Adaptive Sports and Recreation in WNY- Sports Equipment

Four local athletes, Steve Spitz, Emily Keicher, Kate Hahn and Adam Page return to discuss adaptive equipment in adaptive/inclusive sports. The discussion includes progression of sports equipment and accessing equipment. The discussion flows into related topics of travel for sporting events and accessibility of hotels as well as fitting equipment to preserve skin integrity. Host: Jeanne Langan, Department of Rehabilitation Science, UB.
 
 The Adaptive Sports and Recreation in WNY podcast was created to share experiences and expertise of athletes, their families and community organizations on adaptive sports and recreation in WNY. Episodes will highlight different perspectives on adaptive and inclusive sports and recreation in WNY. This podcast is a collaboration between Greater Buffalo Adaptive sports and the Department of Rehabilitation Science at the University at Buffalo. 

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/cruen/camping 

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Transcript

 Episode 2 - Adaptive Sports Equipment

Wed, 6/15 10:57AM • 29:29

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

sport, equipment, adaptive sports, wheelchair, chair, skiing, adaptive equipment, people, kayaks, foundations, adapt, helping, travel, piece, outriggers, fundraisers, fitted, organization, year, ability

SPEAKERS

Kate Hahn, Emily Keicher, Jeanne Langan, Adam Page, Steve Spitz

Steve Spitz    00:00

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the adaptive sports and recreation in Western New York podcast. We're going to share some experiences and expertise of local athletes, their families and community organizations.  Our discussions are going to range from league sport competitions to weekend fun with family and friends. Coming to you from Buffalo, New York, the city of good neighbors, great year-round recreation and definitely a play hard attitude.

Jeanne Langan  00:33

Hello, I'm Jeanne Langan. I'm hosting the second episode of adaptive sports and recreation in Western New York podcast. This podcast is a collaboration between the Department of Rehabilitation Science at the University at Buffalo and the Western New York adaptive sports community. In Episode One, we met four local athletes that discussed adaptive sports, and how they got into their sport, they agreed to come back to discuss adaptive equipment today. Welcome back Steve, Emily, Kate and Adam. Maybe you can describe some of the adaptive equipment in the sport you use to start with.

Steve Spitz  01:05

Being such an old timer, I'll go first because I've been in adaptive sports for so long that when I first started with wheelchair basketball, we would take our what was somewhat new at the time, ultralight wheelchairs, and modify them for court use to use as basketball wheelchairs. Since then, more and more sports specific chairs have become available. So, you have basketball specific chairs, which is kind of considered a court chair, tennis, quad rugby, it kind of just goes on from there. You have chairs specific to outdoor hiking, with all terrain wheels, beach wheelchairs, it just you know, the list goes on and on. There's so much so much more than there was just even 20 years ago, 10 or 20 years ago.

Jeanne Langan  01:52

So, do you own your own court chair or how would you get one for the sport?

Steve Spitz  02:01

My basketball chair, my basketball specific chair, the last one I used was a hand me down chair. So, I acquired it secondhand because it was so costly. You know, initially and when I did acquire that chair, there wasn't as much in the way of grant foundations and other funding out there. So, I bought a secondhand piece of equipment so that I could have a basketball specific chair that, you know, it makes a huge difference on the court.

Jeanne Langan  02:32

And Emily, you play …

Emily Keicher  02:34

Wheelchair basketball, so but for the wheelchairs that I have, we actually borrowed some and this organization and this highway helped us fundraise and now have donated five wheelchairs to us. And they've been helping us all throughout this journey that we've had.

Jeanne Langan  02:53

Great. So, if somebody wanted to be in the inclusive basketball team, they can just show up and a chair would be waiting for them.

Emily Keicher   03:00

Yeah, well, we're going to, if we need to see how many players are actually going to be joining, so we can ask Rob, who's head of Endless Highway, and we would need to see how many chairs we would need or need to borrow. 

Jeanne Langan  03:17

Okay. Adam, how about sports you’ve been in.

