Goal-Driven: Dylan Kelsall's Triumph in Powerchair Football

In this awesome episode of the Moving Mission Podcast, join Anne-Marie Martin and Jack Wells as they delve into the remarkable world of powerchair football with Dylan Kelsall. 

Despite being diagnosed with Ullrich congenital muscular dystrophy and undergoing numerous surgeries, 20-year-old Dylan has defied the odds to become a top scorer for the England Powerchair Football Squad. 

From his early struggles to his triumphs on the national team and his commitment to giving back through volunteer work, Dylan's story is a testament to the power of resilience, ambition, and the unyielding human spirit. 

Tune in to discover how Dylan challenges perceptions, inspires his peers, and continues to pursue his dreams against all odds.

Moving Mission with Anne-Marie Martin & Jack Wells: Unveiling Inspirational Stories of Perseverance and Triumph in Movement and Sports. Each episode, edited by Mike Roberts at Making Digital Real.

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Transcript

Anne-Marie Martin: 0:02

Hello, and welcome to the moving mission podcast with me Amory Martin

Jack Wells: 0:06

from DD dance, and me, Jack wills, the one that dancer Join

Anne-Marie Martin: 0:10

us as we discussed the importance of moving impact

Jack Wells: 0:14

inclusion and benefits for both physical and mental health.

Anne-Marie Martin: 0:20

Hello, and welcome to this episode of the move intermission podcast. So today, we have got another guest with us. So we've been exploring lots of different types of moving to music and moving physical activity and sports. And we are going to speak to a lovely guy called Dylan today who plays powerchair football. So I'm Amory Martin from Diddy dance.

Jack Wells: 0:46

And I'm Jack was one a dancer. And Dylan,

Anne-Marie Martin: 0:49

welcome on to the podcast.

Dylan Kelsall: 0:51

Thank you for having me.

Anne-Marie Martin: 0:53

So can you tell us a little bit about powerchair football and how you got into it.

Dylan Kelsall: 0:59

So poetry football is a it's a disability sport based a lot on the running game of football. But it's done in manufacture and electric powered wheelchairs. So for a lot of people that play, it's kind of like the only sport that they can really play. It's for severe disabilities. So we're talking basically no, no walk in very limited arm movements, maybe a limited head movement and things like that. It's a sport designed so that anyone with a physical disability can actually play a sport. And now it may not be you know, you may not get the same health benefits in terms of you know, losing weight, getting stronger muscles and things like that. But it gets your adrenaline pumping, which is something that being a wheelchair user, you can't really do. So yeah, I started out playing poacher football in 2013. So it's been quite a while now, but it was. I started playing it. I went to an open day provided by Cordwell. And they basically had the Wi Fi, which are the wheelchair Football Association. They're the ones that regulate the sport. And basically, the rules about the linesman, everything runs through the FA and the W FA, were at a Cordwell events, and there was a person, basically allowing people to have a go in the football chairs and walking through its way and where it is. That's where the benefits of it. I was about 10 years old for there's a big messy wheelchair with a bumper on the front. I want to have a go. Wow. So, so Yeah, awesome.

Anne-Marie Martin: 2:34

So how does a power chair football chair differ to your everyday chair? I presume they're different chairs?

Dylan Kelsall: 2:43

Yes. So there's been about two key iterations of power chairs. There's the standard, it started out in terms of day chairs provided by the NHS, and we would cut out cut tires and half attach ties the front of the chair, and then, you know, hit a ball with that transport that, but we went through a kind of an evolutionary phase, where we got chairs that were specifically designed for the sport. So it's gone for its progress from standard NHS chairs to bespoke sports shares. They're actually from America. Yeah. Okay. So the difference mainly, is you have a standard chair with no bumper, no external guards, no, nothing. Yeah. Whereas a football share, you'll it'll be lower to the ground because that's bare, it's safer. They'll have a bumpers a bumper so you can strike the ball. And you'll have the ball. We don't use a standard size ball because of you know, tipping over hazards and things like that. Okay, we use a larger ball that makes it you know, easier for to hit.

Jack Wells: 3:48

Yeah, there's obviously quite a bit of funding that has to go into the sport then to sort of source chairs and stuff like that as well. Yeah.

Dylan Kelsall: 3:55

So there's, a lot of people will go to different charities like God or children like variety, and other churches like that, which they will help towards the chairs because they've seen how much of an impact they actually have on people's mental health, people's, you know, actually how benefits it's, it's quite a large thing when you can do so little to improve your health. The little things you can do with adrenaline with quick thinking, will keep your mind active. It's a large watching for us.

