by Oral O. Miller
After sitting all day in convention sessions, special-interest seminars and board meetings, how often have you longed for just enough of a change of pace to stretch your tired muscles a little and get your mind off resolutions and bylaws amendments? Indeed, I have — more times than you would ever guess! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if late every afternoon during the national convention you could experience a little change of pace and at the same time find out about a new recreational activity, try a new non-strenuous sport and/or test your hand at one of the latest coordination and reaction challenging toys like Bop-It? You will have an opportunity to do those things and more in the “Recreation Zone” during the coming ACB national convention in Louisville!
This year, don your comfortable clothing, loosen your tie or do whatever you like to get comfortable and join your friends in the Recreation Zone, which will be open from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. every afternoon. And what kinds of recreational activities will you be able to watch, learn about and try out?
One afternoon will feature instruction, demonstration, and participation — as much or as little as you want — in a variety of aerobic activities. No, they will not be strenuous and the instructors will not tease you if you are not quite as limber as some of your friends.
Another afternoon will feature an old, very popular and growing sport among blind and visually impaired participants — throwing darts, but with a difference, at a talking dart board! The experienced and enthusiastic dartsters will be present to show you the equipment and the technique, summarize the rules for competition (if you are interested) and perhaps tell you where you can meet with other dartsters for additional instruction and practice at other times during convention week.
Another afternoon will give you the chance to learn about — and try out, if you want — one of the most popular and exciting sports developed by blind people, and enjoyed by blind and sighted people alike, namely, goalball. This fascinating and invigorating game, which can be played recreationally or very competitively, blindfolds all the players to level the playing field. During a goalball demonstration a few years ago, I saw the governor of Colorado, dressed in a business suit, rolling and scrambling on the floor of the gymnasium in his zeal to field the ball and fire it back toward the other team. Come to the goalball demonstrations just to see who might be rolling around on the floor, firing the ball back and forth in a similar competitive frenzy, at the ACB national convention!
If you are interested in the latest computer games, or neuro-kinetic challenges like Bop-It, you will find time and space allocated on your convention schedule for those activities. No, these activities will not be going on continuously throughout the week because of the unbelievably busy schedule that characterizes the national convention, so be sure to check the convention program and the daily schedule of activities to find out when and where the diversions of your choice are taking place.
In that process, however, don’t overlook the truly unique intellectual sporting event that will take place the last few days of national convention week: the 2000 U.S. Chess Championship for the Blind! Do you recall the enormous amount of international attention that was given a number of years ago to the chess competition between a young, talented American named Bobby Fisher and a very experienced and cagey Russian veteran named Boris Spasky? Well, as an attendee at the 2000 ACB National Convention, you may have an opportunity to see a similar match as the United States Braille Chess Association (USBCA) conducts its national championship under the ACB convention organizational umbrella beginning on Friday, July 7 and ending on Sunday, July 9. This event will attract some of the best blind chess players in the country and we believe it will attract an enormous amount of media attention. In addition, one session in the Recreation Zone will be devoted to introducing attendees to the game of chess and explaining how the tournament will be conducted. In consulting with officials of the USBCA regarding the event I learned, for example, that during tournament competition each player has a board before him or her; previously I had believed, mistakenly, that both players played on the same board, thus generating an interminable amount of tactual examination and re-examination of the figures and possible moves.
In order to compete in the championship, players must be members of the U.S. Braille Chess Association as well as an international organization. Anyone who would like to take part in the event but does not already belong to the USBCA and the other organization may pay the appropriate membership fees to the USBCA before the beginning of the championship.
Sports Fanatics’ Luncheon
Veteran ACB national conventioners have surely noticed that over the years the event that was originally identified as the baseball fanatics luncheon has been renamed the Sports Fanatics’ Luncheon in order to reach a wider audience and introduce attendees to some of the outstanding blind and visually impaired athletes of the world. That event this year will feature Trischa Zorn, a world champion blind swimmer who is the most decorated disabled athlete in the world. Zorn, who grew up in southern California and was encouraged to excel by the late Dr. Charles Buell, attended the University of Nebraska on an athletic scholarship which required and enabled her to compete in an exceptionally high level of mainstream competition. She is now in training at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, where she is preparing to represent the USA in the Paralympics in Sydney, Australia this fall. There is not space in this article to list all the international championships she has won and the number of international and world records she holds. Though her training schedule will not allow her to be in Louisville very long, we hope that she will be able to drop by the Recreation Zone on Monday afternoon.
As for the second sports figure who will share the luncheon spotlight with Trischa Zorn, the coordinator of the event has informed me that he is working hard to get Paul Hornung, a Louisville native who became famous a number of years ago as a member of the Green Bay Packers professional football team.
As you can tell, we are very excited about the range of recreational opportunities which we can make available to our convention attendees this year. Whether you are a dyed-in-the-wool sports fanatic or a tentative neophyte just wanting to learn what kinds of recreational activities may be accessible to you as a visually impaired person, the ACB national convention is just your ticket!