Disability Sport Wales
Chwaraeon Anabledd Cymru

Blog 5. Caroline Matthews The Road To Beijing With The GB Wheelchair Basketball Squad

Blog 5 – February 2008

With approximately 200 hundred days to go until the Beijing Paralympics my calendar has gone crazy – January and the first half of February has completely flown past!

Work has been very busy since i got back to the office (after my operation) – there was quite a backlog although I am now beginning to see the light at the end of that particular tunnel. I have managed to make three out of the last four regional sessions in Aylesbury (which has meant incredibly long Monday’s – leaving work in Cardiff at 3pm and getting home around midnight). My individual GB sessions have re-started…and I am enjoying the visits from GB Regional Coach Sinclair Thomas – who comes down to Cardiff and hands out over an hour of pain with a huge grin on his face!!! But its nice to be pushed – and its so much easier to really challenge yourself when you have someone with you whilst you train…so I really look forward to my Thursday sessions with “Saint”.

This month has also seen a further instalment of the GBWBA Women’s League – when my team (Force) came up against our arch rivals (Vixens) and we fought through a very close match. With 13 minutes to go, one of our players fouled out and (due to the points restrictions and our short bench) we were forced to play out the remainder of the match 5 on 4! When Lou got fouled out we were a mere 10 points in the lead – but we all showed true grit and determination and managed to retain a lead for the longest 13 minutes of my playing career!! We won 41-38….and it was one of those memorable basketball moments that I will probably be talking about for years to come!!! (I might need to get out more!!!)

And all this is in addition to my national league commitments with my club (CELTS) and my superleague and Europcup matches (with Oldham Owls). This level of chaos is the shape of things to come for the next 8 months. When you look at it all in one go it can be very daunting – you start wondering how you will find the energy to keep up this level of training as well as working full time and still having some time to see your friends!

Towards the end of January 2008, the pool draw took place for the Wheelchair Basketball competition at the Beijing Paralympics 2008….and the Great Britain women have been drawn in a pool with USA, Australia, Germany and Brasil. If recent form is anything to go by, the top four teams in the world are USA, Germany, Australia and Canada – so you can see for yourself that we have had an horrendous pool draw….but, if anything, this motivates me to train even harder. I will have the opportunity (if i get selected) to play against the best in the world – and that will drive me to squeezing even more training in around my job!

The only unknown entity in our pool is Brasil…I have never seen them at an international tournament but they have qualified from a very competitive region so they cannot be considered a weak team and there is a rumour that Brasil will be going to the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester later this year – so we will hopefully get to play against them before we get to Beijing.

I have had some really good news in the past few weeks…the GB Coach has decided that we are not going to have a squad captain anymore and instead we will have three of four squad “Leaders” – the team all voted at the last training weekend and, on this occassion, three people were chosen to be Leaders….and I was lucky enough to be one of them!! I am really flattered! In fact, I am still smiling about it now! Our first task was to gather comments from the squad and write a Report to the Coach on what the current issues and concerns are. Hopefully this will all help to improve communication within the squad – which is vitally important seeing as we all live so far apart and have so little time together.

And I’ve just had some more good news, I’ve been selected to go to Holland with the GB team over the easter weekend for a training tournament with the Dutch womens team. This is the first in a series of training tournaments over the next few months in preparation for the Paralympics – and our performances at these tournaments will form part of the selection process…..so wish me luck!

If you wish to find out more about wheelchair basketball and club opportunities, please check out our community programme website:- www.disability-sport-wales.org

Check out the Cardiff Celts website to find out even more about wheelchair basketball in Cardiff and don’t forgot to come back in a couple of weeks for Caroline’s 6th blog.
www.cardiffwheelchairbasketball.co.uk

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Keep updated with Caroline’s progress as she prepares for the Womens Wheelchair Basketball competition at the Beijing Paralympics in September.

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