Adam Page  03:19

So, kind of like a little bit with what Steve was saying, when I started playing sled hockey, the sleds that were given to us, you know, I was five, six years old, and they were like 50 pounds. We would actually take the bottom of real hockey skates and drill it into the bottom of plywood underneath the seat. And then there was actually like a car seat belt that we would put on the sleds. But now I mean, even the technology is, has grown so much and just in sled hockey, were they’re 10 - 11 pounds now and you know, like Steve was saying too, there's so many grants and opportunities out there to get this equipment. But you know, so I mean, that's kind of how I acquired mine. I was actually, my parents were able to help me and got my first sled and then kind of just went from there. Then, with the national team, they obviously have funding to give, you know, your equipment to you. So, it's just and then with our foundation, you know, it's a lot of networking to find organizations out there willing to donate, and then just grants out there for all the different adaptive equipment. So that we acquire enough over time to be able to, like Emily was saying, if anybody wants to come try out the sports that we have, to have enough there that they can just get in a sled, or wheelchair or whatever it is and be able to play right away.

Jeanne Langan  04:48

That's great and I know that I got a chance to try out some of the equipment at Canalside. Is that something that's still happening for sled hockey?

Adam Page  04:58

Yeah, we kind of do that. Um, every few months or every, like, five, six weeks, we're out there doing, Just Try Events, we call it for sled hockey that no matter if you're disabled or able bodied that you can, we have like about 30 sleds that we bring, and people can come out and try it for free and just to see what it's like to be in a sled and get a feel for it.

Kate Hahn  05:24

I'm just sitting over here drooling over all these opportunities I never knew about. I don't know anything about equipment, and I just usually show up. I would help if there were ways that I could participate in that. But I usually just benefit from all the work that everybody else does. 

Jeanne Langan  05:40

Great. So, if you're kayaking, tell us a little bit about the kayaks you use. 

Kate Hahn  05:47

Yeah, so they have a bunch, I don't even know how many kayaks. There's a couple that have the ability to like, I would need something that would be able to hold me in a sitting up position. So, they have a lot of kayaks that are just look like regular kayaks, they are regular kayaks. So, if it was someone with maybe a cognitive challenge, or someone that had full upper body strength, they would be able to use those. I happen to need one that has laterals that would be able to hold me in an up position. And at this point, I typically go into a tandem one, so that there's someone else doing some of the work with me. Because otherwise I'm kind of just spinning in circles in the same spot. So, there's all those they have all the equipment needed for it seems a wide array of levels of ability.

Steve Spitz  06:31

It's not quite how I remember it the first couple of times I saw her go out.  We had to send people out to get her. She was gone so far.

Jeanne Langan  06:39

I do remember the term. Under no circumstances should anybody touch [inaudible] kayak.

Kate Hahn  06:48

I will not come back on a tow rope. I've changed my ways a little bit, because I still want to go out on a kayak, but I was very adamant against the tow ropes.

Steve Spitz  06:56

Yeah, so you know, if you're an individual that's looking to get into a sport, and you know, by chance, there's no organization near you, there is, I'd say a good dozen or so that I'm aware of alone throughout the country, national organizations, that you can go on their website, fill out a form and get funding for equipment. Some are specific to certain sports, you know, whether it's skiing, sled hockey, there's a lot of them that are specific to a certain sport, but plenty of foundations out there that will help you get the equipment, if you're an individual looking to get into a sport. If there's a sport in your area, generally, that team will have either used equipment or team equipment that you can use, or possibly funding to get you something if you end up being that serious about it. So, they'll have funding that'll help you purchase something that's fitted to you so that your equipment in a lot of cases needs to be fitted to you if you're going to be serious, if you're serious about taking the sport to another level, the equipment should be fitted to you so that it helps you perform, you know, to your potential.

Jeanne Langan  08:01

So, somebody should not be deterred by cost, if they want to get into some of these sports. You think there are enough opportunities and I liked that you mentioned the national websites. What are some that you might look at?

