Salut! This Wheelchair Rugby Team Can Tackle Almost Everything

Wheelchair rugby isn’t just a sport – for someone like 21-year-old Riya Gupta, it’s what became her lifeline.

To the members, this team is a lifeline that has helped them traverse the challenging distance from dependence to independence. (Photo Courtesy: Indian Wheelchair Rugby)

A cheerful buzz of voices, interspersed with giggles, can be heard as one enters a bright, open compound in Delhi’s Kailash Colony.

The Wheelchair rugby team started with four members in 2008 and now boasts of 20 full-fledged members. (Photo Courtesy: Indian Wheelchair Rugby)

Here, a motley assortment of people can be seen whizzing around on wheelchairs, passing a ball around.They form a part of India’s first wheelchair rugby team, which started with merely four members in 2008 and now boasts of 20 full-fledged members from Delhi NCR alone.

We have reached out to 100 people across the country through our direct outreach programmes and camps. Today, we have people practicing wheelchair rugby in Mohali, Mumbai, Kolkata and more.
– Nikhil Kumar Guptaa, one of the initial four members

Life-changing Experiences

To the members, this is more than just a team – it’s a lifeline that has helped them traverse the challenging distance from dependence to independence.

Riya Gupta was just a teenager, when a dive in the shallow end of the pool turned her from a swimming champion to a bed-ridden invalid, with no sensation in her torso, arms and legs. Riya was crushed, absolutely unable to cope with the idea of being bound to a wheelchair for life.

Nikhil Kumar Guptaa too had thought that his life had ended in 2008 when he was rendered a quadriplegic after an accident. It was during physiotherapy sessions at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, or ISIC, in Vasant Kunj, that both found out about wheelchair rugby.

I saw a film, More Than Walking by American filmmaker Jonathan Sigworth who had become a quadriplegic after falling down a very steep hillside in Mussoorie in 2005. He had come to India for a gap year programme when the accident took place. I was so inspired that I contacted him over email.
– Nikhil Kumar Guptaa

Jonathon Sigworth (Left), Nikhil Kumaar Guptaa (Centre). (Photo: Nikhil Kumar Guptaa)

After his rehabilitation in Connecticut, Sigworth returned to ISIC, where he had been treated, to help others like him through this tumultuous time in their lives. He also established the trust, titled Empowering Spinal Cord Injured Persons (ESCIP), to this effect.

Just because you’re in a wheelchair doesn’t mean you’re a fragile person... it doesn’t mean you can’t take control.
– Jonathan Sigworth in a previous interview

Rugby was chosen over other sports as it strengthens the upper body and doesn’t allow the muscles to waste away. Being a team sport, with 12 members playing at a time, it also creates a sense of wellbeing and camaraderie. Four patients from ISIC got together and formed a team under Sigworth’s guidance.

The new set of friends helped each other achieve emotional independence. (Photo Courtesy: Indian Wheelchair Rugby)

“I found people who were in the same situation as me and it became easy to discuss my problems and emotional turmoil,” says Riya Gupta, who was the only girl on the team back then.

The new set of friends planned picnics together, practised together, went for movies and most of all, helped each other achieve emotional independence.

But the most heartening experience was the match that they played in Bengaluru against Brazil in 2009 as part of the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports (IWAS) championships. From four, the number grew to 12 and the team went to South Korea for the Asia Para-Games in 2014 where wheelchair rugby had been included for the first time.

Wheelchair rugby is being used as a therapeutic tool to rehabilitate quadriplegic patients. (ESCIP)(Photo Courtesy: Indian Wheelchair Rugby)

The Way Forward

Efforts are also on to get the team recognition by the Paralympic Committee of India. “Talks are on. But they need to get more national representation first. Only then can we give them the recognition,” says Chandrashekhar, secretary of the committee. The team members are now working in this direction.

Existing members of the team have found new meaning to their lives. (Photo Courtesy: Indian Wheelchair Rugby)

Camps were held in January this year for aspiring players in Delhi, Mohali and Mumbai. Two more camps are going to be held soon – in Bihar this September and in Kolkata by the end of October.

Meanwhile, existing members have found new meaning to their lives. Riya Gupta, now 21, is pursuing a BA degree while 32-year-old Nikhil Kumar Guptaa is working as a senior quality assurance engineer at Oracle. The team meets every weekend, barring the hot summer months, where the members train for two to three hours. This includes 10 rounds of propelling the wheelchairs, throwing and catching the ball, and more – after which they proceed to play the game for an hour.

A quad rugby player needs to be on a rigorous fitness regime including mobility drills, wheelchair skills and agility and endurance exercises. (Photo Courtesy: Indian Wheelchair Rugby)

A Word of Advice

Dr HS Chhabra, chief of spine service and medical director, Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, Delhi, believes that awareness about quad rugby in India has been increasing steadily since its introduction, but aspiring players need to follow some guidelines:

• For a person to be able to play quad rugby he should be out of the acute phase of surgery and rehabilitation.
• The sport can be taken up only after proper recuperation. Additionally, the person should be well-versed with wheelchair skills.
• A quad rugby player needs to be on a rigorous fitness regime including mobility drills, wheelchair skills and agility and endurance exercises. The fitness regime varies for different players. A healthy and nutritious (high protein diet) plan needs to be followed.