Vol. 6, No. 3 May/June 1998	Previous Issues Subscribe to AT Messenger Download PDF Viewer
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Let’s Play A Game!

Michael Meyreles, AT Practitioner
New Castle County ATRC

You think it could never happen to you, but what if it does? As the result of an accident, you become paralyzed due to a spinal cord injury. Before the injury, you were highly competitive and involved in many sports. After your rehabilitation, you would like to become involved in sports again. For individuals with a spinal cord injury, there are many competitive wheelchair sports. Wheelchair basketball, tennis, track and field, and skiing have organized teams with dedicated, competitive athletes. One sport that is not as well known but can be remarkably satisfying is quad rugby. This article is a brief introduction to this highly competitive and extremely aggressive sport.

Quad Rugby, a sport developed by three Canadians from Winnipeg, Manitoba, is a combination of wheelchair basketball and ice hockey. Due to the aggressive manner in the way this game is played, it was originally called “murderball,” but that name was changed for obvious reasons! The game was introduced in the United States in 1981. In 1988, the United States Quad Rugby Association (USQRA) was formed to help regulate and promote the sport. The sport of Quad Rugby now enjoys international status with teams from all around the globe in addition to 45 organized teams in the United States.

There are some stringent guidelines on who is eligible to play the game in a USQRA sanctioned tournament. Players must have some physical involvement of both the upper and lower extremities to be considered. Most players have a spinal cord injury with a resulting quadriplegia. There are seven classification categories, ranging from 0.5 to 3.5, in which a player can be placed. Classifications are based on the severity of the impairment with a classification of 0.5 applied to those with the most severe limitations and a classification of 3.5 applied to those with the fewest limitations.

Player classification is an extremely complex process involving both the examiner and the participant. There are four levels of classifications for the examiners. The examiners can be either an occupational or physical therapist or a doctor with formal training in neuromuscular evaluation and demonstrated competence in manual muscle testing of the upper extremities, trunk, and lower extremities. The players are rated in seven categories based on the three off-court tests—a bench test, a functional trunk test, and functional movement test—as well as during on-the-court play.

The game is quite simple. A team consists of four players, and the players on the floor can not have a classification total of more than 8.0 points. It is played on a regulation-sized basketball court with some minor changes involving what is called the key area as seen on page 4.

The goal for each team is to have a player score by touching or crossing the opponent’s goal line while maintaining possession of the ball. The ball may be passed, thrown, batted, rolled, dribbled, or carried in any direction subject to the restrictions laid down in the rules, The team scoring the most goals by the end of the game is declared the winner. The three basic rules of quad rugby are:

1. A player has 15 seconds to advance the ball into the opponent’s half-court.
2. Fouls are assessed and penalties can include awarding of a goal, a timed penalty or a turnover.
3. A player with the ball has unrestricted pushes but must pass or dribble the ball every 10 seconds or a turnover is awarded.

There are three teams in the general area, two out of Pennsylvania (Magee Rolling Rebels and Pittsburgh Steelwheelers) and one from the District of Columbia (the Potomac Panthers). The United States Quad Rugby Association can be contacted through their secretary, Judy Pfisester at 309 Stoney Ford Road, Holland, PA 18966. Her telephone number is (215) 504-0443 and her email address is judy@quadrugby.com.

The information for this article was gathered from the Quad Rugby website at http://www.quadrugby.com/.