[Sportsandrec] Students at the NFB Youth Slam Recount TheirSportsExperiences!

[Christella Garcia]

Hey Joe, I am glad you had a slamming time at the youth slam.  Do you think 
you could write down a few of your experiences in an article for the 
competition corner?  It would be awesome and I think your energetic 
prospective would make for a terrific story.  Let me know your thoughts.
Chris
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe Shaw" <jrs3147 at comcast.net>
To: "Sports and Recreation for the Blind Discussion List" 
<sportsandrec at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 7:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Sportsandrec] Students at the NFB Youth Slam Recount 
TheirSportsExperiences!


> Yo, yo, yo, let me speak on this!
> I had a Slammin time with the Youth in College Park!
> I had three great mentees in Jason Capodi from New Jersey, Jose Zamora 
> from Washington, and Daniel Collins from Georgia. They were really neat 
> guys with whom I shall stay in touch.
> We did get our sport on. Natalie Sha Heeeeeeeen and I led goalball which 
> was very fun. Greg and LM knocked out judo. There was basketball, a star 
> watch, board games, and frisby on "sports night" It was a blast.
> Rec X brought the before mentioned activities. I love the moon bounce 
> which I do here in Nashville with my daughter all the time and yeppers, I 
> rode the mechanical bull. Seven seconds baby! I could have lasted much 
> longer the second time.  I was in a hurry trying to make sure I made all 
> the events.
> Yes sports and recreation is being made a true part of the Federation and 
> it is largely because of the planning of people in this division. I know 
> people who plan this event are on this list. Several of us are friends 
> with the planners and worked ideas into the mind-frame as well as the 
> education team has athletic members. I know Karen is an athlete. Jesse 
> Hartle is an athlete. Natalie is a beast who I am a little afraid of.
> My favorite thing personally is I made a couple friends I will take with 
> me for a long time. LisaMaria and I became better friends. She is a good 
> person who is easy to be around and Greg Dewall is one of the highest 
> quality human beings I have met in a long time. Our senses of humor mesh 
> well together. He is really funny, has a lot to offer in the way of advice 
> and conversation, and he's just a really nice guy.
> It was a great program overall which was well put together by the staff. I 
> am proud to call myself part of the organization. I learned a lot and had 
> a ton of fun. Alrite kids, the rest ya had to be there.
> "Slam, da, du, da" "Let the boys be boys!" Slam Onyx
> JSNM
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Cervenka, Stacy (Brownback)" <Stacy_Cervenka at brownback.senate.gov>
> To: "'Sports and Recreation for the Blind Discussion List'" 
> <sportsandrec at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 11:01 AM
> Subject: [Sportsandrec] Students at the NFB Youth Slam Recount Their 
> SportsExperiences!
>
>
>> Hey, all!
>>    Like many of you, I enjoyed following the experiences of the kids at 
>> the NFB Youth Slam through all the blog posts, podcasts, and videos that 
>> were posted online at www.nfbyouthslam.org<http://www.nfbyouthslam.org>. 
>> There was a kinesiology track this year called Slammin' Sports. Our own 
>> Sports and Rec prez, Lisamaria Martinez, as well as Sports and Rec 
>> Division members, Greg DeWall and Joe Shaw, were all mentors for this 
>> track. There was also a Sports Night for kids in all the different tracks 
>> and a Rec X night with a climbing wall, a Velcro wall, a moon bounce, a 
>> mechanical bull, a dunk tank, a water slide, and so on. So, the concept 
>> that it's important for blind people to be involved and integrated into 
>> sports and recreation is slowly tricking its way into NFB events. I'd 
>> love to hear from LM, Joe, and Greg about some of the experiences you 
>> guys had!!!
>>    Also, if anyone is interested, I typed the word "sports" into the 
>> search field on the Youth Slam page and I got the following six results, 
>> in the chronological order they were posted. (I was disappointed to see 
>> no articles on Rec X night, but maybe I should have typed in a different 
>> search word in order to get them.)
