You make valid points. Beep ball is not like baseball or softball. We
cannot bowl on an equal basis against sighted bowlers who use the arrows for
aiming. I can not shoot indoor archery on an equal basis with sighted
archers, either, due to the accuracy, or lack thereof, of the aiming
mechanism.
---
Shepherds are the best beasts, but Labs are a close second.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ryan Strunk" <[email protected]>
To: "'Gamers Discussion list'" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 9:21 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] tennis, anyone?
After reading the article and seeing your feedback, I can't help but nod
my
head in agreement. It got me to thinking about a perennial problem with
so-called "blind sports," and I wonder what the solution is.
If this strays too far from the realm of accessible gaming, please feel
free
to steer the topic back in a more suitable direction.
In all blind sports I have seen--goal ball, beep baseball, accessible
cricket, power showdown, and now this--the common trend seems to be that
blind players are forced to play only with other blind players. In some of
these sports totally blind people even get a different set of rules than
those with partial sight. Nuts to that, and I have some residual vision.
The article talks about how tennis teaches blind people that they can do
the
same things as their sighted peers, but I'm having trouble seeing how
modified tennis makes that case. Certainly I believe that blindness can be
relegated to the level of an inconvenience, and I believe that given the
proper training and opportunity, blind people can compete on an equal
playing field with the sighted--no pun intended--but I don't know if
that's
often the case when it comes to sports.
I know that certain forms of martial arts lend themselves to equal
competition between blind and sighted people; one of my co-workers this
Summer takes part in UFC fights. I myself wrestled for 8 years while going
to school. But when it comes to other sports, especially team sports, I
wonder how we could go about participating on an equal level. Is the
answer
to create a new sport that blind and sighted people can play together? Do
we
develop a new set of techniques so that we, too, can play pickup
basketball?
I don't know, but I'd sure like to find out. My days of training to be a
star athlete are certainly behind me, but it's not too late for the
younger
guys.
All the best,
Ryan
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Scott Chesworth
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 10:46 AM
To: Gamers Discussion list
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] tennis, anyone?
I gave this a shot, but was pretty underwhelmed TBH. Has to be said that
I'm
no athlete, but my spacial awareness, coordination and confidence when
moving aren't too shabby. I found the adaptions felt clunky, and that
there
was little satisfaction to be gained. Sitting in on a few games between
people who'd been training casually but consistently for a couple of years
didn't inspire me any further, it didn't have anywhere near the breakneck
pace and fluidity of play that unmodified tennis does, and that was kinda
the appeal here.
One person's take of course, it's all subjective. Not posting this to
discourage, just to make sure people will turn up for their first session
prepared for a long slog. It's certainly not something that you can just
dive into and let off some steam with like Goalball for example.
Scott
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