Luticha

Challenge:

Luticha loves to be active – indeed, her body does so much better when she maintains an active pace. Finding things she can do and wants to do, though, may not always be as easy for her as it is for others. Having sustained a spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury as a youth, Luticha is up for adventures where she can go with her wheelchair and where she can focus and apply new skills in comfort physical and social comfort. She has tried many sports and has found a couple that resonate with her mind and body, particularly fencing.

Solution:

Fencing is an amazing sport combining a zesty physical approach with the mental battle of a chess game. Most people may be familiar with standup fencing but may not have heard of wheelchair fencing, or parafencing. Fortunately for our region, we have a wheelchair fencing coach who is very passionate about introducing a variety of people to fencing.

Luticha began training with Coach Semion before he had a physically accessible space for his studio, and when he established Ludus Fencing Studio in Greece, NY, Luticha followed him there. The training was exactly what she wanted – and what her body responded very well to.

The physical nature of the sport challenged Luticha to develop stronger core muscles, increase her stamina, and focus in ways to develop her strategy for playing against an opponent. Indeed, she found greater physical and mental health benefits from fencing than she had ever experienced with more typical ‘prescribed’ workouts such as those using standard gym equipment. “As a quadriplegic,” she says, “I have gained so much more muscle and function that doctors and physical therapists said that I shouldn’t have gained even after 36 years of my injury.” This was so evident that she and her doctor often discussed the need for this kind of prescription to be given, matching a person to the activity that benefitted them the most, and having insurance cover it similarly to a Silver Sneakers program.

A new development happened at Ludus Fencing Studio when Coach Semion began working with Rochester Accessible Adventures in an Inclusion Partnership. We were able to secure funding for a pair of wheelchair fencing frames and auxiliary equipment that enables wheelchair fencers to play safer and more aggressively.

“I’m very grateful to finally have the frames to fence in,” says Luticha. “I had been fencing for a few years without the frames and it caused my wheelchair to break on a weekly basis. My tires were out of alignment, my brakes constantly needed readjusting. But more importantly, it didn’t feel safe. I couldn’t do really strong lunges or else the wheelchair would tip over and Semion would have to try and catch me. So a lot of the work that we did was on blade work but wheelchair fencing is about the back and forth movement and I couldn’t do that without the frames. It’s also nice to know that my wheelchair is not going to break as frequently!”

Once those frames were in place, Semion could begin direct outreach to people who use wheelchairs, inviting them – probably their first invitation! – to try out an exciting sport. We co-hosted En Garde workshops, and Luticha was the premiere guide, alongside Coach Semion, to demonstrate the sport.

Luticha commented

“The En Garde workshops were really fun! I enjoyed seeing so many wheelchair users getting exposed to a sport that most people don’t think is for them but it really is! Seeing folk engage as well as the opportunity to have a sport that they can do from their own chairs was a sight to see! The club felt alive!”

“For me, being able to have someone to fence with who is also a wheelchair user can help me grow to a competitive level. There are certain drills and sparring techniques that can only be done with another wheelchair user. So getting someone else into the gym not only helps attain my own personal growth goals, but it is also beneficial for the non-disabled fencers to experience fencing with multiple types of wheelchair users.”

Luticha’s experience searching for an activity that meets her needs is been about not only equipment and knowledgeable instructors. It has also been about finding a welcoming space – a place that anticipates her participation.  Luticha describes it this way:

“Ludus is a very unique place. Semion believes that everyone should fence at the level that they want to and he provides an encouraging environment …and all of the disabled fencers have entered competitions and are growing to be high-ranking fencers! It’s a place where we are supported, cared for, and we get to stab each other. It’s my home away from home.”