>> 1. Sports Night
>> 2. Greg DeWall's Athletic Life
>> 3. Sports-A-Poppin'
>> 4. Taking A Break With Goalball
>> 5. A Sports Night at the Slam!
>> 6. Exercise and Fun While Learning
>>
>> Here is the text of all six articles. They are all relatively short and 
>> were all written by students in the Slam News track, which was the 
>> journalism track that reported on the events of the Youth Slam all week 
>> and created all the articles, blog posts, podcasts, and videos.
>> Sports Night
>> My sports night went really well. I did judo, and considering that I've 
>> been doing that for maybe a year now, I had a lot of fun and thankfully 
>> didn't have to do the INSANE exercise. I learned a new throw while I was 
>> there and it is easier than osoto. Our sensei was very good and helpful. 
>> I was disappointed when it ended. My partner was Jason; he's pretty good 
>> if he gets into it. He could be a beast if he really tried. Luckily 
>> nobody broke his or her neck or arm or leg, whereas at my practice it's 
>> almost a guarantee you will get hurt. So I had fun and I hope you guys 
>> had fun as well. Later on, fellow slammers.
>> Greg Dwall's Athletic Life
>>
>> This afternoon I had a fascinating interview with Greg Dwall, who was 
>> born February 10, 1979, in Chico, California. Mr. Dwall is an expert in 
>> Judo, but is still learning. He has played in 3 international 
>> competitions such as the World Judo Championships in Brazil and the 2008 
>> Olympics in Asia. During these games, Mr. Dwall became a silver and 
>> bronze metal winner. The most impressive fact that caught my eye was that 
>> Greg plays Judo against sighted opponents. He does this by developing 
>> physical strategies and just plain hard work. I asked Greg what goes 
>> through his mind when playing Judo. "Action," he said, "Just beating my 
>> opponent," he said simply.
>>
>> Greg said that with the coaching he believes that blind athletes can be 
>> great - that's why he wants to continue the legacy of the blind Judo 
>> wrestlers before him.
>>
>> I also had a chance to explore Greg's personal life and learn what makes 
>> a strong judo player and some strong events that helped build this man's 
>> character. He started off by saying he grew up in a stable home, both 
>> parents, one brother and one sister; also throughout his time in school 
>> he was active in football, soccer and wrestling. His hobbies were classic 
>> rural boy ones - hunting and wrestling, a sport in which he won some 
>> awards. Greg confided in me with some irony that in his teenage years he 
>> mostly paid more attention to sports and his girlfriend and he never 
>> worried about his grades. When it was time to figure out what college and 
>> what career he wanted to do, however, he was trap, because his grades 
>> weren't great and his mind wasn't together. So, increasingly, he began to 
>> feel pressured by family and other peers.
>>
>> When I asked him what he did to get through his hard times he said, "I 
>> got up and grab my shotgun and tried to end my life." I was stunned at 
>> Greg's great candor but he was comfortable explaining and I let him 
>> continue.
>>
>> When He awoke a week later Greg discovered that he was missing half of 
>> his face and that he was blind. I ventured to ask what was going through 
>> his mind at that time and He was chillingly honest, "Oh crap, what am I 
>> going to do now!"
>>
>> Even in the midst of his recovery, Greg's humor came through. While he 
>> was in the hospital he made a bet with his brother on who would win - the 
>> Packers or the Patriots. Interestingly, Greg says that he was more 
>> bothered after his accident by his injured face than with his blindness. 
>> Improving his face would require that Greg undergo multiple surgeries to 
>> restore his facial function and gain more comfort. After Greg was 
>> released from the hospital he attended college at California State 
>> University, Chico. Though he resumed his studies, further surgeries 
>> slowed him down. And in between all these demands he enrolled at a 
>> California blindness training center to gain the basics of blind 
>> independence such as Braille and cane travel.
>>
>> Now that Greg Dwall is 30, he is looking toward the future, toward 
>> settling down in a stable community in Maryland, where he can keep 
>> teaching Judo and continue doing recreation jobs. His advice to other 
>> blind students thinking about sports is to "explore freely and make sure 
>> you have support from family or friends and, above all, keep working 
>> hard."
