[Nyabs] Fwd: Israel’s blind bowler

Sun Oct 21 13:40:22 UTC 2012

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Avi Golden <agolden at pobox.com>
Date: Sun, Oct 21, 2012 at 8:03 AM
Subject: Israel’s blind bowler
To: Avi Golden <agolden at pobox.com>

http://israel21c.org/people/israels-blind-bowler?utm_source=Newsletter+3%2F21%2F2012&utm_campaign=March+21+2012+&utm_medium=email

Israel’s blind bowler <http://israel21c.org/people/israels-blind-bowler>
By Abigail Klein Leichman
March 20, 2012

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*With the aid of a homemade guide rail, Shlomi Lazmy regularly knocks down
pins at a Holon bowling alley even though he can't see them.*
 *Photo by Leon Medalia*
*Shlomi Lazmy sends a ball down the lane.*

The sound of pins falling brings a smile to Shlomi Lazmy's face. But he can
only estimate how many he's knocked down with his bowling ball, because
Lazmy cannot see.

Until the explosion that blinded him during army reserve duty when he was a
28-year-old newlywed, Lazmy wasn't much of a bowler. Now 55, he has long
since adapted his love of sports to his lack of sight.

In 1992, he represented Israel at the Paralympics in goalball, a
soccer-like sport for the blind where goalies and players are guided by the
jingling of bells inside the ball.

At the urging of his 17-year-old son, about two years ago he began
investigating bowling leagues for the blind via his text-to-voice computer.
Though Israel has a lawn-bowling league for people with visual impairments,
it doesn't have one for 10-pin bowlers. Lazmy tried it anyway.

"I don't have so many opportunities for sport, and this is very enjoyable,"
Lazmy tells ISRAEL21c.

Today he plays every Monday and Wednesday at a nearby bowling alley in
Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv.

"At the beginning, he tried many things to help him bowl. Then he read
about blind bowlers abroad using a special guide rail, and his brother made
one for him," says Lazmy's wife, Idit. "It's not very convenient to bring,
because it's heavy, but it's built on wheels."
 *Photo by Leon Medalia*
*Setting up the next shot in his mind.*

The rail allows Lazmy to position himself correctly before sending the ball
rolling. Obviously it does the trick: His average score per game is a very
respectable 120 to 130.

"Idit used to bowl with me," he says, "but now a friend picks me up and
comes along. I can tell pretty well from the sound how many pins fall, but
someone must watch and tell me what remains."

After the first ball of every frame, his companion uses a code they devised
to describe where to aim for the spare. If he says, for example, "Minus-1
Brooklyn" or "Minus-2 Hollywood," Lazmy can visualize the position of the
pins still standing. As he releases the ball, he can sense immediately if
it's heading in the right direction.

"It's really amazing," says Idit. "People watch him, and they can't believe
he can't see."

*‘He can do everything'*

Lazmy is the oldest member of Mishkan HaYazamut, which employs about 40
people with various disabilities to interact with Israeli fourth- to
12th-graders. Director Kfir Naimark says that after engaging the kids in
games of goalball or wheelchair basketball, for example, the members share
their personal stories and dreams.

"Shlomi is so important to our organization," says Naimark. "With great
love and wisdom, he helps you understand the world of the blind. It is not
an easy world."

Israel has several sports facilities for the disabled. Lazmy trained in
goalball at *Beit Halochem in Tel Aviv<http://www.beithalochem.ca/cntr-ta.html>
*, one of six such centers for wounded military veterans.
 *Photo by Leon Medalia*
*He cannot see a strike, but he can hear it.*

He sustained severe injuries to his eyes on June 1, 1986, while on reserve
duty in the Golan Heights with the combat engineering corps. He and Idit
had been married less than a year, and she was pregnant with the first of
their three children.

"After that, I studied mathematics at Tel Aviv University," says Lazmy, who
decided from the start that he would not let his disability get in the way
of learning and doing.

"He can do everything," says Idit. "He has a high IQ, he is very talented
and he's good with his hands. He fixes electricity at home, he builds
cupboards, he cooks. He's also very good with the computer. He has a lot of
patience. Whenever he gets a new device he sits with it all day to figure
out how to use it, and then other blind people call him for support."

"I have programs that render the Internet sites in sound," Lazmy explains.
He emails in Hebrew and English, though he is more comfortable speaking in
Hebrew.

Bowling appealed to him, he says, because "this sport can be played just as
sighted people play it, with the same ball and the same lane. I do other
sports for the blind, but this needs the least adaptation. I need just the
guide rail."

He hopes to start a 10-pin bowling league for the blind.

"Although he plays goalball and even went to the Olympics, bowling is
different because it's his, and he's really good at it," says his wife.

------------------------------------------------
agolden at pobox.com

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Avi Golden

137-29 70th Road
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-- 
Kathryn Carroll
J.D. Candidate
St. John's University School of Law Class of 2013
kathryn.carroll10 at stjohns.edu
(Ph.) 347-455-1521
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