Blind Football

...The beautiful game...

For the Paralympics it takes the form of two different events.
the 5-A-Side Football -which is played by visually impaired athletes
and the 7-A-Side Football. - which is played by athletes with cerebral palsy and other neurological disorders, including stroke and traumatic brain injury. 
As there are 5 days to go before the London2012 Paralympic Games start, We'll be looking at 5-a-side Football.

Last year, David Beckham paid a visit to Team GB's Paralympic team's training session.
The video below shows you how he got on:

Photo from blind2010.com

All players must be B1 level of visual impairment (although the goalkeeper may be sighted or have a visual impairment). 

This is why all the outfield players wear eye masks, to ensure that there is fair competition. 

How its played: 

5 a side Football is very similar to the able bodied game.

• There are a few adaptations to the rules to incorporate the 4 blind outfield players.
• The match is split into 2 lots of 25 minute halves.
• There is no offside rule.
• You can substitute the same player sever times through out the game..
• The ball is allowed to be kicked over height.
• Instructions can be given by the manager/goalkeeper/behind the goal to the other players.

In the event of a draw, the match may go to penalties. Penalties are also awarded if a player touches their eyeshade, if the goalkeeper steps outside their area or if a player kicks or pushes an opponent.

Players rely on their hearing to find the ball and their way around the pitch.
The pitch is surrounded by specially designed boards. These reflect the sound and helps the players with spacial awareness.
The ball itself is fitted with a bell inside, so the players know when the ball is nearby.

There is a danger of players colliding with each other, as they both run toward the ball. A simple voice command, "voy", shouted by the player intending to tackle. This not only prepares the players for potential impact, it also is designed to prevent injuries to the athletes. 

Unlike nearly all of the other Paralympic events, there doesn't seem to be a 5-A-Side Women's Football Team. Perhaps there will be a women's team for Rio 2016?
Hopefully many people will be inspired to take up the sport after this years Games.

Team GB

There are 10 players in the 5 a-side squad for Great Britain.
Most well known is Dave Clarke.
Clarke started 2012 having scored 124 goal in 131 appearances for England. 
He is the Captain of the squad and the most experienced player. Before playing Football, Clarke represented Great Britain playing Goalball when he competed at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games.

ParalympicsGB had never competed in the 5-a-side Football event until Beijing 2008.

Lets Hope we can bring home a medal!
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Sink or Swim

Paralympics – Swimming

I find that Swimming is one of those Sports that you are either really good at it, or really terrible at it.
Unfortunately, for me, I am the latter. I start off with about three good strokes before I descend into a pathetic doggy paddle, and are left to be hooked out by the pool assistant with the giant metal pole.

Photo from Channel 4 - Paralympics

Perhaps this is why I find the Swimming events one of the most fascinating and inspiring sports of the Paralympic Games.

It is one of the biggest in terms of popularity, events and competitors. 

The classifications range from
- S1 to S10 for athletes with physical impairments
- S11 to S13 for visually impaired athletes
- S14 is for athletes with a learning disability, which is new the London2012 Olympics.

London2012 will see 10 whole days of swimming events at the Aquatics Centre.
With such a large volume of different races, it’s no wonder that events will be going on every day, for the duration of the games.

Butterfly, Breaststroke, Backstroke, Freestyle, Medleys, Relays,  50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, Men’s and Women’s…
That’s before we’ve even got to the classifications.

There will be a staggering 148 medal events for this year’s Paralympics. That’s 600 swimmers, desperate to bring home gold for their country!

At the last Olympics in Beijing, Team GB won 41 medals as well as setting several world records! Great Britain came 4^th overall in the Swimming with 11 golds, 12 silvers and 18 bronze medals.

Photo from www.swimming,org

GB have a wide range of different athletes of different abilities, ages and experience.
The last Paralympic Games saw Ellie Simmonds win 2 Gold medals in the S6 category making her the youngest Briton to win an Olympic or Paralympic medal at the age of 13 years old!

Jim 'the swim’ Anderson OBE  has competed at every Paralympic Games since Barcelona 1992, making London his sixth Games and him one of the more experienced members of the British team. 

21 of our fabulous 44 Swimmers will be competing for the first time in the Paralympics.
Many of them will be keeping us up to date with proceedings via twitter!

Some will be using assistive technology such as screen readers, zoom text, voice activated software and other adapted tech.

For more info on swimming at the paralympics, please visit:

http://www.london2012.com/paralympics/swimming/about/

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Wheelchair Rugby

Photo from Channel 4 Paralympics Show

Fast, Full-on, bone shattering excitement.

No wonder it was originally called Murderball.

