Hannah Cockroft Column

I have a whole new respect for football following my taster session with the fantastic players and coaches at Leeds Powerchair Football Club.

They signed up to the Parasport website and won a competition to have a Paralympian of their choice attend one of their sessions. For some strange reason they chose me!

So I went along and gave powerchair football a go. It surprised me – it was a lot more technical than I thought it would be. The chairs are so sensitive, the slightest movement and you’re flying around the court. I was fully in control but felt like I had no control at all. With a race chair, everything has to be such a big, elaborate movement and you’re not going to do a little push and move very fast. Whereas with this there were no big movements, it was all tiny adjustments that made the biggest difference.

Not being a football fan, I didn’t know the rules so they had their work cut out! But I loved it, and it’s definitely a sport that should be at the Paralympics. It’s exciting to play and watch, and they are so talented at what they do.

They were a lovely group – very supportive and patient with me – and knew how to challenge me just enough to get me fired up and wanting to compete. At the same time, I think they knew I was a bit scared of the chairs and of crashing!

I’m going to stick to racing for now, that’s my sport, but you never know. Once I’ve learnt the rules of football properly you might see me on the court again!

The Parasport website is fantastic. It’s something that’s been needed for a long time. With parasports it can be so difficult to find a local club in the sport that you want. Before now there has never been a comprehensive database of those activities. I love that’s an option now because it’s going to encourage more people to realise what sports are out there for them. It’s going to encourage them to go along and give it a try, and if it’s just down the road people are far more likely to get in touch and take that first step.

Getting people to ‘give it a go’ is how you find the next generation of Paralympians. I gave racing a go and that was 11 years ago. Hopefully, people have already used Parasport to start their journey and are well on the path to Paralympic success.

On track, I was delighted with the first part of my season ahead of our World Championships in November. In Switzerland I went quicker than any of the times I managed last year and broke my 400m world record, so I’m heading in the right direction. Plus, I still recognised things that I need to improve on which is great news going forward.

There were a lot of new girls on the start line out there – about six new faces. I haven’t seen that in my classification since 2012, so that shows that the sport is still growing and improving. For the first time ever I was the only Brit on the start-line, and I really enjoyed that.

I focused on my starts over the winter because they have always been a really weak part of my race. Switzerland proved to me that all that hard work has paid off but I had perhaps ignored the rest of the race too much.

Now we’ve got the time to go back and focus on that and hopefully maintain the improvements I’ve made at the start. Everyone has an area they need to work on and it changes. At points in my career I’ve had a good start, middle or end – it’s just working out how to put all three together! •

Irwin Mitchell is proud to sponsor Hannah Cockroft’s column in Agility Magazine. www.irwinmitchell.com