Courtesy: Manila Bulletin


Giving the blind a chance to excel in sports

By JOEL H. DERIADA (Coach, Athletics, PHILSPADA)

The Philippine Sports for the Differently Abled (PHILSPADA) was established in August 1997 and is considered as the national umbrella organization of sports for persons with disabilities (PWD’s) in the Philippines.

PHILSPADA is a member of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), Asian Paralympic Committee (APC), ASEAN Para Sports Federation (APSF) and 107 country-members of the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) in which PHILSPADA president Michael Barredo is also the current IBSA president.

PHILSPADA is supported by the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee and the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The PSC extends financial and logistical support for international tournaments the Philippine Team PHILSPADA is participating. The AFP lends its personnel (coaches and trainers in other sports) to help PHILSPADA in preparations for local and international competitions.

The PHILSPADA has a continuing sports program for the visually impaired children. Just recently we conducted the Training the Trainors Technical and Classification seminar for athletics, swimming, showdown, (table tennis for the blind), goalball, and futsal. These are all regular international sports for the visually impaired.

Participants were teachers, local coaches and trainers which the PHILSPADA invited through Dep-Ed and DSWD. Our aim here is to share to the local coaches, teachers and trainers on how to train and develop athletes with different disabilities in their areas

We also shared to them the rules and regulations of each event since these are all included in international PARA sports competitions such as the ASEAN Paragames, Asian Paragames, the Paralympics and other IBSA sports championships. Aside from these seminars, PHILSPADA also conducts regular sports tournaments for the differently-abled including the visually impaired.

Support needed
While PHILSPADA has a large network already as far as enlisting athletes and training teams, it still needs the support of other organizations or private institutions in ensuring that we attain a much wider reach.

With the training programs, we are able to tap coaches and trainers, and identify and train athletes who we include in our team. But we know there are still more talented visually impaired individuals out there who can join us. We continue to call out on the NGOs and other organizations to help us.

One of the key factors that determine the success of our training programs is the parents’ support of our young visually impaired children whom we tap and train to become athletes.

There is a much-needed patience and commitment that we expect from the parents of these children as we know it is never easy to bring them to and from our training areas.

The PHILSPADA has a good team of volunteer coaches and trainers, which provide encouragement to these parents and guardians because we know, when we are able to train these children well and they become representatives of our country to international competitions, not only they attain confidence to become athletes but similarly they gain enough self esteem that can surely help them in their personal lives.







Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com