Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #188: Gill1918 Presents Aimee Day & Cindy Hausner "Part 1 Training Wheelchair Athletes"

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#188: Gill1918 Presents Aimee Day & Cindy Hausner "Part 1 Training Wheelchair Athletes" · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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Now let's get into today's topic.
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I'll start as you can see pretty informal here.
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So I'm Cindy Hausner and I'm with Great Lakes Adaptive Sports
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Association and have been involved in Paratrack and field
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forever. In fact, Amy was Amy started
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with us at age 11 and went on to University of Illinois
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Champaign, went to compete at the Paralympics and now she's
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coaching. So we work together as a team,
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but I'll let her talk about her qualifications.
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And Mandy actually is my husband and he is our coach for
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ambulatory athletes who such as CP athletes, athletes of short
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stature, athletes, amputee cerebral palsy.
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So Wisconsin does not have standards for the ambulatory
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athletes who have a physical disability.
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There are many states that do have standards, but we function,
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Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association functions as a club.
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WIAA allows us as coaches to work with the Wisconsin's
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athletes while they are in season, specifically our
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wheelchair athletes, and then case by case are the ambulatory
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athletes who are at the high school, if that kind of makes
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makes sense. So we have athletes at the very
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beginning level, starting with kids, probably 6 is our youngest
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and then all the way college plus.
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And we have had athletes that have gone on to international
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competition, have gone on to the Paralympics.
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So it's really a continuum and we're very fortunate in that who
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we work with. As far as our other coaches, our
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throws coach is out of Waukesha. She was a collegiate athlete.
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We have another coach, Stevens Point.
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So basically it's a team of coaches.
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And then we also work with the Wisconsin, Illinois with coaches
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who have students who are pushing wheelchair tech or, or,
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or actually throwing. So I'll let coach Nicole and
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Brian, you guys want to introduce yourself and.
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So I'm Nicole Williams. I'm the current head coach at
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Marquette University High School.
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Four years ago now, we had a very fast young man roll into
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our halls and inform us that he was coming and he was going to
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be a state champion. And I said, oh, good, I guess I
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get to learn some things now. And so I've spent kind of the
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last four years working with another colleague who loves
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fixing bikes and the physics of the racing to plan training
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plans for Gianni and try to kind of see how far we can push him,
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set his standards and help him meet his goals.
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So I've kind of learned from scratch, and I'm definitely not
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an expert at this point, but I've at least experienced some
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things. Brian wascheck I coached the
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wheelchair events at some pretty East high school and same thing
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just got thrown into the kind of fire and just had to start from
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scratch and try to learn easy on the way.
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So hopefully I have some knowledge to help you out.
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Awesome. And Cindy introduced myself.
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I'm Amy Day. I coach with Great Lakes
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Adaptive Sports Association. I don't like talking about
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myself, but if you want after this I will be happy to tell you
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anything you would like to know about me.
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I have been coaching for 15 years now with wheelchair
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athletes as having experienced it myself, I feel like that adds
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a unique perspective to understanding what the kids are
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going through. Let's go ahead and we'll just
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start this. I do have our info at the end as
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well with cell phone numbers and schools that these coaches are
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currently working for. So we'll put that up at the end.
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Let's see here. And this is just something that
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I'd like to go over with first. You know this is going all the
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way back to 1973 about the Inclusion Act.
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Nothing has really sadly changed since then.
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Same rules apply. And I, I would say that and just
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to kind of add, each state is different in regards to whether
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they have standards or they don't have standards.
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So I know when I started in this like 10,000 years ago, I was
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like, oh, OK, so if one state has it, every state and it
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really differs on the state, high school Athletic
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Association. So for example, just to give you
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a concrete example, if you were a seated field athlete, if you
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compete in Illinois, you get to do the shot put in the discus.
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If you compete in Wisconsin, you only get to do the shot and they
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so the rules really vary by state.
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So I just wanted to. And standards are different at
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each level too. So these, this is taken from a
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pamphlet that Cindy has up here called Best Practices for Track
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and Field Coaches. It is something that's available
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online that Cindy and I helped put together.
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But these are just some of the main things here.
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So transition meetings, right? You see somebody walking around
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in the hallways, maybe pushing in the hallways.
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What's a good way for you to connect with them, get them
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started? So typically these athletes
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hopefully have experienced some kind of wheelchair athletics
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before and maybe are already working with a coach.
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I'd like to think that being in Wisconsin myself, I know, you
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know, just kind of looking around the room, I know Megan, I
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know Gianni, I've worked with both of them.
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Taylor has come down to practices.