Jack Wells: 4:22

And is it like a league that you play in? You're playing like various different types? Yeah,

Dylan Kelsall: 4:28

so there is, I believe for regional leagues and also a championship and apprenticeship so very similar to the running game. There's the championship, which you can then get promoted up to the Premiership. And that got involved everyone from the UK so we're talking people from we are people that travelled down from Scotland, people that travel up from Brighton, it's all based in Nottingham. Every competition that we do is how the Nottingham it's like the centre of the UK.

Anne-Marie Martin: 4:55

So everybody travels to Nottingham for every game. Yeah, so

Dylan Kelsall: 4:59

So every day It's held over about I think it's like six weekends, or it's six weekends of just, it's a football we play on basketball court. So we hire out to basketball courts. And we have game after game after game. And yeah, it's we so we have a league like the running game. We have top goalscorers, we have different clubs. I mean, recently, we've had even endorsement from normal running, running able bodied football clubs. So teams like West Bromwich Albion, Manchester United, Aston Villa, they all have their own team. That's amazing.

Anne-Marie Martin: 5:39

So do you think more the running game and the teams in men's and women's football Do you feel they are embracing more different ability football now?

Dylan Kelsall: 5:50

I think I think nowadays, yes, compared to where we were 510 years ago. You know, they're really trying to support disability sport. I know. I mean, I play for West Bromwich Albion myself. And that's they've won, they've won the league, like four times, with a heavily supported by the West Bromwich Albion Foundation. They provide the training facilities, they provide a lot of club chairs. So for, for people who haven't got the funding for their own chair, or wheelchair funding, especially for sports chairs, you tend to get surgery at the age of 18. And then after the age of 18, it's quite hard to get funding. So they'll provide a lot of club chairs so people can still play. Yeah, cuz

Anne-Marie Martin: 6:34

you've had to get funding for your

Jack Wells: 6:37

attendees. Yeah, yeah. So same sort of thing. Yeah. So get

Anne-Marie Martin: 6:41

that for you. Was it through a foundation or did you have to? Yeah, there's,

Jack Wells: 6:46

there's various different charities. The one that I went through was the Denver school tennis trust, and they provide sort of various different not all just chairs, but other equipment. They also provide sessions and coaching and stuff kind of all through the charity. Amazing,

Anne-Marie Martin: 7:03

so it tends to be charities based in that sport. Yeah. have their own foundations to support. Okay. And I think we just glossed over something there that we need to come back to. You've won the league four times.

Dylan Kelsall: 7:17

Sorry, this was before I joined West Brom. I joined I know people who are watching I am. I joined West Brom two years ago. And they win the league every four years previous to that. So

Anne-Marie Martin: 7:36

now you join they haven't won. Yeah.

Dylan Kelsall: 7:39

Yeah. Currently champions, the currently champions are team co Aspire Pfc. They actually won, we call it well, we call it the treble like the running game, because we have a regional league, which everyone competes in. We have a national league, which they won't be in the Premiership and we also have a cup competition, which is now being supported by BT. Oh,

Jack Wells: 8:05

yeah.

Anne-Marie Martin: 8:07

Coming into disability sport now, believe

Jack Wells: 8:10

definitely, definitely sure West Brom. I've got an MBT team as well. I don't know if you're aware. Yeah, they have. Yeah,

Dylan Kelsall: 8:16

I think they've got NP mptcp. And over things like that. But like with like, say with BT, they, they do a disability. It's once per year. It's a disability tournament, where they where they they put on TV, the final games of those tournaments. So remember, last year, there was the poacher football teams. They had like an hour slot of the final of our cup competition. There was also CP football, blind football, dare football. amputee football

Jack Wells: 8:47

is that is it St. Georges St. George's train? Yeah. I remember watching the the Cup final of the MBT football because Liam, one of our guests that we had on he actually scored the winning goal in the in the final. Oh,

Anne-Marie Martin: 9:05

wow. Yes. That's on BT Sport.

Dylan Kelsall: 9:09

Yeah. So it's it's unfortunately, it's only like that one day is live stream for now. We're hoping that it will be more in the future. But it's definitely a large step from where we were five years ago. You know, having BT involved. Even the so I say the Wi Fi they officiate everything. They've now started to live stream, our premiership and championship events. So they're laughing on YouTube and we actually get support from Amazon. They provide us with the equipment. So it's actually yeah, a lot of large brands coming in and helping them.

Jack Wells: 9:46

That's really good. So how many how many players do you play with on a on a team?

Dylan Kelsall: 9:51

So on a standard team, you play with four players on four players on the pitch per team. So two teams on a pitch eight, eight players on the pitch But for players per team, its role in soaps, you can have unlimited soaps, it's played to 20 minute half games, we are very similar rules to the running game. But we don't have our side or a rule called Two on one we don't have throw ins we have with kick ins, obviously, we just tap it and we share. Corners are the same. You do have a goalkeeper is a designated goalkeeper per team. And there's different stipulations for rules for them as well. But it's very, very thoughtful game. And it's a it's a lot better from where we were five years ago. It's constantly evolving, constantly getting better. And there's a lot more teams and used to be

Jack Wells: 10:46

with the chairs. So can you get like in a lot of other sports, I found like in the wheelchair tennis I play, you can kind of get different levels of chairs, like quite a basic chair, then a much sort of better chair that maybe the professional players use, is it similar in in your sport, or is it kind of everyone's chairs very similar.

