Equipment
Wheelchair Rugby is played in a manual wheelchair. The rules include detailed specifications for the wheelchair. Players use custom-made sports wheelchairs that are specifically designed for wheelchair rugby. Key design features include a front bumper, designed to help strike and hold opposing wheelchairs, and wings, which are positioned in front of the main wheels to make the wheelchair more difficult to stop and hold. All wheelchairs must be equipped with spoke protectors, to prevent damage to the wheels, and an anti-tip device at the back.
New players and players in developing countries sometimes play in wheelchairs that have been adapted for wheelchair rugby by the addition of temporary bumpers and wings.
The wheelchair rugby ball is identical in size and shape to a regulation volleyball. Wheelchair rugby balls are typically of a 'soft-touch' design, with a slightly textured surface to provide a better grip. The balls are normally over-inflated compared to a volleyball, to provide a better bounce. The official ball of the sport from 2000-2006 is the Molten soft touch volleyball, model number WR58X.
Players use a variety of other personal equipment, such as gloves and applied adhesives to assist with ball handling, and various forms of strapping to help them maintain a good seating position.
Read more about this topic: Wheelchair Rugby
Famous quotes containing the word equipment:
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—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“Biological possibility and desire are not the same as biological need. Women have childbearing equipment. For them to choose not to use the equipment is no more blocking what is instinctive than it is for a man who, muscles or no, chooses not to be a weightlifter.”
—Betty Rollin (b. 1936)
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—Joseph O’Donnell, and Clifford Sanforth. Arthur Perry (Bela Lugosi)