Steve Spitz  08:18

Yeah, I would start with the largest organization out there. It is Move United.  It used to be Disabled Sports USA. Moveunitedsport.org. And they probably have a listing of foundations for the different sports. I know they have a list of the different sports by state and by activity. And I think you can take it a step further and then go down, you know, then go to different foundations that will support you in that sport. I know there's a Travis Roy Foundation in New England. He was a hockey player that was injured and had a spinal cord injury. And they have a foundation that will provide you with funds for just about any recreational sport you want to try.

Jeanne Langan  09:01

Great. So, it sounds like asking, whether it is through Move United or Greater Buffalo Adaptive Sports or just people who are already in the sport, that asking how they got some of their equipment funded is a good avenue to start with.

Steve Spitz  09:20

Yep, yeah. And then you know, alternatively, you know, if you're just interested and you don't want to go those routes, secondhand equipment is available nowadays with, you know, the online social, social networking sites. Facebook has a disability trading zone. I've seen there's a variety of other sites out there, do a little search for used equipment and I'm sure you can come up with some used equipment that's reasonably priced. That'll help you get going in whatever activity you're looking for.

Jeanne Langan  09:49

Are there fundraisers around the area that we should be aware of?

Adam Page  09:53

I know for like some of our programs we do like fundraisers specifically for the teams. Me and my dad, like run ourselves, we try to do fundraisers to maybe get four or five extra chairs for next season or, you know, depending on how many people that we have, or if there's, if we know that there's more interest, and we're going to need five or six more like, we'll try to do fundraisers. And then also, you know, just kind of offset the cost of even some of the travel that goes on with the sports teams as well. We do fundraising for both.

Jeanne Langan  10:32

That's a really good point you brought up there. Tell me about travel to and from some of these events. How do you arrange that? Is it all your family or is there help with that?

Steve Spitz  10:46

Team managers, generally. You know, there's a lot of cases, there's someone who runs the team, someone who, you know, is helping with equipment. There's a variety, some of the team members themselves do some of their own organizing. I know, in my years, I was a team manager for the basketball team and I would get directions, reserve hotel rooms, reserve gyms. In a lot of cases families help out.

Emily Keicher  11:11

Yeah, we usually get family connections or like, friends to help. You know, we usually don't do travel for my Buffalo wheelchair basketball team. We usually don't do travel. We're still working on practicing and practicing in the Depew Boys and Girls Club. And we haven't decided yet if we are going to travel, but our closest or most closest is Rochester. So, we're trying to see if we can get like games with them.

Jeanne Langan  11:46

And another thing that just came up there, the hotels when you're doing some of your tournaments, how does that work with accessible rooms?

Steve Spitz  11:56

It can be a challenge.

Emily Keicher  11:58

Yeah, a big challenge. Some of them, like they don't have enough rooms, or they don't have any elevators. It's just sometimes it's a hassle trying to find, and also the prices for every room. It just doesn't work out.

Kate Hahn  12:16

It can be tricky, too because a lot of times everybody's accessible is different. Like what might be beneficial and helpful for me to stay somewhere, wouldn't be maybe, you know, what Emily needed. So that can be tricky to navigate. I've learned to never book, you know anything online, always just call and get a person. And triple check that they really mean roll in shower, and they're roll in shower doesn't happen to have a bathtub that somehow is classified as a roll in shower. So, it's always I've learned that lesson the hard way a lot of times, but it's just, you know, asking a lot of questions. Then you just gotta go from there and do the best you can, because some of it might, you're always going to run into stuff. It's not worth not taking those opportunities to go just because of what might happen because even able bodied people are going to run into that stuff. So, it's, I've kind of just learned that it's asking as many questions as you can, and trying to, you know, do the best you can on narrowing down what you know what you're going to be walking into, or rolling into, to make sure that it can somewhat suit you.

Steve Spitz  13:21

I was just thinking in some ways, that's almost the essence of adapting. When you're out traveling, you have to find ways to, you know, to deal with the accommodations. It's bad enough just traveling individually to find the right accommodations. Then, you know, amplify that with 10 or 15 people on a team going into a particular, a single hotel, and trying to find, you know.  When the football team went to Kansas City earlier this year, and the rooms were kind of tight, and I ended up taking the door off my bathroom. Pretty dangerous. Just so we could have access. You find ways to make it work.

