Ability First Sports

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Adaptive Club

Ability First Sports is a wheelchair sports program designed to provide instructional & recreational sports opportunities to youth with physical disabilities.

Ability First Sports began in 1985 at California State University, Chico through the Physical Education Department to educate and train physical education professionals to proactively include adapted sports and recreation in schools. As a leader in the industry, Ability First emerged as an annual summer youth sports camp to develop recreational and athletic opportunities for youth with physical disabilities. Since then, Ability First Sports has provided sports instruction and training to over 1,000 wheelchair athletes in the Western U.S. who can benefit from sports instruction to develop an active and healthy lifestyle.

After over 30 years of coaching youth in adapted sports, Ability First Sports is positioned as a regional leader for adapted sports summer camp experiences where youth learn to develop an active lifestyle through sports instruction and coaching. Over the next few years, Ability First Sports is developing a destination adapted sports campus to bring wheelchair athletes to year-round experiences to develop independence, endurance, strength and leadership in their communities for health & wellness. Ability FIrst continues to train families to advocate for equal particpation and inclusion in sports and recreation.

Activities

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Running/Wheelchair Racing

Getting Started Start Slow to Go Fast Just because you have never run farther than the bus stop, is not a reason to ignore the pleasures of recreational and competitive running. The sport provides many benefits. Besides improving overall health, cholesterol levels, and lung function, running is a confidence booster, a stress reliever,…

Becoming Familiar with Sitting Volleyball See You On The Floor! Looking for a sport that will give you a cardio workout, challenge your strategic thinking, and enable you to be on a team, all while just having fun? Then sitting volleyball may be perfect for you. Like many adaptive sports, sitting volleyball can be played…

Since the first Paralympic Games in Rome in 1960, swimming has been one of the Games’ main sports. The thrill of competition aside, swimming offers many benefits including strengthening the cardiovascular systems and the major muscle groups of both the upper and lower body. It also develops flexibility in the muscles and joints as…

Archery is a versatile activity. It is something that can be done for fun, for hunting, or for competition. “Target shooting wasn’t a thing for me,” said US Para Archery Head Coach Jonathan Clemins. “But I realized I enjoyed shooting my bow as much as I enjoyed hunting.” In addition, archery can be a year-round…

Rain, sleet, snow, or hail … it seems that no matter the weather, you can always see a cyclist biking for pleasure, on an errand, or keeping fit. The love of bike riding is rapidly growing across nearly every demographic. Cycling has always been a great way to enjoy the outdoors, socialize with fellow bikers,…

“That’s what makes golf so great. It’s a handicap system. If I’m playing against a guy who’s got all his limbs and he’s got a 14 handicap, I’ve got to give him seven strokes. Golf is such an equal game because of the handicap system. That’s what makes it fun for people everywhere to play.”…

There is a rapidly growing adaptive sport that is changing the way people think of those using a power chair. That sport is power soccer. “It is not only changing the perception others have, but also how participants think of themselves,” said Jonathan Newman, the Adult Sports Coordinator at Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program…

The people you meet through tennis are friendly, happy, optimistic and outgoing, They just want to have a good time and want others to have a good time. – Steve Kappes, Director of the San Diego Wounded Warrior Tennis Program and Director of Military Outreach for the San Diego District Tennis Association All About…

Water Skiing 101 Ride the Wake! There is nothing like spending a warm summer day by the water. But water-skiers will tell you that even better is a day spent water skiing along on the surface of the water with the wind in their hair. Don’t think because you have a disability that you can’t…

Trying to describe the sport of wheelchair rugby may be difficult. You just have to see it. Better yet, you just have to play it. “There really isn’t an able-bodied counterpart,” according to Katie Joly, program manager at the Gaylord Hospital Sports Association, a Move United member organization based in Connecticut. “It is a mixture…

In the beginning you had to have a spinal cord injury in order to play wheelchair basketball. But that, much like the game itself, has come a long way since 1946. Today, in order to be eligible to play wheelchair basketball within the NWBA (National Wheelchair Basketball Association) a person must have a permanent lower…

Track and Field is the largest Olympic and Paralympic sport in terms of the number of athletes and number of classifications and categories. In addition to the races that take place on the track, there are a number of competitions that take place on the field inside the track. In particular, there are throwing and…