest physical contact sports played by disabled athletes.
Great Britain recorded one of their most impressive wheelchair rugby victories, seeing off the world’s three top-ranked teams to win the Four Nations in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. In a phenomenal tournament that saw all four countries finish on three wins and three losses in the pool phase, Great Britain edged out the host nation, 49-47, to clinch gold on Saturday.
The Great Britain men's national wheelchair basketball team is the men's wheelchair basketball side that represents Great Britain in international competitions. Great Britain has competed at every men's wheelchair basketball tournament at the Paralympic Games since the first tournament in 1960.
