TRAINING BOOST FOR WHEELCHAIR RUGBY
TRAINING BOOST FOR WHEELCHAIR RUGBY
TRAINING BOOST FOR WHEELCHAIR RUGBY
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| Britain's Justin Frishberg (left) takes on the All Blacks team |
The new Lee Valley Athletics Centre in North London offers many athletes in London, East and the South East access to world class training facilities and support from the English Institute of Sport, all under one roof. But it is not just men and women from Athletics who are benefiting from the new facility and services on offer; athletes from other sports, including Wheelchair Rugby are using this centre as their training base, and www.eis2win.co.uk spoke to a few of them...
Andrew Barrow, Bulbul Hussain, Justin Frishberg, and Steve Palmer have all been playing wheelchair rugby for over 5 years with Andrew, Justin and Steve being part of the GB Team which, narrowly missed out on a medal at Athens 2004, finishing 4th. With their sights firmly set on success in Beijing and beyond, good training is key to their success:
Steve Palmer said: “This facility is fantastic for us for a number of reasons; we can use the facility whenever we want and at the times we train there are no children around, which is great as sometimes that is an issue for us. In addition to that we have access to EIS support services all in one place which is of real value to us, as well as being surrounded by the other elite athletes.”
Andrew Barrow: “It’s great being around other elite athletes, because it’s really inspirational while your training. Everyone is working really hard, to ultimately the same goal as you – to win medals – and it really helps push you on. It is really nice to feel part of the whole set up; I am definitely enjoying my training more since this centre opened.”
Justin Frishberg: “We usually come to the centre twice a week, once for a strength and conditioning session, and once to use the upstairs track. The track is a good surface for us as it has much more resistance on the wheels than a basketball court – which is what we normally play on - so it helps with our training.
AB: “I guess you could compare it to running with weights on your ankles. Training on a surface like that means that when we get onto the normal court, it feels like we are flying and we can move faster and better. The sport of Wheelchair rugby is very tactical, while combining good hand-eye coordination with speed, agility and upper body strength. All of us suffer from weakened trunk muscles, so we have to work hard on our upper body strength to keep us strong while playing.”
JF: “Andy and I both played rugby before we injured ourselves while playing, receiving spinal injuries that resulted in our need for a wheelchair. So when we started, although wheelchair rugby is nothing like rugby, we had experience of working as a team and in a sport where tactics and game awareness was crucial, so it helped us with this sport.
AB: “After I broke my neck, it was my experience while in the spinal unit that introduced me to Wheelchair Rugby. The nurses knew all about the sport and the benefits that it can bring, and so they helped encourage me into the sport. It was brilliant for me, and I’m sure for the rest of us, as it introduced you to other people who had been throug