Miami pickleball program helping and inspiring athletes with disabilities

Miami Herald

2 days ago

When Hector Perez plays pickleball, he forgets that he has two prosthetic legs.
Perez, 61, lost his legs due to a combination of diabetes and the physical trauma of a motorcycle crash on Miami Beach's West Avenue 15 years ago.
Not that he thinks about that when he's on a pickleball court.
'When I'm playing, I do not feel disabled,' Perez said. 'I am competing – just like anybody else.
'I'm addicted to pickleball!'
Perez is one of a dozen or so men and women with disabilities who came out to Doral's Champions club once a week this summer for pickleball classes.
This is the second year of the program. However, it's not a year-round thing, and the classes ended recently, in mid-July.
'We're upset,' Perez said. 'We don't want to have to wait until next year to play again.'
Carlos Marquez, a 47-year-old native of Venezuela, is the pickleball coach for this program, which has been funded through the Way Forward Foundation.
But if the funding runs dry, Marquez said he is willing to step up, and, in fact, he has already made calls to businesses that may be able to help.
Marquez, who trains professional pickleball players, said he wouldn't trade working with people such as Perez for anything.
'Last year, we had a guy who had a stroke, and he started our program by using a walker,' Marquez said. 'By the end of the eight weeks, he was almost running.
'This year, we had two guys who had strokes. In the beginning, we had to hold them up. Now they are playing on their own.
'You can't put a price on how good that makes me feel. It's priceless.'
Aside from Marquez, the other key person in this program is Ashley Herrera, a recreational therapist who works for the Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center for the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at UHealth Jackson.
She primarily works with people who have had spinal-cord injuries as well as amputees. One of her colleagues at Jackson works with folks who have suffered strokes or brain injuries or have other neurological conditions.
'My role is to integrate individuals into the community and to introduce them to adaptive sports because it helps them improve their physical fitness,' Herrera said. 'Our patients are working on balance, mobility and strength, and all of that can be improved by pickleball.'
Herrera said that – because of pickleball – she has seen her patients feel more confident with their agility.
Pickleball, compared to other sports, appears to be a good fit for Herrera's patients.
'The size of the court is easier to navigate,' Herrera said. 'The ball is light-weight, and even some of our patients with impairments in their upper extremities are still able to participate to some extent.'
Beyond the improved mobility, there is also the social aspect of pickleball.
Building a community is one of Herrera's goals as she aims to help her patients feel welcome among their peers.
Perez, who walks three or four miles per day, agrees that the camaraderie he has found with his fellow patients has been a game-changer.
'The fact is that many people who have disabilities are lonely,' Perez said. 'But here you meet people who have brain injuries, spinal-cord injuries or, like myself, people without legs, and we come together for a common cause, to play pickleball.
'To me, the social aspect of pickleball is even greater than the physical component. I get really excited to come here.'
Herrera loves to hear this type of feedback from her patients.
'That's what drives me,' Herrera said. 'That's my purpose -- to see a patient learn a new sport and to see the spark in them.
'After each session, my patients have told me about a pickleball match they saw on TV. They are genuinely interested in the sport.
'There's nothing more exhilarating than to see their efforts rewarded. It's empowering, and it's emotional to feel the gratitude of their families. I'm getting teary-eyed right now.'