Innovative Activity #2: Judo for Blind Athletes

     Judo is a martial art that uses some of the same aspects as wrestling. There are pins, arm locks, and chocking techniques. What makes Judo unique are the special throwing techniques used. Judo can be adapted for visually impaired participants fairly easily. People with visual impairments are even able to compete with athletes without visual impairments. The main benefit of Judo is that it is a means of providing physically activity and exercise. This can be a way for several people with visual impairments to meet each other as well as people with and without visual impairments to get to know each other. Other groups that my benefit from this activity would include people with hearing impairments since hearing is not critical to the activity. People who are recovering from certain injuries may be able to participate as a way to regain lost strength. Those with severe physical disabilities and limitations would not find this activity appropriate. People with a history of violence may also not be good competitors in this sport because they could potentially harm their competition.
    Judo uses the same basic rules as wrestling that Americans are familiar with. There are 13 weight classes and competitors can be of any age or gender. Points are scored by executing different moves. The object of the match is for one competitor must throw the other to the ground, and the one on the ground must remain pinned there with both hips and both shoulders touching the floor for two seconds. If this is accomplished the match is over. If the person who was thrown to the floor manages to get free, the match may continue. One competitor may also end the match by submitting to the other competitor by patting the floor or the opponent to show that he is ready to admit his defeat. The only resources needed are an open space, preferably with a soft floor like a wrestling mat, and a person to referee the competition. For competitors with visual impairments the mat should have different textures to mark different zones. Contestants usually wear robes and belts similar to those worn in karate. For someone just leaning about judo, a coach or teacher would be important. The best leadership for this activity is a teacher who has been practicing Judo for many years to guide people who are still learning.
    I learned about Judo for athletes with visual impairments from an online search. My sources follow: http://judoinfo.com/new/, http://www.blindjudofoundation.org/. This is a new story of paralympic athletes competing in Judo http://www.blindjudofoundation.org/videos.php. This is from the 2009 Judo Open.

    For people looking for more information on Judo I recommend both of these websites as well as the paralympic websites.

2/23/2012 Now or Never

    Today was the day; we performed our flash mob for everyone to see. It was a little nerve wracking before hand: was the music going to work, would it be loud enough, would everyone remember the dance. In the end, all the worrying was for nothing. The performance went off without a hitch. Before we started the performance we arrived at the REC at different times and worked out so we didn't look suspicious. Having some activity to do made me less nervous but still anxious. Finally I heard our song come over the sound system. It was strange at first to think that I had to run out there and join the random group of dancers in the middle of the basketball court. When I got out there though, it was just like when we practiced. It was fun and I didn't care how silly we looked. After we were done we went back to the library to debrief.
   What I learned this week is that if you dream it you can do it. With a little bit of work you can make something that you can be proud of. I didn't know at the beginning of the semester that we would be able to pull this off. There were moments when I thought we might not come to decisions. There were also times when I thought someone might just walk out of the room and give up. My classmates surprised me in our ability to come together to make this work. I will be able to use this experience in my professional life as an example of our ability to come together and work as a team. Even with many different personalities we were able to compromise. Today I learned that it's great to go out there and show everyone what I have worked hard to do and be proud of it. This week I strived for excellence by leaving it all on the floor. It was a great time and I have no regrets. I'm interested to see what the rest of the semester has in store.
    Here's the final product, enjoy! http://youtu.be/0GS9FIr282Y

Innovative Activity #1: Goalball

    The game is called goalball and it is designed specifically for people with visual impairments. Goalball allows  participants that are visually impaired a way to compete in a sport with a level playing field. Many sports are difficult to adapt for visual impairments or could be dangerous even if adaptations were made. This is also a way for those with visual impairment to socialize with other people with the same disability. They are able to be a part of a team and feel camaraderie just like any other athlete. Though this sport is specifically for athletes with visual impairments it may be played by people without visual impairments. Most athletes without visual impairments would find this sport similar to the goal shooting aspect of sports like soccer or handball but potentially much quicker. Goalball may not be suited to people with limited motor function because of the speed of the game. With some adaptations it could be played by athletes that use wheelchairs; this may involve the participants sitting on the ground instead of in their chairs.

    Goalball (sometimes known as torball, thought the two are slightly different) is played on a rectangular court of 18 m in length and 9 m in width with goals at both ends of the court. There are three members of each team on the court at a time and only two teams play at a time. The three members of the team are one center and two wings. The ball is 2 kilograms (or 500 grams if it's torball) and has a bell inside so players can hear when in moves. The object of the game is to simply roll the ball across the court bowling style into the goal on the opposite side. The defenders then dive to protect their goal. Most players wear pants and knee pads since they spend a great amount of the game on their knees. Most also wear either long-sleeved shirts and/or elbow pads. Everyone playing must wear eye shades, which are often blacked out ski goggles, to make the level of visual impairment equal for all players. There are ways to be penalized and when this happens the opposite team gets to throw against only one defender. Here is a picture of what a court should look like.

    Resources needed for this game are proper padding to prevent injury, eye shades, and goals wide enough to cover the end of the court. Two referees are needed as well as people to stand at the four corners of the court to get the ball when it rolls out of play. If a court does not exist you can create one using duct tape for lines a a regular volleyball court. The duct tape should be several layers thick so players can feel where it is. Here is a picture of a court to better understand the game.

    Teams should have coached to help strategize, but during the game the room usually remains fairly silent except when goals are scored so players can hear the ball moving. It is likely that one player per team will take the lead as a captain during play.

