Active Summer Fun: 'I get such happiness from playing sport'
A new participation campaign created by the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) and National Disability Sport Organisations (NDSOs) is encouraging more disabled people to find out and play out over summer. Active Summer Fun -#ActiveSummerFun on social media - is an exciting new campaign that aims to support more disabled people to find ways to be active during the warmer months.
This summer we will be hearing from various disabled people or those who deliver activities that include disabled people. We hear how they are expecting the next few months to be very busy!
Today, Rachel Choong, who is from Liverpool, talks to us. She plays elite para-badminton, and discusses preparing for the BWF World Championships at Stoke Mandeville, while ensuring she has fun into the bargain.
Rachel’s Active Summer Fun:
The Para-Badminton World Championships are just round the corner, so at the moment my sport and fitness consists of a lot of badminton training, which is two or three times a week. I’m also going to the gym once a week, just to make sure I am at peak fitness.
I’m 21 years old now, and have been playing badminton since I was six – that’s 15 years. My sister had just joined the local club and my Dad also played, so I had a lot of encouragement to go along with my sister. It just took off from there, really!
When I started I never really thought I was as good as others did. With me being of short stature, everyone else was so much taller than me. I kind of felt I was being left behind, which was pretty tough.
I still tried to keep up with the others and continued to play competitively – as a junior, between the ages of 13 and 15, I still managed to become part of my county team.
But then one county coach, whose daughter has learning disabilities, suggested I go along to a Four Nations disability badminton tournament. So that’s how I was introduced to the elite level, in the SS6 (Short Stature/dwarf condition) class.
At SS6 level, the core of badminton is identical to non-disabled people's badminton. There are no adaptations at all, but the difference is we have to work much harder to get from A to B.
I have been talking to my chiropractor and she’s very impressed – she says when she watches SS6 badminton we are able to contort our bodies and stretch our backs to the limit, just so we can propel the shuttle from the back of our side of the court to the opposite end.
Some SS6 players may find it difficult to play a smash shot, but there’s always a way of adapting. Jumping can help give extra height so smashing is possible. But a favourite shot in SS6 is a cross-court shot, where the shuttle travels in a diagonal direction, which then gives the player more time to get back into a comfortable position in the middle of the court, ready for the next shot.
I do have to have excellent fitness levels and stamina, because I take many more steps as someone with shorter legs than someone with regular legs, possibly as much as twice as many.
But then I’m energetic anyway, a bubbly person. Many disabled people have big personalities and massive characters means it’s great when you go away for tournaments – it’s always a big laugh and really enjoyable.
I really enjoy badminton, because I feel it works so many of my muscles. Other sports only work a few, but this works everything and I feel so good after I play because of that.
After a game I feel pride at having competed, plus the after-effects of the endorphin. And I love to win, I play to win, and I get a lot of enjoyment from that.
I recommend playing sport. I get such happiness from it and because of the social element I never feel alone. I always have someone there, and that I’m sure is the same with all sports.
Investigate local opportunities, because the number of people participating in disability sport has definitely increased. It won't be too hard anymore to find somewhere right for you.
The BWF Para-Badminton World Championships begins on 10 September at Stoke Mandeville Stadium. Find out more about Active Summer Fun. Find out and play out this summer. Dwarf Sports Association UK aims to make regular sporting opportunities accessible and enjoyable to anyone with restricted growth.
