The playing catch with a football has felt positive to helping improve my coordinated movements. Throwing and catching the ball has helped with hand eye coordination, while also coordinating my body in throwing the ball back. Working with the football has also brought a joyful new challenge. I like involving sports in my training program, wherever the opportunity might arise. In adding the football to my training program. The trainer has used the football in a variety of ways, to help add variety in working on my training. We have spent a number of days working on the basics of throwing the ball back and forth. Facing one another in a square position and playing catch from various distances between ourselves. Once the basics of tossing the football back and forth were established, things began changing. Moving the activity forward and adding complications. We began trying to catch the football while on the move, like running short routes. Then, I was challenged to catch short tosses of the football, while doing something other than running. When pulling a weighted sled backward, then doing a side shuffle up and down the length of the gym floor. All were different ways of interacting with the football being tossed in my direction. The least complicated felt like playing catch from a stationary position and the most complexed has felt like attempting to catch the football, while running.
The first couple of variations of catching the football felt pretty different. Though, I didn’t realize how different they were, in the beginning. Catching the football in a stationary position was relatively straight forward. Something I have been doing for most of my lifetime is standing a distance away from someone and throwing a ball back and forth. Playing catch was a part of my life when helping to coach junior football for years. The largest challenge with playing catch was increasing the distance between me and another person. As the distance increased, the ball came with greater velocity, and I would become more anxious. Adding challenge to my ability to catch the football. However, it has become manageable in the atmosphere we are playing catch within, today. As the distance causes the challenge to expand, there seems more to be gained by each successful catch. We were performing this aspect of catching the football pretty well. Even getting to the point of my trainer throwing the football with a little more speed. The trouble has seemed to arrive when moving away from catching the ball in a stationary position. The next variation the trainer introduced was catching the football on the run. Like a wide receiver in any football game, catching the ball while moving forward, often. The concept of catching the football in the middle of running a route, was more difficult than expected.
I struggled to catch the football on the run. We worked on the concept off and on for a couple of weeks. Most often, attempting to catch the football coming toward me from the left, were my left arm would be the leading arm. It was almost impossible for me to make the catch. We tried different ideas to make a reception more likely. Trying to have one foot solidly on the ground when the football hit my hands. On the majority of my attempted catches, both of my feet would be in the air. It felt like I couldn’t coordinate my feet, while concentrating on the football. There were moments of coming close to catching a pass when running. The ball would be bobbled in my hands and almost secured. We would both let out sound of exasperation when the football was almost secured. Once or twice, the pass would be right on target, and I would secure the catch. But, it almost felt like an accident had taken place in those moments. The missing of so many opportunities, during the running attempts to catch the football, was becoming frustrating. There had to be a way of bridging the gap between the two forms of catching the football. Without any conversation about the frustration I was experiencing, the trainer had ideas to fill in the gaps.
The first time our work with the football changed, it came as a slight shock. I was dragging a weighted sled in reverse. The belt around my waist was attached to the sled and I was walking in reverse. As I slowly backpedaled down the length of the gym floor, the trainer went to grab the football. He informed me of going to get the ball, but I didn’t think much of his retrieving it. My mind making the assumption of more football catch following my reverse sled dragging exercise. Looking up as he arrived back to my position, I found the football being lightly tossed in my direction. In the middle of my dragging the weighted sled I caught the underhand lob of the football and tossed it back. Continuing to my movement with the sled, we lightly tossed the football back and forth. A couple of the tosses were dropped by me, along the way and my trainer would retrieve the football. However, on most of his tosses, I found myself catching the football. While, continuing in the motion of pulling the sled in reverse. The creativity of the exercise helped me work on catching the football while moving. It was done in a scenario where I was walking backward in a slow motion. But, it felt like a good place to start in learning to catch the ball while in motion. The following step in the learning process would become more complex.
Following the work with the football and reverse sled drag, we continued playing catch with the football. The standard type, of catching and throwing from a stationary position. We also worked more on attempting to catch the football while running. The challenges of making the catches when moving quickly in a direction continued. Like before, the pass had to be right on target for the reception to be made. Continuing to work on it, following the sled drag exercise did yield some signs of improvement. We needed another middle step to help improve my ability in catching the football on the move. It wasn’t something I understood. It was a trainer who understood progressions of movements. He brought to life the concept of side-shuffling down the length of the gym, tossing the football back and forth, as we moved. The exercise had me feeling timid when the trainer introduced the concept. I didn’t know if I could move laterally, while concentrating on catching and tossing the football. The overall movement felt like a lot to concentrate on with all the moving parts. Bringing in the anxiety of my feet getting tangled and a trip leading to a fall. On the other hand, taking the risk of the exercise, while using caution, would help improve coordinating my movements. Taking on another creative exercise ended with a positive outcome. There were a couple drops along the way, but my confidence in catching the football on the move, improved. It was another fun drill of cerebral palsy improvement.
The working on variations of catching the football seemed to work well. As we moved back into attempting to catch the football on the run. Following the work with the shuffle drill, we went back to running attempts. I found myself able to catch a couple passes from my trainer, especially when moving to the right. Having the football fly past my right shoulder, on its way to being received. Unlike previous attempt, these passes weren’t thrown into perfect positions to be caught. They required some reaching away from my body, to snatch the football. However, the success of the few catches raised the confidence in my ability to improve. There was still trouble in making catches while moving to my left. Where the ball passes across the left shoulder first, on its way to being received. But, I did manage to catch at least one of those passes. Bringing in the middle progressions to work on my catching was an awesome move by the trainer. Bridging the game between playing catch in stationary position and trying to make a catch while running. The result has me excited for other aspects that might be open to improvement. When a trainer has the ability to simplify a movement, then build the activity back up, special things can happen for people with disabilities. In turn, the self-esteem improves inside me, or anyone taking on challenges.
A Journey With Cerebral Palsy 