I have coached wheelchair basketball for over eight years, I do this alongside another fantastic coach and some truly dedicated volunteers. Our players have different backgrounds, abilities and disabilities, ages and gender. It is one of my favourite parts of my working week and I don’t talk about if often enough. I wonder what puts me off?

Ableism

When I tell people that I coach wheelchair basketball they are often surprised. They look at me and presume that I am able-bodied (and therefore would have no “need” to join a wheelchair sports club let alone coach one). Some people have genuinely looked me up and down and said “Oh, so you don’t have to be a wheelchair user to play?” It’s an innocent enough question but annoying all the same. I have never been a sporty person but love this sport as all ages and genders play together and people, for the most part, are supportive and of course, its so fun. I’ve never experienced any of that in non-Disabled sport.

Defining and casually using able-bodied is complex and not particularly helpful or appropriate. I have chronic illnesses and I’m multiply neurodivergent. Would I consider myself able-bodied? No. Many people who I may drop wheelchair basketball into conversation with always assume how my body works which totally erases my lived experience.

Further to this, the governing body, British Wheelchair Basketball, also considers me, and others like me, “able-bodied”. This classification makes me a five point player. Across different leagues you can have a certain amount of points playing on the court, and in all leagues only one five point player can be on at any one point. This makes sense, as it is an advantage for lower point players including those with spinal injuries.

In fact, in most clubs I’ve played in or against, there are often conversations about classification – what points are you? Are you AB (able-bodied)? So people have an understanding of what position you might play and how much game time you could have. Also, trying to get classified is not always straight forward and requires quite a lot of evidence to get right, so answers are often met with advice on how to apply for classification.

Fatphobia and the appearance of being “unfit”

There may also be a question of my legitimacy as a sports coach as a fat person. Perhaps this leans into the more common idea that wheelchair sports are easy because we are “just sitting down”. Of course I would go for a sitting sport. Fatphobia, in this instance and many more is entwined in ableism. There is an expectation that fat bodies cannot move, bend, stretch, extend, be quick or have stamina.

The biggest problem I have is having a chair big enough for my butt, everything else is pretty standard. Yes, I could be fitter, but the same can be said of my five stone ago. Also, thin does no equate to fit and “healthy” – whatever we may mean by that.

Wheelchair basketball teams are made of all sorts of body shapes and sizes, it is not just inclusive of Disabled people, it is inclusive of all non-normative bodies. If you’re reading this and think you can’t get involved in sport because you’re “too big” no that you are not, your body is right for sport and belongs in sport.

“Sitting down isn’t sport”

I have come across too many people in my time as a coach who view wheelchair sports as just a cute little hobby Disabled people do so we can get out of the house. Good for us (sarcasm). People cannot even believe that we play on a full-size court and use full-size nets!

People may not take the sport seriously as a real, legitimate, difficult, skilled sport – then they come to watch or join in and all of this “easy” nonsense goes out the window. “This is hard work” they say, well yes darling, it’s sport, not a picnic.

Then there are people on the other end of the scale who think Disabled sports people are an “inspiration” that we have had to “overcome” so much in order to play and achieve. You also see this plenty in the paralympics, so watch out for that in September! It is not enough for Disabled atheletes to be amazing at their sport, to be the top of their game, to be the best in the world. They must be patronised heavily.

I remember one interview with a friend of mine who was at the Beijing Olympics where the interviewer asked about her “injury”, she replied that she wasn’t injured, she had spina bifida. Even the people who are commenting on these high level sports are clueless on how to talk to Disabled athletes, spina bifida is a part of this person but wheelchair basketball is her life’s passion and skill. Maybe ask questions around that?

I will talk more about wheelchair basketball, and perhaps accessible sport in general. It has been such an important part of my life for some years now. I do miss the national league and when Little Man is older I hope to go back. But for now I am a fat non-wheelchair user wheelchair basketball coach, and that is just fine by me.