Reflection on Parasport Sledge Hockey

Parasport Sledge Hockey is an increasingly rising and popular sport across the world. Invented in the 1960s in Sweden, it has spread across the globe to be embraced both in the East and in the West. It is played in the Paralympic Winter Games along with apine and cross-country skiing games and wheelchair curling (“No Accidental Champions,” n.d.). Sledge Hockey legends like Billy Bridges have captured the imagination of the public and have helped to propel the sport into the mainstream as its athletes are recognized for their power, skill, and determination.
In Canada, sledge hockey is gaining ground as a popular sport for children with physical disabilities that have caused them to lose one or both of their legs. These children find an athletic outlet in sledge hockey, as all the participants are equalized through the use of the sledge. The players propel themselves by using their hockey sticks, pushing their bodies down the ice on their sledges. Aside from this one singularity, the game of sledge hockey is remarkably similar to regular ice hockey—which is undoubtedly why it house so much appeal to Canadians. At the local level, sledge hockey teams are offered wherever there is demand for them among... The physical literacy of sledge hockey is expanding, thanks to its reception in the Paralympic Winter Games and Canada’s own star athletes participating in the sport over the past several years.
As Sport for Life (2017) points out, “physical literacy is the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activities for life.” When it comes to sledge hockey at the local, provincial and national levels in Canada, it is one of the most popular sports for disabled athletes as it allows them to participate in a game that is essentially very similar to the national pastime (ice hockey). There are youth leagues, associations, and paths to training so that youths with disabilities or amputations can take part in the athletic games they love and enjoy. These include: Active Living Alliance for Canadians with a Disability, Canadian Amputee Sports Association, Canadian Paralympic Committee, Canadian Wheelchair Sports Association, Coaching Association of Canada, Special Olympics Canada, and many more.

The Canadian Sport For Life (n.d.) Leadership Team has developed a number of resources…