Rethinking patient care: GVSU students join amputees at adaptive soccer clinic

Grand Valley physical therapy and recreational therapy students gathered at the Grand Rapids Soccer Society for their first adaptive soccer clinic.

The U.S. Amputee Football Federation event was sponsored by Mary Free Bed and Rehabilitation Center and invited GVSU physical and recreational therapy students to take part in learning and working with the amputees who attended.

Caleb Griffith, a second-year physical therapy student, helped organize the GVSU students to attend the clinic.

“In our curriculum, it's not always guaranteed that we’ll get a lot of exposure to amputees and how to work with them,” Griffith said. “Just to see how able they are to kind of break the narrative of what they can and can't do is something that we’re looking forward to.”

Adaptive soccer is played with forearm crutches and is designed to make the sport accessible to those with a full or partial amputation of the leg. Amputees typically play without their prosthesis on, and the students played with one leg permanently held off the ground.

Emily Gray, a recreational therapy student, said the clinic is a great opportunity for her and her classmates to gain perspective on the lives of those they will work with in their careers.

“Having that hands-on experience, actually doing things to learn about, talk about and experience the emotions that are tied to something like this allows us to truly understand and put into practice what we’re learning,” she said.

Lauren Jones, a physical therapist with Mary Free Bed and a volunteer with the U.S. Amputee Football Federation, organized the clinic. Jones said her experience working with Grand Valley students in the past played a major role in her connecting with the university to work together on the soccer clinic.

“The [physical therapy students] and the rec therapy students at Grand Valley grabbed onto this idea and loved it and wanted to run with it,” Jones said.

Jones has experience as a volunteer with adaptive soccer, running similar clinics on Michigan’s east side. She said the clinic in Grand Rapids fulfills her goal of introducing adaptive soccer clinics to West Michigan as well.

During the clinic, amputees and students practiced moving around with the forearm crutches before introducing the soccer ball and learning how to dribble with one foot and the crutches. After the practice drills, the students and amputees played together in short scrimmages.

“We get to try it, and we get to kind of learn about how they function in everyday life,” said Christian Helmkamp, a second-year physical therapy student.

Andrew Seelhoff, an amputee who participated in clinics Jones volunteered at in Ann Arbor, said events like the adaptive soccer clinic are a great way for amputees to get involved in their community.

“Getting to know amputees and other people with limb loss and see that they're able to play sports and do other things too…It’s a great way for me to stay involved with the amputee community,” Seelhoff said.

For Darcy Traxler, an amputee and one of Jones' patients, seeing so many Grand Valley students attending the event was gratifying.

“It's super refreshing to me to see so many students out here wanting to make sure they understand how we live as amputees,” Traxler said. “That's going to provide better quality of physical therapy for the amputee community.”

Traxler is three months out from osseointegration surgery, anchoring an implant for her prosthesis with the bone. She said attending the clinic and seeing other amputees all at different stages of physical therapy and experience gave her perspective on what is possible.

“You get to see the full spectrum and kind of see where you can soar to,” she said.

Griffith said the group hopes to run adaptive soccer clinics in Grand Rapids two or three times a year and continue bringing more physical therapy and recreational therapy students in to participate

“If it grows, we’ll see where it takes us,” Griffith said. “Let's come out and learn, and also just enjoy a different facet of patient advocacy and patient care.”