Jeanne Langan  14:06

Well, it sounds like the travel has a lot of camaraderie building in it. Tell me a little bit more about your favorite piece of adaptive equipment.

Adam Page  14:18

I have to say, now, it's probably the, the wheelchairs that we use for football and lacrosse. Just because, you know, I grew up in playing sled hockey for 12 years straight and not really had the opportunity to play any wheelchair sports and there really wasn't anything available here besides like the basketball team that really wasn't around, you know, when I was kind of looking for other opportunities. And, you know, now we're lucky enough to have a youth program available here and so it's cool to try something different and be, you know, in a wheelchair and playing sports, and usually, you know, I get around with crutches most of the time, so I'm not in a wheelchair, you know, 100% of the time. So, it's cool to have a different perspective playing a sport in a wheelchair rather than a sled or anything else.

Jeanne Langan  15:19

Give us a little bit of an example of what makes the court chairs different than the chair you may use during your regular day.

Emily Keicher  15:29

Well, yeah, some for the most part it's like the wheels. So, wheels, in your regular wheelchair, the wheels are straight, but they're for the wheelchair basketball ones, they're tilted. So, it gives you like, a bit more strength you would say? Yeah.

Steve Spitz  15:46

It gives you more stability because they’re wider, because of that angle, which she is referring to.  It also helps you turn quicker. The chairs are generally lightweight, easy to push and very high-pressure tires.

Emily Keicher  16:00

Yeah. Very high-pressure tires.

Steve Spitz  16:02

Kinda like everything else these days, you can customize it to fit you as best you can. 

Emily Keicher  16:09

There are different sizes. Yeah, we have like a smaller one for like a four- or five-year-old. That's how small we get our wheelchairs.

Jeanne Langan  16:19

That’s great they get started that young. 

Steve Spitz  16:22

In addition to that, you think about some of the strategies they use these days. Basically, you're a part of the chair, because you usually have at least two if not three straps. You strap your hips, your thighs, your feet and you kind of become one with the chair so that you're moving translates down to the chair.

Emily Keicher  16:39

Yeah, but sometimes we usually don't use the feet ones, we usually just use the other two. Yeah, like just the legs and the other strap. Yeah, we usually don't use feet ones. But if we need to, we ask people just to put the feet ones on just to be safe, but sometimes they don't.

Steve Spitz  16:59

Each person's functional ability varies a lot. So, the way they use the equipment is going to vary quite a bit. So, to continue with the original question, I have to say, one of my favorite pieces of equipment is my handcycle. Kate spent the greater part of a day in one of the Rec Expos.

Kate Hahn  17:24

I didn't move for a week after, but it was totally worth it.

Emily Keicher  17:27

Yeah, better than my pushrim.

Jeanne Langan  17:31

So now I want to know more about this hand cycle.

Introduction  17:36

It just gives you the ability. It's a hand cycle that you transfer onto, you know, there are high and low sitting versions, recumbent style, they call it with your legs out. And others that you sit at a right angle, you're sitting upright. The lower versions are a little sportier, a little faster, tend to have more gears and you just can get out on the open road and go. You're out of your chair. You know, you're pedaling with your hands, low to the ground, you start hitting 20 - 30 miles an hour and you feel like you're going 100. You know, it's just a great feeling.

Jeanne Langan  18:15

No wonder she loved it.

