Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Adaptive Sports

As a future coach, my goal is to help others become better people and live a better life. The Adaptive Physical Education class, and the inspirational videos that we have viewed, have opened my eyes and heart to things I had never considered.  I guess I was always naïve about working with kids who have disabilities. In fact, I cannot remember seeing or participating with disabled athletes in my physical education classes or athletics. However, after watching the videos produced by the Sports Association of Gaylord Hospital (Adaptive Sports), I would say I am inspired to help others achieve their sport and fitness goals. 


The take-away from the previous video was a cognitive and emotional response that allowed me to see the benefits that these individuals achieved through exercise and sports. As a coach, I want to provide an opportunity for all my athletes to enhance their quality of life so that they can live a better life. Whether that includes aiding others through buddy system activities such as snow skiing, water skiing, tennis, and the para-triathlon, I want to take what I have learned throughout my education in Kinesiology and help others.  Using ideas such as the recumbent bike for individuals with cerebral palsy or spinal cord injury and adapting strategies, I have learned that it is important to fully include all individuals (with or without disabilities) in sports and fitness activities because movement is a natural part of life. I firmly believe everyone deserves a chance to live life to its fullest! 

3 comments:

  1. Ryan Turner

    As a future professional in the field of coaching, the movie inspired me to think more so instead of handicap people with disabilities are more handicapable! More and more people are being more active and not just sitting around moping and feeling sorry for themselves just, because they were either born with a disease or some freak accident happened to them. Most disable people don’t want other peoples pity they just want equal opportunity to enjoy the same activities as any normal human being.
    There was about four or five sports adapted for individuals with disabilities such as, water skiing, wheel-chair ball, biking, and snow skiing.
    It’s important to fully include individuals with disabilities in activities/sports such as the ones detailed on the video, because everyone should have an equal chance to do anything and everything all most sports needs its be modified just a tad. Water skiing, people need assistance to start off with, but once the person gets going it’s pretty simple from there. They more than likely can do tricks if they wanted to depend how experienced the skier is just like anyone with fully functional limbs.
    What I took away from this video is that anyone can do anything doesn’t matter if someone is handicapped, has autism (which was not in the video) but all anyone needs is to take the time to include people no matter what. The lesson I learned is that no matter the injury there is always going to be a modification someone can do so that everyone is included. If were to coach and teach a class I could more likely take this lesson to the classroom more so than the field, but in the coaching aspect I can be more patient with my players or try new strategies to help increase their performance on the field.

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  2. As a future professional as a teacher and a coach, this video inspired me to never give up and it showed me that anything is possible. This video shows all the activities and sports capable for people with disabilities. During one of the activity named Wheelchair tennis, the players played normal tennis but the way they adapted it is that the ball can bounce more than once and when you hit over the net it has to land in between the lines. In cycling, the way they adapted the bikes made it easier for people that are paralyzed from the waist down. They made them cycle with their arms in order to get the bike moving which help them get exercise in their upper body. They also had ways that people can play golf as if their arm was amputated then they can swing with one arm in order to move the ball up the course. There was a lot of ways they adapted the sports in the video, it’s important that they get their exercise through sports in order to stay healthy and active. The benefits they had was cardiovascular endurance and muscular endurance. I learn that people with disabilities can play almost any sport in the world, as a future coach, I will make sure that I adapt rules and ways that everyone can play sports and get active with one another... Devin Figures

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  3. Learning to be a personal trainer, I have to find ways to adapt certain activities for people with disabilities. This video inspired me to help more people with disabilities and show them that they can make it through anything with the ability to drive and ability to give effort in the sports they are willing to do. One activity that I like was the Para triathlon; it showed multiple ways that you can adapt the obstacle course. For people that were paralyzed down to their legs, they can pedal with their arm or they can use a tricycle wheelchair and pedal like it’s a wheelchair. Usually the one that are using the wheelchair cycle have a strong upper body. It is very important to include people with disabilities in the activity because in this video they are showing ways that you can adapt in any sport and they are basically doing everything that we can. They get their exercise the same way we do in our activity so they need to train exactly how we do but just with a little bit help. They receive a lot of benefits through Para triathlon because they get all the fitness related health components from this sport. I learn that you can adapt ways and rule in any sports and as a personal trainer I will make sure that whenever I approach a person with a disability I will make sure I have an organized workout for any disability labeled...Ramonte Harris

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