Wheelchair Rugby has grown in popularity since its invention in Canada during in 1977. Currently played in over 26 countries (and growing!) it’s the only full contact wheelchair sport in the world. Originally, it was created by a group of Quadriplegic athletes who were looking for an alternative to Wheelchair Basketball.

Mark Zupan in documentary "Murderball"

Oddly enough, my first knowledge of the sport was not through watching the Paralympics, but via a reality tattoo documentary series. One of the U.S players, Mark Zupan, was getting inked whilst talking about a recent film about the sport he was in titled 'Murderball'.

The U.S are currently ranked Number 1 in the world. They have won two gold medals and a bronze since the wheelchair rugby was introduced to the Paralympics in 1996 Atlanta as a demonstration sport.



Great Britain are Ranked 5^th but have come in 4^th for the last 2 Paralympic Games. Are we in for a chance of a medal this year? Lets take a look at the team:

Competing this year at London2012 will be Ross Morrison (2.5), Steve Brown (2.0), David Anthony(2.5), Andy Barrow (2.0),  Mike Keer (1.5), Mandip Sehmi (2.5), Jonny Coggan (0.5), Aaron Phipps (3.5), Kylie Grimes (0.5), Bulbul Hussain (1.0) and Myles Pearson (1.0)

Team GB - Source www.gbwr.org.uk

Wheelchair Rugby is a mixed event. Kylie Grimes has only been playing for Team GB since July 2011, and feels perfectly comfortable being the only female athlete in the squad, “It’s Fast, aggressive and highly competitive. Being the only female on the team make this even more exciting.”


How its played:

• Wheelchair Rugby is played by quadriplegic athletes.
• The game is split into 4 lots of 8 minute quarters.
• The object is to carry the ball over the other team’s goal line.
• Classifications of Players are between 0.5 and 3.5 which is based on the Athletes functional ability.
• There are 4 players in each team on the field at one time. There can only be a maximum of 8 points per team, totalling the athletes’ classification numbers.
• Players have to Dribble or Pass ball in less than 10 seconds. A Team cannot remain in opposing teams area for more than 10 seconds without the ball changing hands or without scoring.

Short Video explaining the rules: VIDEO LINK FOR WHEELCHAIR RUGBY

Find out more about our team on the Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby Site: www.gbwr.org.uk

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A Whole New Ball Game: Boccia

When looking down the list of Paralympic sports, Boccia caught my eye.
I must admit, I had never heard of Boccia before the start of this Olympic Blog.
The sport itself was introduced to the Paralympics in 1984, so compared to some of the other 3000+ year old sports, its fairly new.

On first glance, I can only really compare it to be similar to Bowls. The aim of the sport is to propel balls so they finish as close as possible to a special white target ball called a ‘jack’. They can do this by rolling the ball directly at the jack or by trying to knock the other player’s balls out the way.

There are six leather balls per player. Balls are coloured either red or blue and the jack is white. Boccia is a game of immense skill, judgement and concentration, and can be won or lost on the smallest of measurements. The winning athletes will have to maintain their levels of peak performance over a number of days and sessions.
Boccia is a mixed gender sport, and is played by wheelchair athletes with cerebral palsy and related locomotor conditions. Players compete as Individuals , in pairs or as a team.

At the last Paralympics in Beijing 2008, Team GB made up of Nigel Murray, Dan Bentley, David Smith and Zoe Robinson won Gold in the BC1/BC2 Classification.
Nigel Murray then went on to win silver in the Individual BC2 event.

photo from london2012.com/paralympics

Players are required to be in a seated position within a throwing box at one end of the playing court. The classification system ensures an even playing field for athletes to compete against others with similar disabilities.

There are 4 Classifications for Boccia:

BC1 – athletes may have an assistant to perform actions such as handing them the Boccia balls.

BC2 – athletes require no assistance on court.

BC3 – athletes deliver each ball by using a ramp and have a sports assistant who they instruct to position the ramp for each delivery.

BC4 – athletes often use an underhand pendulum swing to release the ball.

For more info please visit :  http://www.london2012.com/paralympics/boccia/about/

As there are many different degrees of cerebral palsy and other locomotor conditions, Assistive technology available varies depending on each individual needs.
Things such as Click Switches, Adapted keyboards and Eye tracking tech such as Tobii can be life changing.

If you want to know more information about how and what assistive technology can help people with cerebral palsy drop us a line:

AbilityNet Advice and Information Services: 0800 269 545
or drop us an email:  enquiries@abilitynet.org.uk 

  
Video from London2012 Paralympics explaining the sport: 

Video of Team GB’s wining in Beijing 2008
 
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Athlete Profile:
Jon-Allan Butterworth

There are many inspirational athletes making their Paralympic debut at London 2012.   

