Thanks to funding from City Bridge Trust and the Bulldog Trust through Panathlon, we were able to supply power hockey chairs for a Powerchair Athlete Day held in Islington on 10 February.
The unique power hockey chairs, complete with a push button firing mechanism, have been developed in Liverpool by Greenbank working in partnership with North West Training Council and Jaguar Land Rover apprentices.
After initial coaching, 9 children from Richard Cloudesley School, Hasmonean Primary School and Frank Barnes School had great fun playing power hockey, football and completing a slalom.
Pete Wyman, who is leading the development of power hockey from Greenbank Sports Academy commented:
“We developed this chair to enable the most disabled children to experience a fast moving sport and be able to compete equally with their friends.
The challenge now is to make the chairs available to children across the country and eventually internationally. Each chair cost £3000 to produce and we need support to make more, so that every child who uses a power chair can have the experience.”
Power hockey is played at Greenbank Sports Academy every Wednesday from 5 – 6pm.
New players welcome.