Equal Opportunities with a Joystick

This article has been published in the German magazine "HANDICAP", issue 1/2011. For more information: www.handicap.de

EL-hockey was developed in the end of the 80s in Denmark for people with heavy physical handicap and with 40 associations in the meantime and 600 active players in the whole Scandinavian space it has become a popular sport. In Germany there is since 2008 up to now only the North German association Flensburg Lions with twelve players. The sport is suited for people with the most different impediments, presumed they can serve a joystick and understand tactical plays.

01.07.2011

The joystick on the special electric
wheelchairs makes it possible to
be independent; © Just

Handily Tobias moves the joystick with which he steers his EL-hockey chair as well as accelerate and can brake. He dashes about the sports hall ground and directs the small red-white plastic ball with the racquet fastened in front of his electric wheelchair. Besides, he brings himself cleverly along his opponent in gate nearness, so that he can carry the ball with a rotary movement of the chair in the aim. Tobias Kropf is 16 years old and has fallen ill with muscle dystrophy of the type Duchenne. At a house fair of the Sanitätshauses Schütt & Jahn in Flensburg he came in contact with the sport in August 2008 and is on fire since then. „EL-hockey is my one and only. Here I am free and can use my still available abilities fully. Playing in a team and above all being independently in the sports is a big pleasure to me “, he tells proudly.

The sales of a silver 10-crown coin on the occasion of the 18th birthday of the Danish crown prince Frederik were a starting point for the handicap sport popular completely in the meantime in Scandinavia. The Minister of Industry at that time made available the sales revenue to the Danish handicapped sport association (DHIF) with the possible specification to develop an industrially made aid for people with heavy physical impediments. Mogens Holm Rasmussen, an architect, won with his new electric sports wheelchair the design competition written out by the association in 1988. The handicapped sport association bought the first four chairs in 1989 of Skive, short time later acquired of the DHIF other chairs and developed the sport EL-hockey.

Equal opportunities by identically constructed electric hockey chairs

The significant difference of EL-hockey to the electric wheelchair hockey is that not every sportsman uses his personal electric wheelchair for the sport, but to every player of the association the identically constructed electric sports wheelchairs are made available. On account of the technically same starting basis players with different impediments are able to exercise together this sport, presumed they can serve a joystick and have a certain tactical understanding. The field on which they dash along corresponds with 20 x 14 metres to the size of a volleyball field and is limited by ten-centimetre-high boards. The teams meet on the field with three players and at least one substitute about two times 15 minutes. Besides, the full of holes plastic ball is shot as often as possible into the opposing gate.

The EL-hockey chair achieves a maximum speed of 16 kilometres per hour; © Just

Easy, solid, beautifully designed, fast and agile – that’s the EL-hockey chair made from form-glued beech veneer which achieves a maximum speed of 16 km/h. By the low construction method he has an especially deep main focus in comparison to electric wheelchairs and cannot tip over therefore so fast. Before every play the software can be adapted with the help of a handy program device, so that different driving profiles can be adapted for counter and attack situations.

„The chair was developed in a way that he can go fast and extremely agilely on the hall ground, but with only one single finger is to be served. Most drivers outbid the technical potential not at all properly“, explains Erhard Frederiksen who searched just ten years ago an attractive sport for his son ill with muscle dystrophy which he can exercise in place of residence nearness. Thus he founded in 2002 the first EL-hockey association in Apenrade. In the meantime, there are five associations in the town and 14 clubs with 170 members in completely Denmark. About 360 sportsmen play together in the Danish EL- hockey league. The league is divided into three divisions which determine their masters as well as the promoted teams and relegated teams and the topscorer at the seasonal end.

Transboundary contact: The
coaches and pioneers Volker
Christiansen (left) and Erhard
Frederiksen; © Just

Popular in Scandinavia, pioneering in Germany

The first and up to now only team in Germany are the "Flensburg Lions" with twelve sportsmen who also play in the Danish league. First there was the narrow contact between Danish trainer Andreas Beck by the Apenrader handicapped sport association to Volker Christiansen, the chairperson of „ Mittelpunkt Mensch – Verein für Körperbehinderte Flensburg e.V.“.

Enthusiastically Christiansen came back from the training in Apenrade in summer 2008 and decided to found his own team. Besides, he received first backing from the Danish colleagues, while his young troop could take part in the training in Apenrade and they were also made available the costly sports devices. „The basic equipment, consisting of six chairs à 7,500 euros and the boards, already devours a proud sum. Here sponsors are asked“, the German single fighter explains the initial difficulties.

Within two years Volker Christiansen was able to find a main sponsor and other sponsors with the Flensburger Lions club who allowed the acquisition of the EL-hockey chairs to him. Since the season of 2010 the German team plays under the name of the main sponsor in the Danish league. „We want no competition between both nations. It is just the special that Germans and Danes pursue together the sport in a team. Three Germans and a Danish player belong to the team Flensburg Lions“, he reports. „But the biggest thing for me is that children, youngsters or adults with partly multiple physical disabilities play together in a team. You learn the common succeeding and losing. A situation which they don't have in the everyday life, otherwise.“

Transfer into the sports device: With the club's own lifter he is placed in his EL-hockey chair; © Just

Learning to win and lose with fair play

Fair play, stronger self-confidence and bigger social competence are other aspects which are coached by the sport and affect the everyday life positively. „Up to now one says for disabled persons mostly: You aren't able to do this or this is not possible any more. Now with the EL-hockey the active ones can say: I am able to do this namely still damn well, because I am better than the non-disabled persons“, the 46-year-old chairperson of the association describes the positive effects of the sport.

To see the bright faces of their children, the families accept a lot. Up to four months in summer in which no training takes place the parents drive almost every week-end from Hamburg, Kiel, Norderbrarup or Flensburg to Apenrade for training. However, for Dorothea Kropf, the mother of Tobias, this is no load. „For us it indicates to see joy and fun how the children and youngsters meet, fight together and friendship beyond the borders originates. If they outgrow their abilities and we see their beaming faces, while they sit in their EL-chairs, the motivation is enough for us.“

In spite of scanty financial means the parents of Tobias are involved especially strongly in the association. Father Thorsten Kropf has made coaching certificvate in the end of 2009 and Dorothea intends to take the referee's exam after end of this year's Danish course for club members. The biggest success up to now of the Flensburger lions is the fifth place in "Malmö Open", an important handicapped sport tournament in Sweden.

Father and coach: Thorsten Kropf
gibes tactical instructions; © Just

Volker Christiansen wants to make EL-hockey also in Germany more popular. „The advantage of this sport is that there is no age restriction and people can sit down with the most different impediments in the sports device and drive off immediately. The niceties they learn mostly very fast. Deterrent for the associations are absolutely the high costs. However, the manufacturer offers also to lease the chairs what considerably contributes to the cost reduction. My wish would be that we have an own league in a few years in Germany.“

Text and photos: Ilke Just