    I found this activity on the website for the international paralympic committee http://www.paralympic.org/. I found more details for how to play the game on http://www.ibsa.es/eng/ and http://www.dhamilton.net/goalball/HOW_TO_PLAY_GOALBALL/How_to_Play_GOALBALL.htm. If anyone wants more information on goalball, I recommend these websites along with youtube clips of the sport such as this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTQ1ttL0diE&feature=related

2/16/2012 Practice Makes Perfect

    Last night's class was dedicated to practicing our flash-mob. Since we had extra people in class we practiced in the Graff Main auditorium for more space. We went through the song once so everyone could get an idea of how it should look, then we tried it with everyone. This week went fairly smooth because we had already established a leader. Everyone had a chance to give input, but by having one person in charge we stayed on track more easily.
    This week I learned that even thought at times there was a lot going on and we wanted breaks, a break that is too long can kill the momentum. All that dancing started to make us tired, but once we took a break it was hard to get started again. What I learned about myself is that letting lose and having fun makes the crazy dance party less awkward. Just like last week, my way of striving for excellence was to provide my input when ever I felt that something needed to be said. This was important when we were discussion where and when to perform because we weren't sure if the REC would still be the optimal place. I think we have it all figured out and we're ready to go. Crossing my fingers that next week goes off without a hitch!

Article Review: therapeutic benefits of a specific activity

    The title of the article was "War Narratives Veteran Stories, PTSD Effects, and Therapeutic Fly-Fishing" from the Therapeutic Recreation Journal. It was written by Rasul A. Mowatt and Jessie Bennett. I located this article when I was doing research on PTSD for another class earlier this week.
    This article was about research that was done on veterans from several wars spanning from Vietnam to Operation New Dawn who had been diagnosed with Post-traumatic stress Disorder. The vets were part of a fly-fishing program in Utah that was meant to help relieve symptoms of PTSD. After the program was done, the vets wrote letters to the person or company who financially sponsored their trip. This letter writing was part of the therapy. The researchers then did a studied the letters and broke them down to determine 1) what they say 2 how they say that and 3) what the readers reaction to the letters was.
    From this article I learned that the letter writing worked similarly to writing a journal, but in this case it was also the reflection for the activity instead of the activity itself. By writing letters vets were able to look back on their experience fishing and decide if it was something they enjoyed and wanted to continue, but they were also able to write about their experiences with PTSD. The fishing groups worked like support groups, but in a less formal manner. Vets were able to receive therapy while doing a recreation activity they enjoyed: exactly what TR means to me.
    I would recommend this article to other TR students because it told me about not just the activity, but how they analyzed it and used it for research. It showed how a study doesn't have to be solely a study, but instead it can be a TR activity that is already planned. They just took it one more step in looking at the letters that were written to evaluate how well the program worked.

2/9/2012 Skip to the Interlude

   So this was the week we were to choose our flash mob song. I figured this wouldn't be too hard; everyone would share a few ideas, we'd write them on the board, then take a vote.
   Oh no, of course it had to be much more difficult than that. We started off the class by taking a vote, about what I can't even remember because by the end we had voted so much that raising my hand had become a reflex. We all had the chance to state our group's case for our song choice along with location and a few other details. This is where the problems began. There were some groups that were in favor of totally creating our own dance and other groups that wanted something a little more prepackaged. There was debate and valid points were brought up on both sides. Just when it looked like a decision might be made something would change. This went on for quite some time and I learned that voting can be great when making group decisions, if you rush a decision and vote too soon you may have to re-vote later on because new arguments and problems will have arisen and everything has changed.
   Just when we were about to decide on a song for the third time(?) Kaylee had a new idea. She told us about a song called Interlude. She showed us a video of it and we all instantly decided it was the song for us. Sometimes all it takes is one idea to unite a group. The rest of the class was spent developing goals for the flash-mob and creating the actual routine. Once again this was a long process with a lot of discussion and more figuring it out as we went along and making adjustments.
   This week I learned that while I like democracy and voting, there is a point when it can be taken too far. Some decisions need to be executive decisions made by the most informed of the people who feel the strongest. My "striving for excellence" moment this week would have to be my small contributions when we were all offering our ideas. My ideas weren't anything new or exciting, but that's what makes this project a group effort, all of the little ideas put together.
   P.S. check out what we're planning to do in a few weeks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cuS_31zJ6U

2/3/12 Facilitation

   This week in class we got down to business. We talked about the basics of facilitating activities. A lot of it was review of things I have learned in previous classes, but we went much more in depth on the beginning stages of planning activities. 

   Our in class group project this week was to take two activities and do an activity analysis and a task analysis for each. My group worked on basketball and bicycling. We broke down the steps of how to learn to ride a bike and prepare yourself for biking. We did the same for basketball. Then we discussed limitations for each and how you could make each adaptable for different injuries. We decided that basketball was more easily adaptable because bicycles can be expensive and potentially dangerous with some people or populations. Other groups did the same thing for painting, journals, and kayaks. The entire class discussed the challenges and benefits of doing different activities with different populations. It really stressed the importance to me of how well you need to know the clients you are working with and how well prepared you need to be for activities.

   We also got to spend some time in our groups thinking about our flash-mob. We had to think about adaptability for that as well. We want it to be simple enough that everyone can learn it and have fun doing it. We also have to consider where we are performing and what we will perform to. I am hoping for an upbeat song that everyone who sees us will recognize and be able to sing along to. I would like to perform somewhere on campus so our classmates can see what we've been working on. For now we'll just have to wait and see.