Mission: Enhancing life's participation through sports and recreation by leveling the playing field.
Vision: People with all abilities participate and/or compete in as varied activities as the rest of the community. Participants feel comfortable trying new sports and recreation opportunities and exploring new ways of doing previous activities. Madonna's Adaptive Sports & Recreation Program is a leader and resource for other communities.
Benefits: Children and adults with acquired physical disabilities as a result of traumatic injury or illness often are not aware of the availability and benefits of recreation and adaptive sports activities. Just as with able-bodied individuals, participation in recreational activities promotes physical health and wellness by increasing heart and respiration rates, facilitating muscle tone, maintaining optimal weight, and honing agility skills. These activities can also impact social and emotional wellbeing by providing interaction with peers, offering distraction from the stress of daily life, and providing individuals with a sense of personal accomplishment and satisfaction.
Therapeutic: Integration of adaptive sports and recreation activities into rehabilitation provides a unique and fun context for working on specific therapeutic activities and skills such as balance, coordination, advanced gait training, fine motor control, and even cognition (thinking skills) and communication. Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital is one of the only hospitals in the region that offers a structured Adaptive Sports & Recreation Program with multiple opportunities for inpatients, outpatients, and community members to participate in various sports.
Madonna's Adaptive Sports & Recreation Program has three basic areas of focus: Open Recreation, Adaptive Sports Workshops and Competition.
Open Recreation: Madonna Rehabilitation hospital offers scheduled opportunities to learn or enhance skills specific to a certain sport. Each open time allows a person interested in a sport to work in a non intimidating environment with hands-on instruction. Whether you are a person who has enjoyed a sport in the past or is interested in acquiring a new hobby, then open recreation is a perfect opportunity to try a sport with instruction. The following sports are offered on a regular schedule, monthly:
- Tennis -Offered the 1st Monday of each month from 1:30-2:30 PM at the Woods Tennis Center, 33rd & J Streets. Participants will learn basic skills and adaptations with a professional instructor provided by Woods Tennis Center. Skills that are worked on include hand-eye coordination, range of motion, wheelchair movement if necessary, fore hands, back hands, etc.
- Golf -Offered the 3rd Monday from Nov - March each month from 3-4 PM at Wilderness Ridge Golf Course 22nd & Yankee Hill Rd. Participants will be able to utilize the heated hitting bays as well as the indoor pitch and putt green. Participants will learn basic skills such as grip, swing and the use of adaptive clubs if needed for those using a wheelchair. Instruction will be given by Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital staff. During the spring thru fall months, golf open time will be held at Jim Ager Golf course on the 3rd Thursday of each month 2-3 pm. This will run from April thru October.
- Basketball -Offered the 1st Monday of each month from 11am-12:00pm at Madonna ProActive, 7111 Stephanie Ln. Participants will learn basic basketball skills with or without the use of a wheelchair. In a wheelchair, participants will learn to move, dribble, and shoot using the adaptation as well as the rules of the game. Instruction will be given by Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital staff.
- Marksmanship -Offered the 4th Wednesday of each month from 2:30-3:30 PM at the Lincoln Parks and Recreation Rifle Range 11th & military Rd. Participants will learn basic marksmanship skills in a controlled and supervised environment. Instruction is given by a trained range master provided by Lincoln Parks and Recreation. Ammunition and firearms are provided as well as some adaptive equipment.
In addition to the regular offering described above, Madonna frequently holds other open recreation offerings, such as fishing, bowling, or quad rugby.
Adaptive Sports Workshops: Madonna offers affordable workshops to the community on various adaptive sports. To find out dates and times of the workshops and to register on line, go to the Event Calendar.
- Adaptive Sports Fair:Each September, as part of the celebration of Rehabilitation Week, Madonna offers an Adaptive Sports Fair. The fair, held at Madonna ProActive link is free and open to the public. The fair gives participants an opportunity to receive information on a variety of sports through demonstrations, hands-on experiences, and interactions with actively involved athletes with disabilities. Examples of activities include: mouth sketching, quad rugby, wheelchair basketball, handcycling, sit ski, Sip'N Puff playstation, adaptive photography, and social dance.
- First Swing Golf Workshop:The Madonna Adaptive Sports and Recreation Program collaborated with the National Amputee Golf Association and the Highlands Golf Course to hold the "First Swing Learn to Golf Workshop" in Spring 2007. The workshop was conducted by instructors from the National Amputee Golf Association. The workshop is designed to provide clinicians training of the golf swing in order to use golf as a tool to work on rehabilitation skills and to assist individuals with physical limitations to learn or relearn the game of golf. The first part of the workshop is set up to train the clinicians and the second half is for individuals with physical limitations to attend and receive golf instruction and information from the newly trained therapists.
- Adaptive Sports Camp:Madonna has received funding from the Lincoln Community Foundation to host an Adaptive Sports Camp for teens and pre-teens with physical disabilities. The day camp, to be held at Madonna ProActive during Spring break, will offer opportunities for participants to try out a variety of adaptive sports and to interact with adult athletes with disabilities.
Competition: Madonna supports athletes with disabilities in many ways.
- The Madonna Magic:A competitive wheelchair basketball team, the Magic is a member of the Mid-West Conference and is associated with the National Wheelchair Basketball Association. The current team is made up of players from eastern Nebraska but is open to all. The team practices regularly at Madonna ProActive Health & Fitness Center and travels throughout the region competing in tournaments and exhibitions.
- Capital City Wheelchair Tennis Classic:An annual spring tennis tournament, the Capital City Wheelchair Tennis Classic is a USTA sanctioned tennis tournament. In conjunction with the Cornhusker Wheelchair Athletic Association, Madonna sponsors this event. Athletes from throughout the region converge on the Woods Tennis Center for this exciting event. The tournament is open to any member of the USTA.
- Golf "Fore" All Abilities:This tournament is usually held toward the beginning of June and is typically held at the Highlands Golf Course in Lincoln. The format for the tournament is done in a scotch doubles format paring up a person with an activity limitation to one without. Participants with and without disabilities alternate shots during this tournament.
- Madonna Invitational Basketball Tournament:The Madonna Invitational Basketball Tournament is an annual event typically held in February. Teams from throughout the region are invited to compete in a round robin formatted tournament. The action is fast paced and the competition fierce.
- Athletic Sponsorships:Madonna's Adaptive Sports & Recreation Program offers financial assistance to athletes with disabilities who are interested in furthering their goals and need some help. Scholarship or sponsorships may be given to help off-set equipment costs, travel costs or team sponsorship. Individuals must have a disability and meet other criteria. For more information or to apply, contact Ian Thompson at 402-486-7766 or email ithompson@madonna.org.
- National Wheelchair Basketball Association:The National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) is comprised of over 200 basketball teams within twenty-two conferences. The NWBA was founded in 1948, and today consists of men's, women's, intercollegiate, and youth teams throughout the United States of America and Canada.
