bocciaraf

[bocciaraf]

A sporting account… on Tumblr?

Bit of an experiment, this. Hopefully not a mistake.

Hello. I’m Rafael. I play boccia, which is a Paralympic sport (e.g., a sport which is in the Paralympics, like goalball, wheelchair rugby, etc). It’s a cousin of pétanque, lawn bowls, curling, and all those other sports whose ancient ancestor is someone going “I bet I can get my rock closer to that pebble over there than you can get yours”. Boccia is played indoors, in a space almost exactly the same size as a badminton court, as individuals, in pairs, or teams of 3. In the UK the overwhelming emphasis is on individual play, although pairs and teams competition is growing in global significance.

I’m a member of the newly reformed England squad, run by our governing body Boccia England, and I’m classified as a BC3 athlete - that means that instead of throwing or kicking the balls, we roll them down a ramp instead. The ramp is positioned, and balls set up on it for us, by a Ramp Operator - for me, that’s either one of my personal assistants, or increasingly, my partner. The RO isn’t allowed to see what’s going on on the court, they have to keep their back to it at all times during matchplay - they’re only allowed to physically help, not tactically help.

Playing boccia changed my life - I’ve always been a competitive person but until I discovered the sport in 2012, aged 27, had not only no access to participate in sports but no idea that a sport I could meaningfully play even existed. My sporting career is a direct legacy of the 2012 London Paralympics; it was the presentation of the Boccia UK Squad at the opening ceremony which resulted in the penny dropping. I was at my first club session within a few weeks, and attended my first competition a few weeks after that - I won a bronze medal, and was hooked.

My breakout year was the 2018-2019 season; our last complete season before the pandemic brought everything to a screeching halt. That year I zoomed my way through the Heathcoat Cup national finals - our ‘second division’ competition, a precious space for beginner and improving players to learn their trade without getting steamrollered by the pros - which qualified me directly into the BE Cup Finals, which is the de facto England national championship. I won my pool, unbeaten, and ultimately came 4th, which saw me begin the 2019-2020 season ranked 5th in England, behind two international athletes and two England players.

After that came a funny couple of years; half a season and two bronze medals in BE Cup Qualifiers before the pandemic stopped everything, and then a heavily modified “Back to Boccia” season for 2021-2022, at which I won the gold medal at two of the three Back To Boccia Cup events, went and won the qualifying tournament for the German National Boccia Championships in Düsseldorf - broadening my horizons as a dual national - before being selected for my very first Boccia UK Challenger. The Challengers are events run by BUK to provide the UK national squad, and selected others from the home countries, with additional formal competition experience. At the Gloucester Challenger there were 4 Boccia UK-supported athletes; two men from the World Class Programme and two women being supported in their development with coaching and world-class equipment, including Paralympian Scott McCowan, who had come 4th in Tokyo just nine months earlier. I beat all four UK athletes, and ultimately came second to my England colleague Matt Berry. That silver medal is my greatest achievement, to date. Matt and I followed that up with another one-two finish at the special, pandemic-edition competition run within the talent pathway as a substitute for the England national championships, which resulted in my being selected for my very first UK National Championships, where I lost only to the two McCowan brothers, Paralympians both, and ultimately came 6th. Just a fortnight later I was in Berlin, where I won the silver medal in the German National Championships.

I’ve just kicked off the 2022-2023 season with a very solid 5th place at the first BE Cup qualifier competition, and I’m off up to the SMILE Boccia Open tomorrow, to train up a shiny new personal assistant as a ramp operator. Wish us luck!

http://www.rafaelyoung.co.uk