Sliding Beyond Limits | Main Characteristics | More than a Sport

 

---

OUR INTENTION

SLIDING BEYOND LIMITS

The overall objective of W-Slalom is to increase the social inclusion of children with motor disabilities, age 6 to 18, by promoting the wheelchair slalom sport as a way of enhancing their physical abilities and psychological benefits.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:

• To develop a training and awareness raising programme to promote wheelchair slalom among sporting bodies and other relevant stakeholders working with the target group;
• To pilot wheelchair slalom sport in schools and sport organisations in Spain, Austria, Croatia and Portugal.
• To increase the evidence-base on how the practice of wheelchair slalom contributes to social inclusion of children and adolescents with motor disabilities;

 

---

HOW DOES IT WORK?

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS

• Particularly aimed for people with motor disability, users of wheelchairs.
• There are several categories and levels of competition, depending on the level of motor disability of the person(s) participating; hence it’s very inclusive.
• Slalom is designed to create artificial problems: turns, changes of direction, ramps etc., which require speed, coordination and technique to finish the set course as quickly as possible and with as few mistakes as possible.
• The aim is to set challenges, but feasible ones, to avoid frustration among children. These modifications must ensure the learning of the official rules, hence the importance of the configuration of new adapted content based on the original regulation. 
• Project partners (PPs) will also include some modifications to the official rules of this sport to allow a simplification for beginners, setting the basis for its practice and proposing goals which are reachable for early practitioners. ​

 

---

MAIN BENEFITS

MORE THAN A SPORT

• Both users of manual and motor wheelchairs can practice Wheelchair slalom and the reported benefits are numerous, from improvement on their overall physical abilities, mental state and social relations to improvement in moving around and managing their wheelchairs in every-day situations.
• It is widely acknowledged that sport can be a powerful tool for transforming community attitudes and empowering individuals through the acquisition of new physical and social skills, regardless of individuals’ physical or mental state.
• W-Slalom develops physical potential and improves the use of means of transport: the wheelchair.
• It empowers people with motor disabilities that otherwise would not be able to practice other types of sports.