On Sunday August 31st the Triumph Foundation hosted a wheelchair basketball clinic for kids with spinal cord injury at Chatsworth Recreation Center.
The Triumph foundation is a group with the goal of helping individuals with spinal cord injury to overcome their disability and inspire them to strive to get better every day. They also give people with spinal cord injury have a place that they can feel safe to be themselves, as well as have some fun. The specific event that I chose to volunteer for was a youth clinic for wheelchair basketball. My mom has a spinal cord injury and I play basketball at CSUSB so it felt only right that I volunteer at this clinic. I am not a person with a spinal cord injury, but that is another part of the Triumph foundation that I really loved, they were very open to letting both able and disabled people participate and learn about wheelchair basketball. I have played basketball for 15 years and I have never tried wheelchair basketball. The other volunteers were very open to even letting me try to play wheelchair basketball and showing me the particular rules that are not the same as able people basketball.
The clinic started with everyone introducing themselves, before getting into some stretching and a warmup. The warmup was teaching the kids where to push down on their wheels of their chairs to be able to get down the court faster. The energy in the room was very similar to the practices I have for my basketball team. Everyone was very encouraging, the energy in the room was amazing, and before they even started to teach these kids how to shoot, it felt like everyone involved was having a great time. Even the kid’s parents that stayed to watch the clinic looked like they were enjoying it. After the warmup we got to practice all of the different ways that you can dribble. I was able to participate in this as well with a wheelchair that they let me borrow. I will say it is a lot harder than it looks and the other volunteers were making it look easy. The other volunteers were doing moves throwing the ball behind their wheelchairs, while I was struggling with dribbling regularly. Then we partnered up and then started to practice passing. They explained all of the different types of passes and even said that it is really about knowing your teammate and where they like to catch the ball. For example, I am pretty short so you can not throw the ball to me that high or I won’t be able to reach it. Other people could be taller and you might be able to throw the ball higher, it all depends on personnel.
After the passing drill, we let the kids practice shooting. At this point I was not using a wheelchair. I was helping with rebounding the basketballs and passing them to the kids. I also was asked to take some videos of the kids shooting for the Triumph Foundation’s social media. At this point I was really observing all of the kids. Even the ones that could not throw the ball hard enough to hit the rim looked like they were having so much fun. Everyone there was so encouraging and uplifting. It was just a great environment to be in overall. We did a little group huddle to end off the clinic and sent the kids on their way.
My experience with this clinic could not have been any better. I learned so much and it opened my eyes more on what I might be interested in doing in the future. With my mom having a spinal cord injury and being disabled for most of my life, it showed me that there is way more out there for people with disabilities and organizations like Triumph are amazing in spreading positive energy and activities for people to participate in. I will definitely be going back and volunteering in other events or clinics that the Triumph Foundation hosts.