>>
>> Sports-A-Poppin'
>>
>> Tuesday night was Sports Night and the games were flying. There was 
>> plenty going on, from goal ball to basketball, from dance to yoga. There 
>> was a star gazing party where you can see the moon and stars up close 
>> (with a telescope of course). There was even a wheelchair race!
>>
>>
>>
>> It was amazing how all these students were able to find the force of the 
>> ball and sense that it was coming, gaze at the stars, or listen to 
>> directions and allow their bodies to move to the beat. The students were 
>> able to turn a hard task into something easy to do and fun to work with. 
>> They were also able to exercise not only their bodies and minds, but also 
>> their ability to follow along, despite their blindness.
>>
>>
>>
>> At the Star Gazing portion of the evening, blind students were able to 
>> see the magic of the moonlit and starlit sky at night.  For blind people, 
>> seeing the stars is one of those "unachievable" things, but Youth Slam 
>> opened up that world to us.
>>
>>
>>
>> In the ball games, students are able to hear that the ball is coming and 
>> either catch it, hit it, or kick it without getting hit.  And in the 
>> dance and yoga classes, people used their bodies to follow along to the 
>> music and instructions. Overall, it was a very entertaining and relaxing 
>> night for everyone.
>>
>> Taking a Break with Goalball
>>
>> Tuesday night was pronounced Sports Night, a change from our science and 
>> engineering track coverage. Right after dinner, everyone was separated 
>> according to the sport they chose before coming here. I was put into the 
>> Goalball category with most of my Georgia Girls team. Ah, the memories.
>> The walk there was a pretty long one but it was fun. None of us were in 
>> our usual pods or tracks so it gave us all an opportunity to interact 
>> with and meet some of the other 200 students we wouldn't have met 
>> otherwise.
>> When we got there, we were sorted into groups of people that had played 
>> and groups of people who hadn't. There were about ten of us who had 
>> actually played on teams, four of us from the Georgia team. Then, we were 
>> further split into two teams and handed knee pads and eye shades. Most of 
>> the players were girls and we were almost all wearing flip-flops. 
>> Therefore, pretty much all of us played shoeless, a practice that would 
>> result in some embarrassing moments.
>>
>> After we were all outfitted, we needed a scrimmage game starter. I wasn't 
>> a starter, but when I came into the game, our team was losing and they 
>> thought putting me in the center would solve things. Big mistake, guys!!! 
>> I was fine for about the first thirty seconds. Then, it was my turn to 
>> roll the ball. I stood up, backed up to take my roll, and tripped. The 
>> ball rolled smoothly down the court, but sadly, so did my face. No one 
>> laughed, except me, and for that, I was both happy and relieved. I felt 
>> like a fool, but at least I was a fool having fun.
>> Our team still lost, but it was fun nonetheless. At one point, the ball 
>> was passed to me, and in waiting for the game whistle, we got a delayed 
>> game penalty. It was really fun though.
>>
>> I am now a high school graduate so playing Goalball with my team is 
>> virtually impossible, unless I want to do it on the national level. But 
>> for me, Goalball is a hobby and I love it. Being there that night 
>> reminded me of how much I'm going to miss my old high school game.
>>
>> A Sports Night at the Slam!
>>
>> Hello to all readers!
>> Once again, it is Tomi journaling directly from the one and only, 
>> extraordinarily slammy Youth Slam! Well, a lot of people do slam into me 
>> with their trays during meals, but perhaps that's a story for future 
>> article.
>>
>> We had a sports night two days ago, and I thought I'd record my 
>> experience.
>> Each of us was assigned to a sport based on our top five choices, which 
>> we all selected during registration.
>>
>> I was assigned to goalball. As a longtime goalball player, I already knew 
>> how to play this sport.
>> Readers who are not familiar with Goalball can watch several YouTube 
>> videos like the
>> U.S. VS. Japan competition <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MLbC3er2Fc>
>> But I will also explain the sport.