Kate Hahn  18:20

One thing I love too, is the way that people find ways to make it work for everybody. Like last year when I was skiing, snow skiing, they had outriggers that you use with their hands, and I went down one hill with them and it was very clear that it was not it wasn't smart for me because I didn't have the arm strength to pull them in. And they, you know, very kindly said you're going to break both your arms if you keep that up. But this year, so I did it without the outriggers for after that. But this year I went in, and you know, I explained because there was different people that I couldn't use the outriggers. They're like, oh no, we have new ones this year. And I just was so grateful and fascinated by the fact that they made outriggers that had balls on the bottom of them, so I was able to ski this year in a totally different way, because of the balls. I was, I didn't need as much upper body strength to be able to control the outriggers because they kind of went with the snow, but they didn’t even have them last year. And it was just, they brainstormed, and I guess that was a thing, but they didn't have that. So, someone went out and got these and they have an older fella there that is willing to you know, he's just kind of MacGyver with adaptive sports equipment. And so, they ended up with these different outriggers that changed my skiing, and I'm just one person but I love how they like looked into it. And suddenly, I mean I would still love skiing, even if I wasn't using outriggers, but this, the ability, I mean, it just gave me the ability to be doing so much more of it and having more control and being able to participate so much more by controlling the ski because I had outriggers that worked for very little upper body strength. I probably will talk about those balls for hours for the next five years. And no one will know what I'm talking about. But they were amazing. And I just think it's awesome that they really looked into it and pursued it and it's something that they, you know, kind of tried to find a way to make it work for everybody. And I just think that that's just awesome.

Steve Spitz  20:21

Yeah, that's perfect, another epitome of you know, adapting to make it more enjoyable for her, for more functional, you know, the whole thing, it's a, it's a great, great to see.

Kate Hahn  20:31

And you could go faster.

Jeanne Langan  20:35

So, I love that you found somebody who was already within the organization to help adapt. Have you found anything online, that may be a good resource for people, as far as adaptability goes?

Steve Spitz  20:54

I think there's, I mean, you know, in thinking about it, I was just going to revert back to the early days of waterskiing. There was a website, a couple of websites, that would give you a, an outline as to how to start your, your clinics. And by now, as I think about it, I mean, YouTube, you know, you can find almost anything on YouTube that will show you how to, you know, how to participate, what to do, or, you know, how to make modifications or adapt something. There's, yeah, the resources are out there, I, you know, again, maybe go back to Move United.

Adam Page  21:35 

I was just gonna say, like, Move United, you know, they have tons of programs that, you know, they've started and, you know, I know, that's kind of what we went through, when we started our wheelchair lacrosse program. The two guys that started the sport in the country, they went through, Move United and, and kind of formed their own governing body, which was Wheelchair Lacrosse USA. And they actually, we got a hold of them, and they were able to come and do clinics. So, it's kind of maybe going through something like Move United, and then say, you know, this is what I'm looking for. And then Move United will, you know, get you in touch with whatever program you're looking to start or whatever sport you're getting, or wanting to start. Then you can kind of set up a clinic, you know, for whatever sport it is.

Jeanne Langan  22:33

Any piece of equipment that you are thinking somebody needs to create this.

Adam Page  22:38

For me, there's not any, like, specific equipment that I would say that, you know, that needs to be done. But you know, what would be amazing would be at some point where you wouldn't have to, you know, schedule a time to go in, and ski or go in and do the water skiing or, or just really any of the adaptive sports. Not to have like a lesson or set up a time where there was enough equipment that that program had that you could just go out and you could go with your family at any point, anytime, and go out and ski or do whatever adaptive sport it was.

Kate Hahn  23:24

I think, for me, when I went horseback riding, I had this dream of it being something like a special saddle that could hold you in an up opposition, because if I, like if I would have had lateral supports, I could have done so much more. I actually had to bow out of the lessons before they were completed, because it just was too much for them to have like three people holding me up. But I had this picture of like, when we were kids, and you went on an elephant at the zoo, you were in like a little basket. And I know that sounds silly, but I kind of pictured it, where it would hold you in an upright position. And I would, I truly would be able to do a tremendous amount more if I had something holding me up. And I looked into it a little bit. They do exist. Like, I don't know if there's some old man out there stitching leather, but like, they were super expensive. And it just didn't seem like a very, it wasn't like an organized thing. For me, when I know that when I was horseback riding, I would have loved to pursue it, but there was no realistic way to pursue it without having a lot of core strength. So that would be something that I would dream about. Well, maybe that's a little bit exaggerated. I would love to see that there was an adapted horse saddle that could just give someone the ability to sit upright if they didn't have the strength to sit upright.