Out of the many newcomers, 26 year old Cyclist, Jon-Allan Butterworth, from Sutton Coldfield (West Midlands) is one to watch.
At the last Paralympics in Beijing, Great Britain was at the top of the leader board for Cycling, with a total of 17 Gold medals and 3 Silvers.  Inspired and motivated by this, Jon applied to join the team himself, and was accepted in January 2009.

Photo from https://www.facebook.com/jbutterworth86

Jon has already achieved 2 World Records in the last year:

• 11/02/12- 1km Time Trial – 1:07.212s – Los Angeles
• 29/09/11- 200m FSTT – 10.897s – Manchester

And has already 6 Gold Medals under his belt, hopefully he’ll be adding to his collection in a few weeks’ time.



Five years ago (2007), whilst serving in the RAF in Iraq, Jon was involved in a rocket attack on Basra Air Station. His left arm was badly injured and doctors had to amputate.

Jon will be competing in the C5 Classification.

Jon’s bike has been specially adapted for him to compete. This short video from Channel 4’s Paralympic promo shows a close up of some of the adaptations to the bike:

The adaptations include both the gears and front and back brakes made operational from one side of the bike.
For extra stability, Jon’s prosthetic arm fits into a socket on his handlebars. Other than this, the bike is very much the same as other racing bikes.

Keep up to date with Jon-Allan’s Olympic Journey:
Twitter: @J_Butterworth86
Blog: http://j-butterworth.weebly.com/index.html
Site: http://www.j-butterworth.com

Small adaptations can make the world of difference to people in extra ordinary circumstances.
We see how assistive technology helps people with disabilities on a daily basis, and understand the importance and significance that these small changes can do for people.
It can mean all the difference in achieving their true potential.

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Leap of faith - Blind Long Jump and Classifications

Monday 6^th August 2012

As it stands Team GB have 37 Medals and are in 3^rd place on the leader board.
They have excelled in the cycling, rowing and athletics. 

So far in the Athletics, Great Britain have 3 Gold Medals.
Jessica Ennis took centre stage on the 4^th August winning the Women’s Heptathlon, and other golds include Men’s 10,000m and Men’s Long Jump.

On Tuesday 4^th September in the Paralympic Games will be the Men’s Long Jump . This will be the F11 classification. 

American Paralympic Long Jumper - Lex Gillette

Blind athletes compete in classes 11 to 13. Field athletes in the class are allowed the use of technology for example electronic noises, acoustic signals, clapping or voices, if they compete in the 100m, long jump or triple jump. Blind Long Jumpers rely on the signals and muscle memory to complete their jumps. American Paralympian, Lex Gillette is tipped for the top spot at London 2012. Gillette holds the world record for his classification (F11) of the Paralympics, at 6.73 meters, or a little more than 22 feet.

What do all the classifications mean?

For the Paralympics, each of the athletes is given a letter followed by a sequence of numbers. This indicates what type of event it is and are divided into classifications to ensure fair competition.

For example in the Athletics:

F= Field sports such as Shot Put, Long Jump, Javelin etc.

T= Track sports e.g. Wheelchair 100m races, hurdles etc. 

The numbers refers to their disability.

• 11-13: track and field athletes who are visually impaired
• 20: track and field athletes who are intellectually disabled
• 31-38: track and field athletes with cerebral palsy
• 41-46: track and field amputees and les autres
• T 51-56: wheelchair track athletes
• F 51-58: wheelchair field athletes

T11 or F11 means no vision or some light perception.  
T12 or F12 means the ability to recognize the shape of a hand up to visual acuity of 2/60 and or a visual field of less than 5 degrees. 
T13 or F13 means a visual acuity of above 2/60 up to visual acuity of 6/60 and or visual field of more than 5 degrees and less than 20 degrees.

In regards to the types of assistive technology that would be used by the visually impaired athletes would vary. Athletes of T/F11 would probably use screen reader software or be keyboard only users, where as 12-13 athletes who have some sight can use screen magnification such as Zoom Text, screen Magnifiers as well as screen readers.

When we asked what Assistive Technology Lex Gillette used to send out his tweets he said, "I use VoiceOver on the iPhone and Mac"

AbilityNet has over 40 FREE Factsheets on Assistive Technology .Visit http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/

Watch AbilityNet Head of Digital Inclusion, Robin Christopherson, give a short demo on how a visually impaired person would use an iPhone:

For more information on Classifications for a whole range of Paralympic sports, please visit:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/disability_sport/7586684.stm
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