Portugal
INCLUSIVE SPORTS IN PAREDES
Portugal is participating
in the Youth Exchange, "Sport and Mental Health: Don't Bury Your Emotions,
Let It Flow" – SPORTY MENTAL. As part of the preparation activities, we
had to research about inclusive sports in the area of the school. We also had to visit some sports clubs in
order to get to know how this type of activity could foster students' physical
skills while they recognize the importance of sports for their mental health.
However, when this task was distributed, the local clubs were in holidays and the students who practiced these sports were at home.
So, we invited the sports monitor from the city hall of Paredes, who came to our school and explained everything about the different inclusive sports that can be practiced in our region:
Golf
- Golf is played by 14 students twice a month and, once a week by 18 participants; adapted golf is played with or without special wheelchairs, adapted prosthetics and specialized coaches. Furthermore, adaptive golf facilitates rehabilitation, encourages social interaction and most important, it allows the players to enjoy the sport at their own pace and ability.
Boccia
- Boccia itself is a sport for people with disabilities, who exercise themselves and work on their social capacities. Everyone in Paredes does boccia once a week. Boccia can be played in teams or individually, it consists on launching colored balls towards a white ball called a "jack". The goal is to position the balls as close as possible to the jack. The sport is practiced in an indoor space and allows the use of hands, feet or instruments for athletes with great motor impairment.
Swimming
- In swimming people with disabilities are introduced to the water and to the act of swimming. People who practice swimming also work on teambuilding, that is the development of relationships between coaches and other athletes. Swimming classes can be taken twice a month or once a week. In this activity there are 40 participants, of which 14 are students, 18 are institutions and 8 are part of an adapted swimming team.
ANDDI Games
- The activities of this event cover different sports, such as horse riding, water activities, Boccia, golf, handball, cycling, futsal, orienteering, hockey, indoor rowing, basketball, table tennis, football 7, judo and athletics. ANDDI games are similar to Paralympics but they take place in Portugal; ANDDI (National Association of Sports for Intellectual Development) organises the ANDDI games that is the biggest inclusive sports event in Portugal.
After this meeting we organised ourselves into two groups and each group was responsible for the posters of two inclusive sports. One group designed a poster about the programs associated with Boccia and Swimming, "Let's go to boccia" and "Let's go to the water" and the other group about the program involving golf, "Let's go to the golf", and the inclusive sports in our region.
The next step we took was getting the poster ready and when we got them ready, we met to practise our posters' presentation.
Finally, we sent our posters to our team leaders who posted them in the shared folder of the website of the project.
Nevertheless, we still felt that we had to have the opinion of a student and a teacher, so we interviewed a student from our school about his participation in boccia and golf lessons and we tried to interview the teacher responsible for the inclusive sports in our school; the teacher couldn't do the interview due to an unscheduled problem. As we had a deadline to fulfil, we only made the interview to a student about his experience practising golf:
INTERVIEW
Carlos: Do you like Golf?
Zé: Yes.
Carlos: Why?
Zé: Because it's a good sport, it's a sport that makes me happy and because there're golf carts too.
Carlos: Have you made any friends there?
Zé: Yes.
Carlos: And where do you play Golf?
Zé: In Vila Cova de Carros and I also played in Jamor.
Carlos: And when did you start?
Zé: I have played Golf since I was in the 5th grade.
Carlos: Who taught you how to play?
Zé: The teachers there.
Carlos: What have you learned so far?
Zé: I've learned to hit the ball and put them in small goals.
Carlos: So, you don't put the ball in a small hole in the ground but in a goal?
Zé: Yes.
Carlos: Besides that, what else have you learned?
Zé: I've learned to win and to lose.
Carlos: What other sports do you play?
Zé: Other than Golf, I also do Swimming, play Boccia and I've already played Chess.
Carlos: Did you give up on chess?
Zé: No, I stopped playing because the Chess teacher is no longer at our school.
Carlos: Out of all the sports you've played, which one do you like the most?
Zé: All of them.
Carlos: If you could invite someone to play with you, who would you bring?
Zé: It depends, I wanted to bring someone who doesn't know how to play so I could teach them.
It is very important to keep in mind that José Fernando, mostly known by Zé Nando, is a student with disabilities, who is given a chance to play multiple sports by the school and Paredes' city hall. Due to the practice of these sports, Zé learns to deal with feelings such as frustration and joy, learns new skills and how to share them with others.