Preparing for an Adaptive "taster" session

[Henry Law]

As part of a wider "come and try it" drive we've acquired a number of
people who are keen to try adaptive rowing. I don't know the nature of
their incapacities but they do include at least one who could have
trouble getting up the steps to the canalside, but also one who is
pretty mobile on a prosthetic foot.

We're completely at sea as regards planning for this. Normally in a
taster session we allocate one club member per rower, get them into the
playboat (with stabilising floats) and just get them going. Will that
do for adaptive rowing too? I'm conscious that we need to think through
more carefully even than usual what we do if someone goes in (unlikely
though that should be, with floats).

It's also clear that there are some classes of incapacity that we simply
can't deal with: we don't have any "adapted" boats, actually, so anyone
who can't cope with what we do have, once in at least, is beyond our
abilities right now.

Has anyone got any experience that we could draw on? Post here for
preference (I assume this is a topic of interest) or mail me direct if
you prefer (address is valid).

--

Henry Law Manchester, England

[sully]

I have a charge two days a week right now that was a former Div I NCAA
recruit for water polo. She was brain damaged in a car accident. The
neighboring junior coach beeped me because she didn't have time to
deal with her disability, she said she couldn't row in team boats,
couldn't feather a blade.

I can't imagine there is a single program or even 2 or 3 that can
accomodate all the varieties of disabilities there are. My approach
is simply to give time and attack it with the same discipline and
attention I would an elite athlete, though this is how I approach all
beginners.

Caroline has full mental capacity, but painfully slow reactions which
affects her balance, and reaction to mistakes. She walks very
slowly, stiff legged, and reacts to conversation with a noticeable
lag, and talks very deliberately.

We row twice a week for now, I have her in an Aero. She has some
vision problems. I can't think of any thing that I can say that I
can inform a program except that she has more than usual limitations
on multiple inputs. This suits my style since I see teaching rowing
as a pyramid rather than a whole, it's just that things take a lot
longer and I take things one at a time. She has problems getting her
hands right on the sculls, but I can see that she's simply working on
keeping the boat on the correct side of the course since her starboard
side is dramatically more effective than her port.

So if I offer anything, make sure you have enough time. If you
don't, extend the lessons longer. I have her come to my regular
beginner lesson where I have her work on her own in the cove on one
thing while I keep an eye out and teach others. On fridays, I push
her to row out as far as we can get.

As soon as I learned that she could still swim to save herself, I was
eager to have her work her problems out in an Aero, my sense was that
she could truly go at her own pace. At one point last week we rowed
past Stanford's boathouse and she stopped rowing. I was about to
chide her to keep moving but I saw that she was stopped and watching
Stanford Women's crew launch and row away and was taking in the
scene.

Her first day, she crabbed very slowly and fell out. It was
interesting to watch. But she was comfy in the water and I was able
to talk her back into her shell. Whew! Now I know I don't have to
lifejacket her or watch her every second.

She would benefit from a more stable shell, I think, something with
pontoons perhaps, but she is moving the Aero around.

I stayed in character and told her she needed to concentrate on her
own rowing, don't get distracted by her competitors. I almost cried
though.


An Aero or wherry is stable enough that it should be a first choice to
try. Better to row around a lot and bump into things that doesn't
hurt anything, row at flat slide, etc, in a very forgiving boat.
competent blade work is what establishes balance, and if you are
artificially stablilizing the boat, you can re-inforce incompetent
blade work. I am a huge advocate of "tank work" but only after the
basics are accomplished.

Invest the time, enjoy the experience, it's rewarding.

My crazy lady has disappeared, btw. That was not rewarding, but
educational in a life kind of way, and I don't have an answer for
that.

[James HS]

Henry,

No direct experience or rowing - but a professional lifetime of working with disabled people in unusual circumstances.

Apart from the sometimes obvious, the most important thing is to talk to the potential recruit and get them in charge of assessing their needs.

I would think that it is sensible for you to provide a buoyancy aid in the first instance.

I think it would also be sensible to have a largeish number of available hands for getting in the boat, which may move to be more problematic because of leg strength, and therefore may involve bum jumping.

When I manhandle disabled friends (you would be amazed how many of my friends used to live in top floor flats, and getting my wheelchair user friends into those flats always involved much hilarity .... but we were never defeated!) I am clear with then in the first instance that it will involve a fair bit of fumbling, and thay they are ALWAYS to say to me the minute they they are uncomfortable with what we are doing, and then I always say exactly what I am about to do

So I will say ...... I am going to lift your legs into the boat - OK - I am going to put my arms through your armpits and lift you over - ok

It is this honest interaction that allows us to perform what would otherwise be quite intimate physical contact under the control of the other person.

If you feel that this is too much for YOU to accommodate then it is also important to identify this.

From your end you will need to know what to do for a potential dunking (and in this case an automatic PFD might be more appropriate) but also to be aware of the issue of cold on non-moving limbs, so keep the session short(ish)

However, the reward for your club, and the potential user will be well worth it!

I recently used a raptor for the first time a month ago and having been initially sceptical, I now think they may have a use.

James

[davie...@gmail.com]

What a fantastically helpful post! ... and not just for rowing but for any physical interaction with disabled people.

Kit