Perception of rugby athletes on wheelchairs on supports received for an adapted sport practice

Becerra, Marco Antônio Guevara; Manzini, Mariana Gurian; Martinez, Claudia Maria Simões

doi:10.4322/2526-8910.ctoAO1662

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Original Article • Cad. Bras. Ter. Ocup. 27 (3) • Jul-Sep 2019 • https://doi.org/10.4322/2526-8910.ctoAO1662 copy

Perception of rugby athletes on wheelchairs on supports received for an adapted sport practice

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

Introduction

The literature has demonstrated the relevance and positive influence of social support for the promotion and protection of human development in its different dimensions.

Objective

To identify the perception of wheelchair rugby athletes on the support received for the practice of adapted sports.

Method

Participants were 10 disabled athletes who practice Rugby in wheelchairs. This is a qualitative approach. The interviews were conducted individually through a semi-structured script, recorded and transcribed in full.

Results

It was observed that the first contact with the adapted sport occurred through friends, players, and coaches. The most frequently mentioned support for the practice of adapted sports refers to the family context. In the sporting context, there is the support coming from clubs, teams, staffs, coach, team, with an appreciation of space for training. The motivation for the practice of the sport was due to personal desires as a search for a better quality of life, physical independence and the desire to rehabilitate as well as the possibility to develop in the personal, social and educational field. Obstacles to the practice of adapted sports focus on the lack of financial support and accessibility.

Conclusion

It was identified as a set of distinct and complementary supports fundamental to the practice of Rugby, which if articulated constitute points of a support network. It is suggested to invest in cross-sectional actions to increase the national policy for people with disabilities.

Keywords:
Self-Help Groups; Disabled Persons; Rugby; Sport

Participants	Age	Time practicing Rugby	School level
P1	25 years old	2 years	Elementary school
P2	34 years old	6 years	High school
P3	26 years old	1 year	Higher Education – in progress
P4	35 years old	7 years	High school
P5	26 years old	4 years	Incomplete Higher Education
P6	29 years old	7 years	Higher Education
P7	25 years old	3 years and 5 months	None
P8	27 years old	8 years	Incomplete Higher Education
P9	39 years old	5 years	High school
P10	34 years old	2 years	Higher Education

Participants	Facilitating elements for the access	Context	Illustration of how access to adapted sports occurred
P1	“Superar” Program	Sports	“The first contact was in the”Superar” program that I went to work out, swim ... then they saw that Rugby was going to be very well for me and they introduced me to Rugby”.
P2	Videos about topic	Social	“It was the videos, trip, I was thinking better the sport”.
P3	Rehabilitation clinic	Health	“Through a clinic where I was doing physiotherapy, he suggested me Rugby”.
P4	Friend	Social	“It was a friend who knew it... he went to the clinic to explain to us how it would be the sport there in (name of the city)”.
P5	Hospital	Health	“[...] the athletes of the team went there to the consultation, and the doctor introduced me to them because the doctor has a partnership sending patients to the team”.
P6	Movie	Social	“[...] with the movie “Murderball” that tells the story of Rugby in the United States, it was the first time I felt like playing some adapted sport”.
P7	Friend	Social	“So in my city, there was an association that worked with adapted sports, then a friend invited me to go and know it and from there, I got to know the adapted sport. And I never left”.
P8	Friend	Social	“I was at the rehabilitation hospital in Rio de Janeiro and I knew a friend called E. He introduced me to Rugby and we practiced inside the hospital one day. Then he called me to play in a team there in RJ. I started playing and since then I have not stopped playing”.
P9	Association/ club	Sports	“I met an association when I was 14 and I started there ... I went through a lot of sports. I played wheelchair soccer, I played wheelchair basketball, and then I found the swimming that was the sport that I identified at the time and then followed a swimming career. I'm in Rugby today”.
P10	Friend	Social	“[...] after I met Rugby through friends and started practicing there I fell in love with the sport”.