Emily Keicher  24:40

Yeah, I actually agree with both of you guys. I think those are really big things that you can actually dream about and think about but if you guys had the time, maybe you guys could just like create it or like when you guys have any time or anything you can just start dreaming or start creating it. If you guys, if you guys can't wait too long, you can just start creating it. And if you guys, and to all you guys out there if there isn't anything or if there's not any equipment or anything, you guys can dream it and build it or design it. You guys can change the way people like see people with disabilities and people and people who see people with disabilities in sport.

Steve Spitz  25:29

It's a way to look at, it's not being done, find a way to do it. 

Jeanne Langan  25:33

Yeah, and find a way to improve because we're very happy that Adam moved away from the ply board with the skate attached to it to something that's used at the Olympic level.

Kate Hahn  25:44

Although MacGyver would have appreciated it.

Jeanne Langan  25:50

One more area. So, for padding, and making sure that your skincare needs are met, how do you adjust that in your sports?

Steve Spitz  26:00

It's kind of an extension of the you know, if someone needs a mobility device, you know, in the community, that kind of comes back around to the equipment that they're using for their adaptive sports. And then it's taken to a whole other level. I mean, with these model skis for snow skiing these days, they do custom molded seating, you know. For a lot of my gosh, you know, the wheelchair, the court chairs, all have cushions, it varies because with the court chairs, you don't spend as much time in them as you would in your everyday chair. If you're using that you have to find ways to there are you know, I lined my mono ski with something that kind of, it's called stimulite, you know, but something that stems from the aerospace industry, and it's just a, you know, it's a urethane liner, it's about an inch, little over an inch thick, and it just protects your skin from the abrasion and friction, you know, or the activity of the sport. It's kind of an extension of your everyday equipment. 

Jeanne Langan  27:07

And did you learn what you needed it for skincare from anything in particular or just experience?

Steve Spitz  27:14

It kind of tends to be case by case basis, I think. You kind of adapt each piece of equipment for what you need, for your positioning and for your skin safety, you know, for your skin protection, so to speak.

Kate Hahn  27:28

Some of its what you've learned just over the years, that when it's not involved with sports that you just figure out in your own chair on your own, and then you just transfer it over to the sport because you…

Steve Spitz  27:38

Kind of forgetting a little bit about our kayaking. I mean, that's one of the biggest …

Kate Hahn  27:43

With the cushions and stuffing foam pieces in it and then duct taping them to you.

Steve Spitz  27:50

That is the epitome of you know, trying to fit or position someone in the kayak because it's …

Kate Hahn  27:57

Just making sure there's that’s rubbing against the hard plastic and …

Introduction  28:00

Definitely, definite case by case basis.

Jeanne Langan  28:03

And a lot of duct tape. We're just learning that Steve has a lot of skills with …

Kate Hahn  28:09

You know it's not a really exciting day until someone pulls out a roll of duct tape.

Jeanne Langan  28:14

Anything else that people should know about adaptive equipment out there?

Steve Spitz  28:20

You know, keep searching. Because it's out there, you know, someone's adapting. If it's not out there, as a, you know, I don't want to say mass produced because none of this stuff is really mass produced. If it's not being manufactured by a major manufacturer, someone's out there modifying pieces of equipment so that they can accomplish the same thing and get involved.

Jeanne Langan  28:45

All right, on that we will end Episode Two. Thank you again for joining us.

Steve Spitz  28:51

Thank you.

Jeanne Langan  28:52

If there are suggestions for podcast topics or questions for the athletes, please contact us through Greater Buffalo Adaptive Sports. You can reach them through their web page or find them on Facebook. Or you can also reach us through the Rehabilitation Science Department at the University at Buffalo. I'm faculty there and my email is jlangan@buffalo.edu. Thank you to everyone at the UB libraries for helping to produce this podcast. Thanks for listening to the adaptive sports and recreation Western New York podcast.  Have a great day.