I’ve never consciously thought about how technology impacts my life. So, my inaugural blog entry is dedicated to exploring how technology aids me in my daily activities and enables me to train and compete in boccia.
The technology that I rely the most on during my waking hours is my motorised wheelchair. Due to spinal muscular atrophy, my muscles are weak and I have never been able to walk. Wheeling myself in a manual wheelchair is also a chore because of my weak arms. Hence, a motorised wheelchair acts as the ‘legs’ that carry me around as I go to work, boccia training and attend other leisure activities. If you take away the motorised wheelchair from me, only then I think I’ll feel ‘handicapped’.
In boccia, I am classified as a BC3 player due to the extensive weakness of my muscles. I have very poor control of my trunk, I can’t raise my arms over my head and I can’t grasp a boccia ball (what more throw the 275gram ball across the 10m long boccia court). So, how do I play boccia then?
In the BC3 category, athletes are allowed to use assistive devices and engage a sports assistant during a game. The assistive devices that I use currently comprises a ramp (for the ball to roll off from at an incline) and a head-pointer (a stick that functions like an extended finger for me).
Over the course of 7 years playing boccia, I’ve gone through 4-5 types of ramps and 2 head-pointers. My first ramp was the simplest – it looks a lot like a PVC pipe split into half along its diameter. It allowed the ball to sit nicely in it and roll down along it when the ramp was inclined. My first head-pointer was simply an adjustable radio antenna attached to a cap with tape.
Now, my ramp can be raised towards my eye level to allow me to aim and locate a specific desired spot on the boccia court. If I need my balls to gain more potential energy and roll a further distance, I can attach additional sections to the ramp to make it longer and higher. My existing head-pointer is a durable aluminium stick secured firmly on a bicycle helmet.
Though both my ramp and head-pointer have evolved over the years and are serving their purposes well currently, I don’t expect them to be the last. Each time I participate in an international competition, I have the opportunity to observe the ramps and head-pointers used by other BC3 athletes and yearn to improve mine so that I can play better.
When major competitions are over, I catch up with fellow boccia athletes and coaches from other countries (yes, we’re pretty 'civil' off the boccia court since we’re not bent on winning a match) via email and Facebook. The internet is a fascinating medium for knowledge sharing – videos and pictures of boccia skills training and matches can be shared instantaneously and this facilitates online discussions on how to improve our skills in boccia.
Technology has not only made it possible for me to move about independently, it has enabled me to go one step further and take on boccia competitively.
By the way, I’m looking forward to trying out a new head-pointer prototype at boccia training tomorrow!