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We host practices in Lake Forest on Saturdays from March until
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July and that culminates in a national event that changes
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every year. So if the kids do want to
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continue on, they can. But the main thing I found is
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will the schools be providing equipment, right?
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Where do we get these track chairs?
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Where do we get the field chairs?
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Gloves. These kids need something to
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compete with. While it is OK for them to just
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push in their everyday chair, they're going to be at a
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disadvantage, right? Because this kind of stuff,
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95990, I don't know what the percentage is.
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What would you say of high schools have bought chairs for
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their kids? It really, it really varies.
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Yeah, district and some districts, as you guys know,
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have more money than others. But really if a district does
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the financial means it is advantageous if we can get a
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chair where they're measured because if they're fitting in
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the chair correctly, they're going to go faster than than
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not. So in in those chairs, a basic
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chair starts at 6000 and then goes up toward that so.
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And I have done that where I'll come out and help measure the
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chairs. There's also a different slide
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that we're going to talk about that there's other resources in
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the state that of what we can do for that.
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I really highly recommend contacting somebody who's been
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through it so I can give you advice on where to go, who to
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talk to to in order to obtain the equipment.
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And these are a few of them right here.
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CALF is just challenged Athletes Foundation.
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They do grants for chairs. And they also do for travel.
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So you can use that, you know, if they're, if the kids are
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going to compete outside the high school, you can hotel
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travel. So there's both.
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They can use that money. For Paul's party is great.
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They're in Wisconsin. I'm not sure how that works, but
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I'm contacting them. They've given out a lot of
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equipment to Wisconsin athletes. All our equipment has come from
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Paul's. Party phone chairs, racing
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chairs, everything that's amazing.
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Parents and athletes should be advocating for themselves.
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And I think we skipped Amy too. If I don't know where you, I
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know where some of you guys are from.
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But if at all possible, we tried to get out to at least one high
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school practice just to kind of work with the track coach.
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So we'll the if you're way up on top, and maybe not Steve's and
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Steven's point, but yeah, we try to get to the high schools if at
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all possible. So just community partners,
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these are just interesting links that I thought might be able to
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help you kind of see where your athletes at.
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Are you pushing them to national standards of other kids that are
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around their same age? If you go to adaptive sports
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track and field or no, what is it now?
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Adaptive track and field usa.org You can see what standards are
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for adults and what other. Age group.
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Age groups are working at which I think is so important because
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we'll get to that later. Actually, this is just the
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updated list of. You can find the forms on Wias
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for the track and field guidelines for wheelchair
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athletes. If you want, I can go through
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all this. I'm pretty sure you guys have
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already seen this. Am I correct or would you like
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me to click on links? So you have to in order for your
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high school athlete to compete. Do you want to kind of speak
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about this, Brian? Well, I mean I.
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I have a great athletic department that takes care of
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all the forms and things to let the athletes be right.
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You got to get a some forms signed by doctors saying that
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yes, you qualify for adaptive sports, but athlete takes care
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of that, sends it into the plate department.
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And then like I said, our plate department does a great job of
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sending all the forms to the WIA because they need certain forms
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in by certain dates in order to. Peep and this year it's April
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27th, so if you have not checked out that website area, please do
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that. This is supposed.
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Oh good, it worked. This is now I'm just going to
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kind of get into the technical aspect of wheelchair racing.
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The main goal obviously is to get these guys moving.
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But my main thing is form, right?
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I want it to be the most efficient stroke possible for
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the kids to propel themselves, be the best that they can be.
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Again, this differs on every athlete and their ability.
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Can somebody just hit play on that for me?
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And hopefully this won't be loud, but the do you want to
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Fast forward it like to where they're starting after the
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introductions? I should have done that.
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Let's see, maybe back about 5 seconds, please.
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So look at where they're starting, right?
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You don't want to start up high. Think about the ring as a clock.
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You don't want to start at noon. You want to start about 2:00 to
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3:00. If you're starting too high,
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you're actually slowing yourself down.
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You're trying to get that momentum.
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So go with the momentum of the wheel.
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It's a short, choppy stroke. You can see him there.
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But then you go into this longer stroke here and you should.
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And I'll, I broke it down into pictures later on, but see this
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guy now back here, he's doing it.
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Look at how high up his arms are going.
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And that's the ideal position you want to be at.
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You're getting that height and drive to come back down to the
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wheel. It's a very unnatural feeling, I
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would say. And a lot of the kids would be
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like, I can't get my hands up there.
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So either Amy, myself, or whatever will stand behind and
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just even practice trying to get those hands up the arms up
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because it's not natural. The natural position is right to
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push like your everyday chair, which is not how you want to
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race. Every time you hit the wheel,
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you're kind of slowing it down, right?
