Air Force wheelchair basketball team preps for competition
Posted 5/16/2011
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by Lt. Col. Richard Williamson
Air Force Space Command Public Affairs
5/16/2011 - COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AFNS) -- This year's Air Force wheelchair basketball team underwent a workout May 12 at the Air Force Academy Prep School Gym, to not only improve skills needed to play intense basketball from a special sports wheelchair, but to get to know each other also.
"The primary objective of this camp is to come together as a team," said Air Force Coach Cami Stock. "These athletes arrive from all over the country after training for months on their own, so it's absolutely imperative that they have this time together."
Competitors have to "dribble" the ball down the court in a mix of bouncing the ball with two spins of the chair wheels and another bounce of the ball on the floor. Defenders can block offense players as they move down the court. While players may bump into each other during a regular basketball game, the wheelchairs crash into each other during these Warrior games with a sound not normally heard on a basketball court.
The greatest danger comes when the competitors are massed together vying for the ball and a player leans out too far and overturns their chair, players said. In practice, the worst damage was the same kinds of bumps and bruises that players get bumping into each other when playing on their feet.
"It is hard to shoot free throws from the chair because all of the effort has to be in the upper body," said Jennifer Stone, a retired Senior Airman. "When you play basketball on your feet, you use your legs to help shoot the ball."
Players are not as physically close to each other in the wheelchair.
"There is more space between players in the chair," Stone said. "It is easier to get a shot off from the chair because the person defending is farther away and you use the chair to maneuver yourself. It takes good coordination."
For players and coaches, the Warrior games are a life changing experience.
"This has been a humbling and life changing experience for me," said basketball team coach Tech. Sgt. Corey Lewis, also of the Headquarters Air Force Services Agency in San Antonio. "I have learned to appreciate the small things in life and find it uplifting to see the athletes come out and compete."
For Jennifer Stone, the Warrior Games have taught her new skills in sports and in life. One year ago, she did not know how to swim. This year, she is swimming competitively at the Warrior Games.
"Playing sports competitively has helped me become more independent in my personal life," she said. "Because of the sports experience, I am now able to do more on my own."
Warrior Games venues at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center, formerly Ent Air Force Base, are free and open to the public. For more information about the 2011 Warrior Games and the events schedule, go to the USOC Paralympics website at: http://usparalympics.org/usoc-paralympic-military-program/warrior-games-presented-by-deloitte
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