>>
>> We went to the Armory, the loud, echoing building where we had our dance. 
>> The goalball field was set up there. Tactile tape on the floor outlines 
>> the three wings (Left, center, and right) on each side of the court. Each 
>> team consists of three players, so a total of six are required to play.
>> Our group was divided into two subgroups: Those who already knew how to 
>> play goalball and those who didn't. I was part of the players group, so 
>> for us they recapped ball blocking techniques.
>> Goalball is a special sport because you use your body a lot to block the 
>> ball. In addition every player is blindfolded. When you are blocking, you 
>> must carefully observe where the ball is rolling. You throw your body to 
>> either the left or right, depending on where it is coming from. 
>> Protecting vital body parts such as your face is also important, so you 
>> can shield your head with your hands. If you do not block the ball, it 
>> scores a goal by rolling and staying in the field. Sometimes the ball 
>> bounces out of bounds simply by hitting something like your leg, and that 
>> is still considered a block.
>>
>> On the other side of the room those new to the sport learned how to throw 
>> the ball because that task is also quite an experience. A highball is one 
>> that is thrown too high and flies across the court. When throwing, it's 
>> important to face the field and throw as if you were bowling the ball, 
>> sort of rolling and throwing at the same time.
>>
>> Although we had time to play for only half an hour, Goalball gets very 
>> intense, with fast throws and blocks. It's a fun sport, and I encourage 
>> both blind and sighted readers to check it out and play on a team if one 
>> is in your area. One future project I'm considering is setting up more 
>> teams across my city. I believe that both blind and sighted players would 
>> enjoy this sport equally. It's fun and intense!
>>
>> Exercise and Fun While Learning
>>
>> Baltimore, Maryland - During a morning event in the Health and Recreation 
>> center of the University of Maryland college park, blind students 
>> participated in a sports track through which they learned to exercise in 
>> fun and educational ways. The track, which is part of the Youth Slam 
>> organized by the National Federation of the Blind, engaged students in 
>> many fun sports activities on exercise machines. And some of these 
>> machines provided new ways to access sports information nonvisually.
>> For example, each student was given a talking pedometer, which helped 
>> them keep count of how well they are doing. Rachna Kashwani, a mentor at 
>> the event, says that this "helps encourage them to exercise in a more 
>> interactive way.". "it makes them feel curious and more motivated to 
>> exercise. They could keep track of how much work they have done and maybe 
>> store a record of their highest step count."
>> As Corina exercised on the elliptical, she could keep track of how many 
>> steps she has taken by simply pushing a button on the pedometer. "4125 
>> steps", the quiet yet understandable voice of the pedometer stated.
>> "In the end we added all the steps our pod took and then the steps of the 
>> entire class in general", she said, slightly out of breath from the 
>> workout. "it's not a competition at all, it's simply fun to know how much 
>> we all have walked. Although, I am trying to beat Portia - so far she has 
>> walked more than i!"
>> On the opposite side of the room, Ashley is using balls to stretch on. 
>> "it's very fun and relaxing!" She says, laying her back on the ball.
>> There are plenty of machines in this room. From weight machines and 
>> bikes, to arm exercising and muscle building tools, this track truly 
>> concentrates on presenting sports in a fun and interactive way, not 
>> something many blind students get exposed to.
>> Education is also a key in the track. After completing their exercising, 
>> students came to a classroom to talk about their experiences. Instructors 
>> also gave them exercising tips. "after you do your ten minute cardial 
>> workout, it's important to cool down. That will work on your 
>> flexibility."
>> Before leaving the center and heading back to the bus, a student was 
>> heard saying "this is a fun track! I love sports!" excitedly, and we 
>> could tell that he was looking forward to the events which are to come in 
>> the future.
>>
>>
>> Stacy Leigh Cervenka
>> Legislative Assistant
>> Office of Senator Sam Brownback (KS)
>> 303 Hart Senate Office Building
>> Phone: (202) 224-6521
>> Email: 
>> stacy_cervenka at brownback.senate.gov<mailto:stacy_cervenka at brownback.senate.gov>
>>
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