Gobind Sundhu

Colby Evans
Brandon Tran

Leading Adaptive Physical Activity

Person-Related Factors:

Paraplegic people have a condition or affect that alters the ability to use the lower body and legs

if any at all. It either drastically reduces the ability or due to extreme cases can cause paralysis.

Paraplegic’s most common area of problems is in the legs, this can be due to a multitude of

things such as deteriorating cells in the legs because of autoimmune diseases to problems with

vertebrae such as the L2-L5 vertebrae that control the legs (Spinal Cord Injury Levels &

Classification, n.d.). Other causes would be strokes, family background, or damage to the brain

or spinal cord from car crashes, falls and/or anything that can cause blunt force trauma. The

degree of force you take doesn’t necessarily relate to the degree of paralysis that you will have.

Slips and falls can easily cause as much if not more damage than being in a car crash it just

depends on how your body is affected. There are many degrees of damage that you can have as

a paraplegic such as temporary damage, over time damage, problems in one leg or two as well as

full paralysis in all your lower body. Paraplegic is a type of paralysis in the body that deals with

the waist below that affects both legs and hips. There are other types of paraplegic paralysis and

they are as follows:

1. Monoplegia Paralysis – It affects a single area of the body, usually the limbs. People can

still gain control over other parts of the body but not in the affected areas. Some injuries that

could lead to monoplegia paralysis are strokes, tumors, nerve damage or impingement, motor

neuron damage, brain injuries, etc (SpinalCord.com., n.d.).

2. Hemiplegia Paralysis – It affects the same leg or arm on the same side of the body. The

degree of this paralysis varies from person to person and may change over time. The functioning
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Colby Evans
Brandon Tran

of the body changes over time and depends upon overall health, activity level, etc

(SpinalCord.com., n.d.).

3. Quadriplegia Paralysis – It deals with any paralysis below the neck. All four limbs and the

torso and mainly affected. The loss of function varies over time and varies from person to

person. Some functioning of the body can be retained through physical therapy and exercise.

Spinal cord injury is the major cause of this paralysis and some common ones are automobile

accidents, falls, sporting injuries, etc. Some other causes can be drug or alcohol usage, allergic

reactions, early brain injuries during pre-birth, brain tumors or lesions, etc (SpinalCord.com.,

n.d.).

Physical Activity Recommendations:

Activity recommendations - Physical activity is incredibly important for daily living, all

individuals should be partaking in regular activity to stay healthy. Everyone needs physical

activity, but for individuals that use wheelchairs this can be difficult to achieve. This is extra

important when an individual is seated when locomoting, for those who use a wheelchair,

activity is extremely important. The minimum requirement for physical activity for those who

specifically have a spinal cord injury is intense cardio 20 minutes twice a week and strength

training for 20 minutes twice a week (Wyndaele, 2011). It is recommended that most participate

more then the minimum, but it is difficult to find inclusive activity to maintain that level of

physical activity. For strength training, it is fairly easy to maintain routine, but cardio can be

more difficult. There are many different sports and activities for inclusive cardio, almost all

sports can be adapted. There are multiple examples of cardio activities such as swimming,
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Colby Evans
Brandon Tran

canoeing, and wheelchair sports (Hoffman, 2012). As long as all individuals can maintain a

healthy level of activity, any sport can be made inclusive.

Contraindicated activities - All individuals like to participate in activities that they can have

fun in and succeed at. For anyone using a wheelchair, some activities would not be

recommended, because they would feel excluded or spotlighted as being bad. So, games that

should not be played are any that would exclude a wheelchair user, like soccer or floor hockey.

These games would completely exclude them and be useless in providing daily physical activity.

Other games that may not be great to play, or even make as an adapted exercise, are agility-based

games. Games like dodgeball would not be ideal, because the game relies on quick movements

with immediate direction change to succeed. This would most likely spotlight poorer players and

lead to decreased participation.

Activity Session

Description of activity or game lead - The game will be a modified version of cricket to fit both

indoors and the adapted play of wheelchair use. The main idea of cricket is to get cardio activity,

as well as throwing and batting skill practice. This is a game that allows all players to play and

have fun, while still maintain competition. Prior to play there is a throwing warm up, and a

bowling practice to promote the development of throwing skills.

Objectives - The objectives of cricket are to score more runs than the opponents, by hitting the

ball into open territory and reaching the opposite wicket. The main goal of organizing and

planning this activity is to provide skill development, fun, and an outlet for a cardio exercise.
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Colby Evans
Brandon Tran

Equipment needed - The required equipment needed in order to play a game of cricket is a ball,

two wooden bats, wheelchairs and two wickets. Each wicket includes three stumps and 2 bails.

Rules of play - Each team must consist of at least 11 players.

· A game must have two umpires standing on either ends of the wicket. The umpire checks

to see if a batsman is out after an appeal or to see if the bowler has bowled a legal throw.

· A batsman can be given out either by being bowled by the bowler (the ball hitting the

wicket), caught (the defending/fielding team catch the ball in mid air before it hits/bounces off

the ground), hitting the wicket (batsman makes any contact with their own wicket) and the

fielding team strikes/hits the wicket during an attempt made by the batsman to score for a point

and does not cross the other side of the wicket in time or safe zone.

· The offensive/batting team can score points based on a few different ways. They can score

1 point for each time a player successfully crosses the safe zone without being ruled out, 6 points

if the player hits the ball directly over the boundaries of the field and 4 points if the ball hit by

the batsman rolls over the boundary line.

· The team is considered to be the winner if they have scored the most points compared to

the other team when all the players are considered out.

