#lightyearssurrogatedaddy

The sport is played 4 v 4, two wings, one center, one goalie! since we usually play on indoor basketball courts there isn't exactly enough room to do the same roster size as abled soccer lol GODS that'd be so chaotic

We use metal posts to mark the edges of the goal line instead of a net (huge nightmare if a net got caught on our chairs) and the goal box is usually marked with tape, though some courts have them painted on! Usually if the facility has a home team there or hosts a lot of adaptive sports!

Every game is 45 minutes, two 20 min halves, and a 5 min halftime. switch sides at halftime and there's 3 refs, one on court (lots of dodging involved, kneecaps and shins ARE very much in danger), and two for each sideline (linesmen, they got flags!)

Players kick the ball with the guard, usually by spinning their chair for a spin kick or charging into it (chair header, also affectionately known as a cheddar), but honestly any part of the chair can be used to handle or bounce the ball, this is where the physics comes into play! spin kicks get the ball going a lot faster but cheddars are an easier way to keep speed on the ball while redirecting it. I would say it's much more intuitive for people who have been driving their own power chair for a long time, especially if their everyday chair has a back wheel drive! Just driving in a straight line forwards/backwards or weaving through some cones can be very challenging if you're not used to driving a back wheel drive power chair. For me, I've been driving my power chair for 13-14 years, I started playing shortly after I got my first chair, but it was not too hard of an adjustment actually because I'd been driving a motorized scooter since I was 5, so I was already familiar with treating my motorized mobility device like an extension of my body! and frankly playing really accelerated my everyday chair driving skills lmao! the hardest thing to adjust to is the back wheel drive because it affects where the turning radius is, it's like if someone shifted your sense of awareness 2 feet behind you. It's a critical part of power soccer chair design for it to be a back wheel drive however, non negotiable, because that's how you get power on those spin kicks! it allows the chair to spin on a dime and makes the tip of your guard the part of your chair with the most velocity!

Also, the amount of attention to detail that goes into the strikeforce, the standard soccer chair at this time (used to be the quickies!) from physical components and seating to programming, is actually insane, I'm still constantly learning new things about my chair and how to upkeep and modify it 13 years later!! there's all sorts of elements in the programming that allow you to adjust the way the chair moves according to the needs of whoever's in it! doesn't matter if you have big arm spasms from CP, limited arm/wrist movement from AMC, or can barely lift your hand from duchennes or SMA, the chair can be programmed to work for you. It's why so many people in the sport, myself included, often say it's freeing to play - it really is an extension of our body, it works for us instead of against us, and we can be competitive with it instead of just Perfectly Safe!

don't get me wrong, safety is a huge thing in this sport, a lot of players have medical stuff going on, fragile bones, chronic pain, immunocompromising conditions, etc. Some players have literally just a seatbelt and others (like me!) have straps for every part of their body and trunk supports and such! It's a lot more comfortable than it looks and I think it makes me look hot and badass honestly. Contact happens but it's actively discouraged and players often apologize on the spot when it does happen, I've literally never seen a fight break out mid game like I've seen for abled basketball and football.

That's the other thing, the general culture within the power soccer community is. fantastic??? SUPER supportive, granted there are some toxic overly competitive people but that's unavoidable. by and large players, coaches, and refs are all always helping each other, regardless of who's on what team or from where, the love of the sport transcends a lot of boundaries. People like helping each other out and helping your competition become better players (not by throwing a game, but by sharing tips and advice and extending good will in the face of a bad call) is seen as a win-win, because then that will push you to be your best too! It's super competitive without being toxic and I would not have played this long if it were any different. I love it so much. I love meeting new players and getting to help out and learn and grow with more experienced players! I've helped run some tables and demonstrations to introduce the sport to all sorts of people and it's my favorite thing to do second to actually playing on court with my team! Not everyone knows each other or are friends but goddamn it's probably the healthiest sporting community I've seen lmao it's great

Refs are generally fair too, there's a lot of mutual respect between them, the players, and the coaches, they roll with equity instead of equality which honestly is very key to making sure no one is discriminated against for their disability and the way it impacts how they play, sometimes they're biased because things like racism and homophobia don't magically disappear, but they do try and it's really appreciated. They do so much for this sport and they're genuinely appreciated!

To me power soccer has become a way of life, too, if I could live and breathe power soccer, just play it for the rest of my life, I would. If you told 12 year old me that I'd be a nonbinary lesbian jock when I grew up I'd say you were out of your mind (power soccer was also coincidentally where I first met any trans person). I never used to think I was competitive bc I hated how I was left behind or pandered to in PE, and I suppressed a lot of my competitive spirit as I grew more and more dependent on people around me due to my disability advancing. I had so many anger issues despite trying to control it. Power soccer changed that for me, it showed me that I could be aggressive and competitive without being pitied or ignored or put in dangerous positions. the physicality of it too was like fucking crack, my first time kicking that ball, I was hooked, my first in-game crash I knew I was in this for life, my first goal and I knew I wanted to become the very best I could be. You feel through the chair every time you touch the ball, you definitely feel the contact with other chairs, you feel a specific sense of a satisfying thunk when you hit the ball just right to send it flying. the adrenaline rush is incredible and not something I have a healthy way of getting in a lot of other parts of my life. the only other time I get adrenaline is when I have an anxiety attack or I'm dealing with a bad caregiver or something goes wrong with my everyday chair, it's just stress, bad stress. This? this is feeling alive. It sounds dramatic but it really is everything to me.

Here's the thing about power soccer. To be a good player, to really enjoy the sport, you have to learn how to be in the moment, how to read people, how to let every mistake or every failed plan roll off your back without a snag. These were all things I struggled with to a dysfunctional degree as a kid. I still struggle with them now, but on court, I've trained myself enough that it's like flipping a switch. And I've been trying to incorporate all of that in my everyday life, and by gods, it has done wonders for me. Playing a competitive, team sport really actually does have a lot of benefits for you, as much emotionally as it does physically! GENUINELY I do not think I would've survived highschool without it. I learned emotional and social skills that fucking saved me, I made connections with people who struggled like I had and were able to be there for me, I suddenly had role models that were regularly present in my life instead of people I watched from afar via annual symposiums or monthly newsletters. So it's a very precious thing to me, this community, this sport.

It's rapidly growing, too! not just in the USA! a lot of countries have at least one team now, and FIPFA has been hosting world cups for decades! Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Scotland, Australia, there's more and more teams every year and it's so very exciting! Unfortunately it isn't a paralympic sport yet, the paralympic committee has a thing against the motorized nature of the chairs, but trust me, it's all player skill. The chair is the equalizer, the thing that gives us this chance to be on court. it's by no means the thing that makes us skilled. We ARE athletes, in every sense of the word. But, if I'm being honest, the Paralympic committee has its issues so I'm not too torn up about us being excluded at this moment, especially with the ridiculous drama over trans athletes.

oh also power soccer isn't segregated by gender or age! anyone of any gender can play as long as they're at least 5 years old! There aren't a lot of women in the sport but many female athletes and trans athletes are in this community! The trans athletes aren't as visible or vocal for obvious reasons but we're definitely here and there's a statistically significant amount of us :)