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Especially if they're starting up here.
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So just really encourage. The ideal hitting position is
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from about 2:00, continuing on the ring till about 7:00.
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Then you come off and come back up and drive back down.
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A lot of pectoral muscles shoulder back.
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Let's see here. And that's the.
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Same if they're doing the hundred, 400 or a mile.
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Yes, yes, yes, it is. Yeah, it does.
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Absolutely. Yeah.
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And that's what people get stuck on, right?
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They think the 100 meter I should be short choppy the whole
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time. But with that long stroke, once
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you can get that down, you can literally.
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I'm. So I use a cat eye or a bike
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computer on our track chairs. That's something I highly
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recommend getting. You should be able to jump from
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12 miles an hour to 14 with one stroke like that versus those
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choppy strokes. You're literally stopping
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yourself. While it's slightly, it's a
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slight stop. You can't see it with the naked
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eye. If you slow it down or use a
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coach's eye. I don't know if you ever do
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that. That's a really, I, I like to
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use that with stroke and slow it down and really break it down
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because the kids are like, no, I'm doing it, you know, but
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they're really not. So just to give him that visual
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proof. So again, this is a starting
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position. You want your to be down and
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flat as possible. You don't want to be sitting up
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right. More aerodynamic core should be
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tight, your shoulders up. See how she's kind of, oops, I'm
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sorry, I'm not used to this. See how she's kind of created an
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L here? You want that angle and then
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your wrist. And I know this isn't really an
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S, but it kind of looks like that a little crooked S Am I the
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only one that sees that? I heard another coach,
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wheelchair collegiate coach say that and that really struck me.
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But it is kind of hard to see. But see that her wrist is bent
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there. So you're starting there.
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You're squeezing in. I always tell the kids I walk up
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to them and try to pull their hand off the wheel.
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They should be squeezing so hard.
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You cannot pull their hand off right at the start.
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So then you're going to do maybe they say 8 to 10 strokes, right?
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If you look it up, if you're watching YouTube videos, 8 to 10
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short choppy strokes to get yourself moving and then
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transition into that longer stroke.
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I could never do that. I was also a mid distance
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runner. I needed to get right into that
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long drive. Sprints weren't my thing.
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So the sprinters, you'll see them do that.
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The short, choppy, choppy, choppy, and then into that
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longer stroke. That was just, again, track is
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individual, right? So find what works for that
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athlete. It might not be 8 to 10, it
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might be two to three and then they transition into that longer
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stroke. Everybody's a bit different.
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So then this is the start of that release point that I was
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talking about when they when they get real up high up here.
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So you can see the palm is almost facing the sky.
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So that's a different position, right Then you start.
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So there's almost a flick of the wrist here at the bottom and
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then they come up and this is so pretty to me because not
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everybody can do this. I love how the elbow is still
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somewhat bent, but they're back there.
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And I don't know if you've ever tried, but just I'm a little
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old, but if you put your hands behind your back, right, and
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then try to lift up, this is the ideal stretch.
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They should be able to go almost parallel with their shoulder
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blades. Oops.
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So then at this point, they have all this momentum and drive to
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come back down and hit that ring right about here with force,
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right? So then they're getting all that
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energy to put back. The other thing I see a lot is
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bobbing. So when you're in this position,
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you want to be down, right? And then it's a natural to
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think, oh, I'll get that momentum if I sit up and use my
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core and drive back down with my body.
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That's wasted energy. You want almost to be able to
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put a cup on their back. That's how still they should be,
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right? So granted, your shoulders when
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you come up, it's going to when you come up for this part, it's
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going to naturally bring you up, but really encourage the kids to
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try to if they have core muscles to stay down and tight and back,
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right? And then I should have ordered
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these a bit better. I apologize.
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So in order to have proper form, you need to make sure you're
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positioned correctly in the track chair, right?
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And that's really hard if you're using borrowed equipment.
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But if you're able to get a new chair, you really want to make
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sure that the shoulders. See how I again, this trying to
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find pictures online was a little tricky, but the shoulder
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should sit just in front of the wheel right there.
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Otherwise you're going to get a lot of rubbing on the arms and
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it it hurts, it really does. There's bruising.
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Rubbing the tires will burn your arms and then you're pushing out
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like this to try to avoid that, and that's not what you want,
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right? And I would just say if you're a
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brand new coach that a lot of times it takes a little bit to
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get the seating correct. Yeah, I mean, you might have
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phone that you're cutting up or you know, could be that the
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athlete has been to practice 3-4 times and it's not quite
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working. So we're adjusting kind of all
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the time. So it's not.
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Like except on a meet day. Don't adjust on a meet day.