Skill/Activity task - Some of the skill tasks used during cricket is as follows:

1. Batting stance – the side of the body should be facing towards the bowler in a

comfortable position to swing the bat.

2. Batting grip – both hands should be placed on the bat at all times while swinging it.
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Colby Evans
Brandon Tran

3. Bowling grip – the hands should have a full comfortable grip around the ball.

4. Bowling/Throwing – the bowler/thrower should have good body coordination while

rotating your body in a way to throw the ball to prevent any unbalanced motion.

5. Catching – players should have good hand-eye coordination while catching the ball.

Underlying components of skill –

Batting skills:

Some of the basic principle skills used while batting is keeping eyes on the ball, keeping your

head still when the ball is being released, allowing hands to lead your body, judging the type of

bounce on the ball and the type of hit you want to display.

Also having a good grip on the bat with both hands should help give you a better body balance

while swinging the bat.

Bowling Skills:

Bowling has some foundation of skills whether you are a fast bowler or a medium bowling that

likes to add spin to the ball. This includes momentum, balance and timing. Bowlers will become

more consistent and accurate when learning these skills for bowling and it helps to prevent the

risks of any injury.

Catching skills:

It requires a few basic skills to help succeed in catching a ball coming towards you. Some of the

skills are reflexes towards getting the ball, good eye-hand coordination, alertness and

anticipation to react to the ball and a still head to keep focus towards where the ball is at.
Gobind Sundhu
Colby Evans
Brandon Tran

Other fielding skills:

Some of the other fielding skills adapted by the fielding players during play are being able to

pick up the ball quickly off the ground using either the help of the wheels on the wheelchair or

having long arms to be able to reach the ball more effectively. Throwing the ball towards a

wicket requires good aim, targeting and balance in motion and being able to pass to your

teammates while throwing the ball whether its overhand or underhand.

Capability Difference Based on Person-Related Factors – For those who use a wheelchair,

there are many possible factors that could lead to capability differences. The first person-related

factor that can be impactful is knowledge, many wheelchair users may not know what activities

they can partake in or the rules and techniques of the game. It may be difficult to know exactly

what alternative games there are locally, for the sport exhibit today, many players especially

North Americans may not know the rules or techniques behind cricket. Knowledge can lead to

capability differences as some players would not know how to play, and would be behind in the

basic knowledge for the sport. Self-efficacy and motivation can also lead to a difference level, as

individuals may not feel it is important to participate in cardio, or have negative feelings towards

the adapted activity. Anyone looking for adapted physical activity may not feel challenged

enough for certain sports or may feel to threatened, the activity today could make a person feel

like they strike out too much, or there is little challenge to hitting a larger ball.

Modifications/Adaptations – We modified the game of cricket by using a dodge ball instead of

a cricket ball, a wheelchair to sit on to move from place to place and a smaller wooden bat

compared to a cricket bat. The area of play was made smaller to make it less challenging for

players to move around a lot during play.

The context of this adaptive assignment was to demonstrate a modified/adapted game of cricket

that would be inclusive for someone with paraplegic. The rules and changes to the game have

been made to add the same level of difficulty for everyone to make it equal while playing and

fun.

Also, the selection of team has been made differently as well to make it unbiased for the person

having a disability. Instead of having two team captains choosing their team members one by

one, we had people pair up with the closest person next to them and settle it will a quick, simple

and easy version of a game called rock/paper/scissors. The winners between that matchup will be

on one team and the losers on the other team. Therefore, these modified/adapted changes have

been made to this game to include everyone to participate and to allow equal chances and

opportunity to play at all times.

Evaluation of modification effectiveness –

Is the modification age-appropriate? Yes, it was appropriate for older individuals who can

understand the rules and strategy behind cricket (Kasser & Lytle, 2013).

Is the modification functionally appropriate? Yes, it was appropriate for encouraging cardio

activity and people could enjoy the competition and inclusiveness of the sport (Kasser & Lytle,

2013).

Does the activity allow the participant to be as independent as possible? Yes, the game was

completely independent, any player could participate without assistance and thrive in the game

on their own (Kasser & Lytle, 2013).

Does the game ensure maximum participation of the participant? This game allows each

individual to bat and try to score, but it does not allow maximum participation in fielding,

because players may not hit the ball in that direction. Players may also get out immediately

(Kasser & Lytle, 2013).

Does the activity avoid singling out or spotlighting high or low participants? For the most part

there is little spotlighting, but the game does showcase players that strike out, or those who can

hit very well (Kasser & Lytle, 2013).

Does the modification allow for optimal challenge for everybody? Yes, all players were

challenged in throwing, fielding, hitting, and moving (Kasser & Lytle, 2013).

Was the activity safe once the modification was applied? Yes, players were not contacting one

another, and the ball used was much softer than regulation cricket balls, this led to the largest

risk being a line drive hit towards the pitcher (Kasser & Lytle, 2013).
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Colby Evans
Brandon Tran

References

Hoffman, M. (2012). Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Training in Quadriplegics and Paraplegics.

Sports Medicine, 3(5), 312-330.

Kasser, S.L., & Lytle, R. K. (2013). Inclusive Physical Activity Promoting Health for a Lifetime,

Second Ed. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

SpinalCord.com. (n.d.). Types of Paralysis. Retrieved from https://www.spinalcord.com/types-

of-paralysis

Spinal Cord Injury Levels & Classification. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.travisroyfoundation.org/sci/resources/spinal-cord-injury-levels-

classification/

Wyndaele, J. J. (2011). Evidence-informed physical activity guidelines for people with spinal

cord injury. Spinal Cord, 49(11), 1087-1087.