Participants	Motivation	Effect of motivation for sports practice	Interview excerpt
P1	Familiar	Seeking the father's happiness (emotional)	“The most motivation for me to continue is my father because he sometimes suffers from arrhythmia ... so, his happiness is ... me in Rugby and out of what I was before. My greatest motivation is my father”.
P2	Pessoal	Continuing with the practice of sport (social)	“Well before my accident, I was an athlete, so I had to look for something to do not stay still”.
P3	Pessoal	Rehabilitate and have the quality of life (health)	“Rehabilitation mainly. Then the quality of life”.
P4	Pessoal	Knowing the possibility of practicing a sport adapted to tetraplegia (social)	“At first, I did not know of any other quadriplegic sport, I only knew for paraplegic that it is basketball, tennis, but for the tetraplegic, I did not know it. From the moment I met and saw that I could, I played it”.
P5	Pessoal	To improve health (Cheers)	“I went to know it and I liked it. At the time, I was not doing anything because of the accident, I liked it, I always liked to play sports, and I stayed. It was because I really liked it ... it helped for my health, too”.
P6	Pessoal	To have the possibility to change the style of life through practice of physical activity (Social)	“Motivation, honestly, when I was young, even though I was not an athlete before my accident, I was ... I had activities, I participated in physical activity sometimes. So I had a will to do something, I was sedentary and obese and ... I had a lot of free time in my day, so I saw a possibility there”.
P7	Pessoal	Seeking the quality of life and high income (social)	“In the beginning, it was to maintain a better quality of life, for me is taking care of my body and when things were going I liked it and then I went for the high performance”.
P8	Pessoal	To like to practice a sport (social)	“I've always liked sports, I've always played sports since before my injury, after my injury I did not practice anything until I met Rugby, I've always been passionate about sports”.
P9	Pessoal	To have the opportunity to perform an activity (Social)	“The information I think is the first opportunity that the person can have ... it is to know that it exists, right? Something to do and found an association, so that's what motivated me to do it”.
P10	Pessoal	Independence (social)	“Physical independence”.

Participants	Most valued support	Type of Support	Context	Illustration
P1	Father	Financial	Family	“The biggest support is from my father. He still helps me, I have no such financial support from other parties and if I need money to travel, he who helps me, he supports me in everything and everything I do is for him too. At the moment I have not yet, but I'm going to receive an athletic scholarship that will help a lot, by the government. I still do not get it, then I take from my benefit because I'm retired and my father helps a lot too”.
P2	Team	Infrastructure	Social (club)	“I had only support, even support from where I played, on my team. Talking like this ... I had to buy my material, so it was not enough, so the support I had was only from the club where I trained. It gave us the space to train, but the rest, the material, these things, this stuff, I bought everything”.
P3	Relatives	Emotional	Family	“Ah, the family, it's the one who supports the most. Just the family”.
P4	Friends and Family	Financial and Emotional	Family and Social	“Dude, the friends, and the family. For the financial, they help a lot, but mainly friends and family, who are always there to support, they are always giving that little help”.
P5	Mother and Team	Emotional	Family and Social (time)	“My mother, the family, at the beginning and the team too, that we help each other a lot, so it was the two main supports”.
P6	Specialized professionals	Instrumental	Sport	“From professionalized people... From trained professionals this has been the most important because they are the ones who catalyze, any development will be much faster when you have people qualified to do that thing. It goes without saying that I have no training in physical education and no specialized knowledge in wheelchair Rugby trying to play a project. There has to be someone with some capacity and then I think all my process in those 7 years, I think the biggest influence has been of people able to help me”.
P7	Sponsorships	Financial	Sport	“I think there's still a lot left for us to evolve. And so, the support of the club even without sponsorship I think is very important. Because if the club today does not call an athlete and not talk to him such ... and explain the situation he ends up leaving the Paralympic sport, the adapted sport because there is no way to keep in the adapted sport because most of the time we need money from our pocket”.
P8	Scholarship	Financial	Governmental	“I think Brazil has an athlete scholarship project that benefits athletes who were among the top three in the national competition”.
P9	Specialized professionals	Instrumental and Infrastructure	Sport	“I think the space of sports practice. In my case, I started swimming, I have a gym, I have a technician, it's ... the disposition for training ... there were entities that worked with adapted sports, so for me, it was that to have space”.
P10	Family and Specialized Professional staffs	Emotional and Instrumental	Family and sport	“From the family. The staffs of the team, because if you do not have to put gloves and transfer to a chair if you do not have these staffs, you cannot do anything”.

Participants	Obstacles	Illustration
P1	A set of obstacles	“There are many things...”.
P2	To start the first contact with the sport after disability	“Going out for the first time to get to know the sport”.
P3	Financial difficulty	“Financial problem”.
P4	Not reported	“He could not answer”.
P5	Financial difficulty and lack of accessibility	“[…] financial is greater, but the second is accessibility”.
P6	Not reported	“He could not answer”.
P7	The large geographical distance between the training place and the residence	“The main obstacle is the distance from the city where I train”.
P8	Lack of accessibility	“Accessibility. The gym has to be adapted, with a good bathroom, a ramp, access, how will the handicapped get there?”.
P9	The financial difficulty for maintenance in a high performance adapted sport	“To maintain high income without financial support”.
P10	A set of obstacles that in the view of the athlete are common to all people	“They are the same for everyone”.

Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Departamento de Terapia Ocupacional Rodovia Washington Luis, Km 235, Caixa Postal 676, CEP: , 13565-905, São Carlos, SP - Brasil, Tel.: 55-16-3361-8749 - São Carlos - SP - Brazil
E-mail: cadto@ufscar.br

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[1] Corresponding author: Claudia Maria Simões Martinez, Departamento de Terapia Ocupacional, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Rodovia Washington Luiz, Km 235, Monjolinho, CEP 13565-905, São Carlos, SP, Brasil, e-mail: claudia@ufscar.br