Opportunities and Benefits for Powerchair Users Through Power Soccer

Abstract

Power soccer (or powerchair football), the first competitive team sport for users of motorized wheelchairs, is receiving increased attention among people with disabilities, healthcare professionals, and academics. The present study provides a qualitative analysis of the experiences of 34 American power soccer athletes. Participant observation and in-depth interviews with 11 female and 23 male athletes were conducted between 2007 and 2013. Results indicate that involvement in power soccer provides participants with an increased sense of empowerment, acquisition of social capital, and psychosocial benefits, including a deep satisfaction of the desire to participate in competitive sports and an opportunity to be independent. Implications of these findings for improving the quality of life of people with physical disabilities and for future research are discussed.

The Impact of Frame Running on Quality of Life in Young Athletes With Mobility Limitations

“…They showed that social participation of children with CP improved when they used an adapted bicycle. Also Jeffress and Brown ( 2017 ) showed that children who played power soccer (in a wheelchair) also felt more able to participate. Using a device can improve the ability to participate in a positive way.…”

Ableism as a determinant of priorities for the development of disability football: a critique of European National Football Associations

“…Although this body of work is expansive, the preponderance of research on contemporary aspects of disability football has been dominated by a focus on the experiences of players with a range of impairments: deaf people (Atherton et al, 2001); adults and girls with intellectual disabilities (Stride & Fitzgerald, 2011); partially sighted footballers (Macbeth & Magee, 2006;Macbeth, 2008Macbeth, , 2009Powis & Macbeth, 2019); powerchair footballers (Cottingham et al, 2018;Jeffress & Brown, 2017;Richard et al, 2017) and amputees (van der Niet, 2010). Generally speaking, academic research of disability football has covered a range of themes including the social, psychological and health benefits of football; socialization experiences; inclusion and equality issues; empowerment; gender construction; and identity work.…”

Intermediate Certification Of The Specialty «Rhythmic Gymnastics» Students

“…In this regard, in order to increase competitiveness, there is an urgent need to develop and implement a system for assessing the competence of sports teachers that meets the requirements of the "Coach" professional standard (Ministry of Labour of Russia, 2016; Federation international gymnastics, 2018). This system needs to be aimed at examining their knowledge, skills and experience and meet modern requirements of the qualifications of rhythmic gymnastics specialists (Medvedeva et al, 2018;Medvedeva, Davidova et al, 2019;Medvedeva, Smirnova et al, 2019;Jeffress & Brown, 2017).…”