Sekiya Sonoda
Honorary Member, Japanese Society for the Study of Human Welfare and Culture

1. Human Beings as Animals and the Value of Sports

Human beings are also animals. It goes without saying that animals are typically able to move about, which is proof of being alive. Moving about freely gives us great joy. While one major category of disabilities is related to communication, such as visual and hearing impairments, the other is related to movement. For those who are restricted from moving – those who are unable to move their bodies, cannot control their movements as they wish, or even if they can control their movements, it requires a great deal of effort compared to the able-bodied – acquiring the joy and pleasure of moving is one of life’s major goals.

There are various types of physical recreation, which provides the enjoyment of moving the body. Constituting such recreation is the activity called “sports.” There is an amazing variety of sports activities in the world, from walking and running that do not require any equipment, familiar ones like table tennis, tennis and golf, baseball and soccer that are popular with children and adults, new sports that even beginners can easily do, and those that require advanced skills and equipment, such as rock climbing and skydiving.

People with disabilities tend to be regarded as being unassociated from sports, but that is not necessarily true. The development of sports for people with disabilities has progressed rapidly in recent years. There are wheelchair tennis and wheelchair basketball that have been developed by combining regular games with players in wheelchairs and with the development of unique assistive devices. Moreover, sports making use of disability itself, such as blind soccer, have also come into being where blind people compete on an equal footing with people who can see. It is still fresh in our minds that the Paralympic Games, which were held together with the Olympics last year, made many people aware through television of the wide range and great potential of sports for people with disabilities.

2. Aiming for Universal Sports

There is a sport named “boccia” that has become popular in recent years as a sport that both persons with disabilities and the able-bodied can enjoy together. It is a game in which two types of soft balls, red and blue, are thrown toward a white target ball on the floor, and it is a competition to see which balls, red or blue, can come closer to the white ball. This rule of competing for “close proximity” is similar to curling, which has become a familiar ice sport, and the fun and thrill of pushing away the opponent’s ball and getting your ball closer to the goal have become widely understood.

Boccia is an Italian word originally known as pétanque in France, and is an outdoor game that has been played throughout Europe since olden times. Originally, it is a game in which a heavy metal ball is thrown at a wooden target ball. In Europe you can often see groups of people enjoying this game in parks. The unique point of boccia, which is gaining ground in Japan, is that it uses a soft leather ball that is easy to handle, and boccia is recognized as a recreational sport for everyone, from children to the elderly and people with disabilities. I have conducted boccia games many times as a program at nursing homes, and the elderly who played it for the first time understood the rules without any difficulty and were engrossed in playing the game. I also tried it with children. Even the lower graders of elementary schools can enjoy it. Of course, persons with disabilities in wheelchairs can participate equally in the game. If they do not have the strength to throw a ball, they can roll the ball on a small slide-like assistive device to aim at the target.

Boccia is a game that looks easy, but it is also quite intense. In the boccia game in last year’s Paralympic, a Japanese player won the championship. Every single throw from the wheelchair was performed with precision and speed that could be described as superhuman. I could not help but marvel at the technique of pushing, jumping over the opponent’s ball, and snuggling up to a target ball (jack). The development of a game like boccia, which is easy to start and yet intense, is worthy of being called a “universal sport,” which is one of the major challenges in recreation for persons with disabilities.

Practicing boccia using a hula hoop

3.Competition Has Both Value and Negative Effects

At the core of sports is the element of “competition” (although not all sports are competitive, which I will explain later). The desire to win against the opponent makes people enthusiastic about sports. On the one hand, it is true that such desire can be a driving force to train one’s body and to develop human potential. However, there are always losers behind the winners, and losing is frustrating, and it is not uncommon for people to get depressed and lose their motivation. In addition, it is not unusual for players to be dominated by the value ​​that “winning is everything,” forcing them to practice in an unreasonable way, punishing players who lost the game, and blaming each other. The trend of simply competing for the number of medals can be seen in the Olympics as well, forgetting about sports exchanges in which athletes do their best and then enjoy friendly exchanges after the game.

In the case of people with disabilities, the more competition is emphasized, the more likely they shy away from sports. Only a very small number of people with disabilities are superhuman athletes who can perform well in the Paralympics. Many people with disabilities distance themselves from sports, thinking it is something outside of their world. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to change our mindset about sports for persons with disabilities and work to develop programs and environments that allow them to become familiar with sports so they can enjoy physical activities throughout their lives. In other words, it is important to think about how to make “lifelong sports” real for people with disabilities.

4. Potential of Non-competitive Sports

The word “sport” is a shortened form of the word “disport,” and it was not limited to physical exercise, but was a word that represented a wide range of play, from fun and pastime to playfulness. Therefore, it is not surprising that not only athletic competitions but board games, including cards and chess, are regarded as sports competitions. It is important to go back to the original meaning of sports and adopt its perspective which is not only about physical activities and sports that are not necessarily competitive, especially in the field of sports for persons with disabilities.

When it comes to non-competitive physical activities, we can think of walking, free exercise, gymnastics and dancing (which can be made into competitions, but are fun on their own). Among the games children play, there are games that make full use of the body, such as climbing trees and sliding down slopes. Various kinds of other games involve interaction and physical contact, such as leapfrog and push-and-shove in which children enjoy bumping bodies against others, and forming a circle by joining hands and pulling and supporting each other. Among these games, there are ones that have been adapted for adults and I have named them “cooperative games” that are being played in educational and welfare settings.

There are also attempts to create non-competitive sports by intentionally removing their elements of competition and aiming to enjoy movement itself. Let me give you an example. A normal 6-person volleyball game is played, but when one team scores a point, one player from that team moves to the opponent’s court and becomes a member of the other team. Thus, the team that continues to get points decreases its members one by one. The team with a small number of players cannot perform well, and when the opposing team wins a point, the players come back. If this continues, it will be meaningless which team would win, but the game itself will actively continue. A program that allows participants to freely move about according to their physical abilities without being motivated by competition, and which promotes rich communication among the participants – this, I believe, we can find great potential in creating the next generation of sports for people with disabilities.