Cerebral Palsy Football

Joe_Mckechnie123

Hello everybody,

my name is Joe, I'm 27, I have quadriplegia and Dyspraxia and I live in York.

I just wanted to post a discussion about cerebral palsy football and see if there would be anyone with an interest in this?

I play football for the North East and Yorkshire regional cerebral palsy football team which is based in York, our team plays in the regional 7 a side cerebral palsy football league, during the season we compete against other regional centres, which are based in Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham, we also have an annual cup competition at the National sports centre (St George's park) where we compete against the previous mentioned teams and teams from the south, Chelsea, London, Plymouth and East.

Game durations

the league matches are 15 minutes each way (30 minute games), with roll on and roll off substitutions. all 4 teams meet up with each other 4 times during the season, with each team hosting it's own fixture throughout the year, the hosting team hosts 3 games which are all played on the same day and each team play each other once on the day of the meeting, this happens 4 times during the season, the Northern league games are hosted at York, Manchester, Nottingham and Birmingham. League games take place the last sunday of each month in October/ November, February & March

The cup matches are 1 half of 15 minutes (hosted annually at St Georges park) Usually hosted in the middle of May.

Our team has a junior (under16's) squad and a senior (over 16's) squad.

we train on a fortnightly basis on a Saturday morning between 10am and 12pm at York sports village.

our players travel from all over the North East and from Yorkshire to train and compete for/with the team.

A number of our players with varying impairments have competed for the England cerebral palsy Development squad, England international Cerebral palsy senior team, one of our players has competed for the Scottish international Cerebral palsy senior team, one of our players has also been selected to represent team GB's cerebral palsy 7 a side football team at the Rio 2016 Paralympics.

over the past 5 years the North East and Yorkshire regional team have been crowned Regional national champions and we have also made one appearance in the semi final of the national cup and one appearance in the final of the national cup.

there are a number of classifications/conditions within the game of Cerebral palsy football which make a player eligible to compete, these are as follows.

Eligible impairment types:

Athetosis

Hypertonia

Ataxia

Athletes competing in Football 7-a-side have ataxia, hypertonia or athetosis - three impairment types that are most commonly associated with individuals with cerebral palsy and/or traumatic brain injury. They have a neurological impairment, with a motor control impairment of a cerebral nature, causing a permanent and verifiable activity limitation.

Dyspraxia

Stroke

Acquired brain injuries

Acoustic Neuroma

(Cerebral Palsy)

Type of Cerebral palsy and Classification

Diaplegia- FT5

Quadriplegia-FT6

Hemiplegia-FT7

Minimal impairment-FT8

Classification numbers for competition and how players are graded

FT5

In this sport class, athletes have hypertonia in both lower limbs and to some degree in both upper limbs. The players have difficulties when running, turning and stopping because of an activity limitation in the lower limbs.

FT6

Athletes are affected by co-ordination and balance difficulties in all four limbs and trunk due to ataxia or athetosis. FT6 players typically have difficulties in dribbling the ball when running, accelerating and stopping.

FT7

This sport class is designated to hemiplegic players, meaning that only one side of their body is affected, causing the players to walk and run with a limp. The player has limited knee pick up when sprinting and also has an asymmetrical stride length. The player has difficulty pivoting and balancing on the impaired side and therefore often pivots on the unaffected side and may kick with the affected foot.

FT8

This sport class describes the minimum impairment eligible for football 7-a-side. These are athletes with minor degrees of activity limitation from any of the above classes. Therefore, you may not see the impact of the impairment when watching the athlete run or control the ball. However, involuntary muscle contractions and hesitation before explosive movements do constitute activity limitations in comparison to able-bodied players.

C5's- Diaplegic- players only effected in their lower limbs (both legs)

C6's- Quadriplegic- players are effected in all 4 limbs (legs and arms)

C7's-Hemiplegia- Players are effected down 1 side of their body only

C8's- minimal- C8s are minimally impaired and have higher levels of mobility when compared to the other classifications.

Sport Technical Rules

In order to ensure a fair game between two teams, each team (seven players) has to have one FT5 or FT6 player on the field at all times and is not allowed to have more than one FT8 players on the field.

please find below links to the Paralympic website, where you will be able to watch team GB's 7 aside football team play against the likes of Ukraine, Brazil and Ireland.

https://www.paralympic.org/news/sport-week-introduction-football-7-side

There are coaching opportunities available with the regional team and The North East and Yorkshire are also on the look out for additional players to train and compete for our team, so if anyone feels that they would have an interest in this, or if you know of anyone who you feel may have an interest in this, please let me know and I would be more than happy to discuss this further with anyone who is interested, if anyone would like any further information or just a general chat, I'm happy to chat on here or please feel free to email me, my email address is Joe.Mckechnie@hambleton.gov.uk

Thanks for reading

  

Joe_Mckechnie123

CommunityTeam said:

Thanks so much Joe for posting this, some great information there for anyone who wants to give it a try.

No problem at all, the club are finding it harder and harder to acquire players for our team, players drop out due to age and some lose interest after being involved for so many years, so any support/ places for advertisement are greatly appreciated, if anyone can suggest any other places that may be good to advertise cerebral palsy football opportunities, please let me know. Thanks for allowing me to post this advertisement on your page  

Mitchell

Hi there Joe great info here, the question I have is my son is 11 years old with very mild cp which affects his lower left limb it doesn't seem to stop him doing anything he currently plays mainstream football at a high level and doesn't look out of place he plays club football in the Russell foster league in Sunderland Tyne and Wear so was just wondering what opportunities are available to him to help fulfill his dream 

BJMing

Hi Joe,

Thanks very  much for posting this! I have a 9 year old diplegic who is football mad and tries his very best to play mainstream football with friends at school. I was wondering if there are any CP football camps over the summer or other holidays. 

Joe_Mckechnie123

Mitchell said:

Hi there Joe great info here, the question I have is my son is 11 years old with very mild cp which affects his lower left limb it doesn't seem to stop him doing anything he currently plays mainstream football at a high level and doesn't look out of place he plays club football in the Russell foster league in Sunderland Tyne and Wear so was just wondering what opportunities are available to him to help fulfill his dream 

Hi Mitchell,

The regional centre in York provide a pathway to the England CP development and England senior cp team,

 the teams facebook page is  https://www.facebook.com/NorthEastandYorkshireCPFootball/

Team email is 

Northeastyorkshirecpfootball@outlook.com

if you message the page, they will be able to pass on the centre directors number for you to discuss with him.

Thanks

Joe

Joe_Mckechnie123

BJMing said:

Hi Joe,

Thanks very  much for posting this! I have a 9 year old diplegic who is football mad and tries his very best to play mainstream football with friends at school. I was wondering if there are any CP football camps over the summer or other holidays. 

Hi, the sessions will begin again in September, we run weekly sessions.

Thanks

Joe 

Joe_Mckechnie123