Skip to main content

Rolling Grizzlies

Last night my OT class had the opportunity to watch a local D-I professional wheelchair basketball team practice.  The Rolling Grizzlies is an athletic group of men who compete in the highest wheelchair basketball division.  What an experience it was getting to watch them play.  Not only did we get to watch, but the players let us take their chairs for a spin!  I played basketball growing up, so I jumped at the opportunity to try out one of the chairs.  Instantly I realized the arm strength required to shoot and pass the ball from a seated position as well as the coordination needed for pushing the chair and dribbling the ball smoothly.  It is much harder than typical basketball.  These men played for an hour and a half with hardly any breaks.  This shows what great physical shape is required to participate in this game.
During my undergraduate career, I was fortunate enough to take an adapted athletics course where we learned about all types of adaptive sports.  It was one of the most interesting classes in my major by far, and it exposed me to so many different sports.  The University of Alabama Women's Wheelchair Basketball team was the collegiate national champions in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2015, and 2017.  Needless to say it is a very strong and highly acclaimed program.  My undergrad class also got to sit in on one of their practices, and those women were incredible.  Alabama did a phenomenal job advocating for adaptive sports while I was there.
Watching the Rolling Grizzlies made me feel overjoyed because you hear all the time about people who are injured and in a wheelchair that experience depression or social withdrawal.  These guys have built a community where they can stay active and be social.  I'm sure each journey was unique and challenging at times, but they are an inspiration to anyone struggling with social reintegration.  It can be done and it can be very fulfilling!
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do-Live-Well Framework

Do-Live-Well is a framework of reference used by occupational therapists that ultimately emphasizes "what you do everyday matters."  It has four main sections being (1) dimensions of experience, (2) activity patterns, (3) health and well-being outcomes, and (4) contextual forces influencing activity engagement, or things in the environment.  These sections are further broken down into more specific dimensions.  This framework can help identify missed or disrupted dimensions that interrupt with an individual's well-being.  It aims to empower people in reflecting on their patterns of activity engagement and promote health and well-being.  This framework can be used on all populations and in any setting.  When using this framework, a therapist might assess the client's activity patterns such as habits, routines, roles and rituals, ADL skill level, community involvement, and physical abilities.
Post a Comment
Read more

What is the OTPF?

OTPF stands for Occupational Therapy Practice Framework, and it does exactly what it says.  It provides a framework for occupational therapy practitioners that guides their practice.  It serves the purpose of establishing a common language among practitioners and guiding the evaluation, intervention, and outcome process.  It also helps define the occupational therapy scope of practice.  The OTPF describes in-depth various skills and factors to consider during OT services such as client factors, performance skills and patterns, and the environment in which clients engage in their everyday lives.  The OTPF emphasizes a top-down approach, which is understanding the roles clients have in their lives and attending to those roles first and foremost instead of focusing on the limitations, illness, or injury at hand.  This way, practitioners know what the client values in their everyday life, and they can use OT services to help them get back to living their best life.
Post a Comment
Read more

Anna Garrett OT640 Debrief

Hi guys!  Congrats on finished our last Level I FW!  I have attached my Level I FW C debrief here:   https://youtu.be/a9DqkQ6mWos    I hope y’all have a great summer break, and I am looking forward to catching up when we return to class! P.S.  The washer/dryer is running in the background of my video, and I did not realize until after the fact :)  
2 comments
Read more