Static sports wheelchairs

This type of sports wheelchair is intended for sports like archery and shooting where stationery stability is critical to aiming and executing the sporting activity. In such cases the sport normally involves a further item of equipment, e.g. a bow or a riffle.

Other track and field sports that may benefit from using this kind of wheelchair include the shot put, the javelin and weightlifting. This kind of sports wheelchair will also be the desired model for anyone who wants to play snooker, pool or billiards.

Superficially these models may appear similar to standard wheelchairs, but their small backrests and seats (that allow freedom of movement) mean that their frame is actually quite different. There can also be subtle variations between the design and features of e.g. and archery chair and a shooting chair.

Design characteristics

Sports wheelchairs that are intended for a sport that requires careful aim and high levels of concentration whilst maintaining a balanced body, have very different characteristics to racing and active based sports wheelchairs.

These wheelchairs need to provide the athlete with a totally stable and static platform from which to base their sporting activity, but without restricting their ability to move, or giving them a restraining or supporting advantage.

For this reason these chairs have a design that focuses not on the chairs ability to mobilise its passenger, but rather on its ability to enable them to attain a position or posture from which they can control the sports equipment that they are using.

In short, these chairs try to enable the closest possible representation of the upper body posture that an able bodied sportsperson would adopt when playing. If this is not possible, then it allows the wheelchair user to find the best alternative "seated" posture for the purpose.

With a sport like archery and equipment like a bow, where the technical requirement is to draw back the string, hold and then release an arrow, free space and a level and correctly oriented seat are vital. Most wheelchair archers will also turn their bodies sideways so that they are shooting across the side of the wheelchair. This is not a typical posture for regular wheelchair use.

As an example, an archery wheelchair has a simple padded low backed seat with no obstructions to the upper body's movement. In addition it will probably have lockable wheels with a slightly extended frame that may even feature two additional stabilizer legs (with castors) at the back of the chair. This guarantees that the chair will remain stable and will not rock or tilt when in use.

All chairs of this type can include additional features that may take account of the sports participant having further disabilities or requiring extra resources.

A sport like archery can be a very viable hobby for anyone, even someone whose only active limb is an arm. Jeff Fabry (who has just one arm and one leg) proved this when he took a Bronze medal at the Beijing Paralympics and broke a World record in the process See this usparalympics.org/athletes/jeff-fabry link for information about him.

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