Wheelchair Basketball offers inclusive therapy
Brunel collaborated with British Wheelchair Basketball (BWB) this term, to provide training in the sport for sixteen Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy students.
Wheelchair basketball offers an inclusive form of rehabilitation and the students were given the chance to learn how they might be able to use the sport in their future careers as therapists.
The students received training in how to teach the essential skills that make up the sport, such as manoeuvring the wheelchair, types of passing, dribbling, shooting and retrieving the ball from the ground. They then took on a team of untrained Brunel staff in a friendly match to see how the game is accessible to people with all levels of experience. The students eventually beat the staff team 10-6, despite finding themselves behind at halftime.
Physiotherapy undergraduate, Thomas Butcher said “the day was incredibly informative; learning the differences between the running game and the wheelchair game and how similar they are.”
This is the second year BWB has collaborated with Brunel to fund the training.
Wheelchair Basketball is practised by approximately 100,000 people worldwide and is featured the Invictus Games and Paralympic Games.