As a class we started the session off by building the special wheelchairs used for basketball. Richard from ParaQuad Tasmania discussed some rules about how the game works. He taught us that if we didn’t push the wheelchair more than two times without a bounce of the ball it would classify as travelling. When you are playing the game, you have  to bob up and down in the wheelchair to shoot a hoop. Picking up the ball is the trickiest part of the game; you had to put the ball on the side of the wheel to pick it up. We also learnt to use our hands as brakes when we needed to slow down or stop and to be able to change direction by holding one wheel still and moving the other. 

After we had learned some basic skills, we played a class game of wheelchair basketball. We found it hard to not use our feet to stop the wheelchair, and even harder to shoot the ball into the hoop because we couldn’t use the power from our legs.  

It was a great experience to learn what people may feel like in a wheelchair and understand what it means to not being able to use some parts of our body to move. 

Hope you enjoy the photos. 

Miller and Sophie – Grade 7