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No changes on meet day. So this is the ideal position
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too. Oops, right here.
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For the end of the stroke, you want to make sure that they can
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hit there. If they can't right, the chair
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might not fit them properly. These rings come in all
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different sizes, yes. What is your ring size?
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14 1/2 I think so these ring sizes come in all different
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sizes. If they can't get to 7, have
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them get to 4 still starting at 2, right?
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Never start at noon that just keep that in mind.
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Try to really encourage them to go from that two to four if
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that's all they can reach. If they can get to 7, that is
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ideal so that. That smaller ring is adjustable
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that the tires. No, you would have to buy new
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rings so in order to figure out what size ring you are.
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You can get. Different size rings for.
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Correct. It, it depends, right.
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It like I have these, I mean they're from 1999.
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These were carbon fiber wheels. They were very fancy back in the
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day. Now they have different ones and
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the if the kids are using carbon fiber, it's harder to switch out
20:08
the ring size. If they have spoked wheels,
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which most chairs come standard with like spoked wheel, those
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are easier to change out different ring sizes.
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You can I have a list of resources where you can buy
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those rings from. But again, if you're ordering
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new measure from their knuckles, have them do this with their arm
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and measure from their knuckles to their elbow and that is their
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ring size. Never go below 12.
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If there, if this is only 11, don't do 11.
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Never go below 12, especially if they're freshmen, right?
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They're going to be growing you. You don't want to have a ring
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that's too small. Oh, this.
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Like Cindy was saying, we can adjust with used chairs by
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adding padding, right? Different straps.
20:59
I like to just take yoga mats, cut them up, maybe give a little
21:05
seat for them. If their butt needs to come up a
21:06
bit more right to get that flat back, maybe they're sitting like
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this and you want them more like this.
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So put some padding under their butt.
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Maybe their knees are down too far.
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Put it right here under their knees.
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The ideal position can be achieved with padding you want.
21:24
To talk about foot plate versus I think.
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I have that on here, but again, coaching for 15 years, different
21:35
age groups, it can be scary, right?
21:39
All this information and I'm giving you the really condensed
21:42
version of it. I'm so trying to learn that at
21:45
overtime can be really confusing.
21:48
So really, if they're just starting out and they're pushing
21:51
up here at noon, just get them moving first, right?
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Just get them out there, get them practicing, help them fall
21:58
in love with track. Running is hard, right?
22:00
This isn't an easy sport. Let's get them to love it before
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we get them to hate it. And that was the form again.
22:11
Yeah, I guess I do not have a slide about that.
22:14
So one thing, not every everybody has different
22:17
disabilities, right? Not everybody can sit like this.
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Is everybody familiar with a tractor like this where they sit
22:25
kneeling? Yes.
22:27
So this one is specifically designed for me about 10 years
22:34
ago. So I was a a different size
22:36
then. So I'm not going to be jumping
22:38
into it, but I'm able to sit on my legs.
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If you're not, you can clamp a foot plate on here and the kids
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can sit more like I'm sitting right now.
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The form does not change. You're going to try to push that
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foot plate, foot plate as far back as you can so that it's
22:59
still kind of looks like they're tucked right and they still want
23:02
to be able to get flat down on their lap while they're pushing,
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but the form stays the same. Yeah, I was also going to say
23:10
that this is not comfortable. So many times we get a first
23:14
time athlete and right away they're like, oh, it's, you
23:18
know, it's tight. It doesn't feel comfortable.
23:21
So again, kind of, you know, working with experienced
23:25
coaches, feel free to reach out to us because the initial
23:30
reaction is feet down because that's what they that's what
23:33
they know. But there are specific
23:35
disabilities that just won't work with the knees, you know,
23:39
being being tucked. And sometimes if it's a
23:42
beginner, we have started out with foot plate.
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And then as they've gotten older, then we'll transition to
23:49
kneeling. So I think both of you guys are
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kneeling, right? Yeah.
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And this chair should be fit you like a glove.
23:56
You shouldn't be able to wear jeans and run out and do a track
23:59
meet. You want to be in some type of
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uniform. Shorts actually, I don't
24:05
recommend shorts, but some kind of running leggings.
24:09
You know, football leggings is what I tell the boys, but
24:12
they're leggings. Let's be real.
24:14
It's just sometimes easier for them to to hear that they're
24:17
football, you know, they're manly, manly leggings and they
24:23
can slide in and out easier that way too.
24:26
Are you going into? I think so.
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I'm just trying to keep this open so we can have a little bit
24:33
more of a discussion with the time that we have left.
24:37
Any more questions about form? Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here.
24:41
Hey, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Guild 1918
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