Dylan Kelsall: 11:05

It's similar as we say, because because we've evolved the chairs, we went from medical chairs to kind of high end athlete chairs, you do still have a kind of an introductory chair. But that would be a standard NHS chair or a or a modified data of a bunker on that slower, you know, easier for you to get introduced to it. And then once you once you found out you enjoy the sport when she found out your ability and when you can cope with higher speeds, gradually increase the speeds then you go to a faster chair, and you keep progressing. And finally there's like glucose. It's called a StrikeForce chair, it's a purpose built football show, I'd say it loads the ground, but bone per designed for the sports. Those chairs, I believe are around 10,000 pound each. So it's you know, you never been able to pay for that yourself. So we rely heavily on charity funding for that. There's

Jack Wells: 12:00

not that final pair of boots down JDS folks or something.

Anne-Marie Martin: 12:05

So is there a certain specification that you can only have I mean, if you were if you were against a team and they were all in the introductory chairs, but you're playing against a team and they're all in 10,000 pound chairs? How does that level up? Because obviously speeds are going to change? And is there certain specifications are only allowed one?

Dylan Kelsall: 12:27

I suppose that's it, that's a different way of looking at it. That actually hasn't happened to my knowledge. It's because that would only happen during the cup round where you play against like, you know, a very low level league team against the high low league team. If that happens I certainly like Man City Jory Middlesboro it's it's unfair, but that's that's just how the coppers you know, they've they've entered we went touches how it's been drawn. Usually, it's high level chairs versus high level chairs, you'll find nowadays that a lot of company, sorry, a lot of charities or clubs, or go into charities for club chairs, so that people can have the high level chairs. Because if you can, I was quite unfortunate that I started playing when you're in the old day chairs, so then you played a few years and those chairs, you didn't really progress anywhere. Whereas nowadays, because suppose we're at progress, and we've got these new chairs, you have people starting out and these amazing by top branch chairs, and then five years down the line. They're even better than we were because they've had five years in those chairs. Yeah,

Anne-Marie Martin: 13:34

yeah. So does it take quite a lot of adapting to, to a new chair. It's

Dylan Kelsall: 13:42

completely depends on how they just have to say about how severe your disability is. If you have like, breathing issues, we can put breathing machines on the back of the chairs, there's a lot of other adaptations that can be done based on your needs. It's all based on, you know, you know, the chairs get built for you for the sport. If you need the controller in the middle of your chair, we can do that if you need an extended bumper, as long as it fits on the specifications of the league, you can use that as well. And

Anne-Marie Martin: 14:13

so when it comes down to different disabilities, because when we were talking before there were certain and I think when you look at the Paralympics and things there's certain classifications of disabilities do you have that in the in the power?

Dylan Kelsall: 14:27

Yeah, in the, in the regional leagues, it's anyone can play because there's some people that are, it's quite hard where it's like they are disabled, but they're not disabled enough like they are, they can still walk or so. ambulatory, they still have that ability. This sports more designed for those who don't have any other sport. So like if someone if someone still had a lot of core strength, a lot of arm movements and could play wheelchair basketball, we'd say have you thought about basketball, and if they don't want to play basketball then you can play in the region we did nationally If we do have a specification, we have called the P F. So P F one p two, and then I think that's it, actually. But basically, on the on the pitch itself, you can only have two P F twos, maximum 13. Because a P of two is deemed to be quite less of a disability. Similar

Jack Wells: 15:22

to what I'm financially, I'm going through a process at the moment with my wheelchair tennis CO, I play at like a national level, which is quite sort of loose on the rules in kind of anyone can get in a chair and play, right. Whereas I want to go to an international level, you'll actually have to be classified into a category of level of disability. So not anyone can just play. So

Anne-Marie Martin: 15:43

does that mean you wouldn't be able to play people with that quadriplegics? Yeah, yeah, so

Jack Wells: 15:49

they'd have their own kind of makes it a bit more fair at the height. Yeah,

Dylan Kelsall: 15:54

I was gonna say, it makes it fair for everyone to play, we have a similar thing with with international stuff. So we have European competitions, we have American competitions, where we actually have the World Cup last year. And those all fall into the same classification systems as our national league. So it's kind of like we, we set up the classifications are national league. So when you do go to international level, you can still play, it's not going to be used, you spent years playing that on, you know, in the National League, you're good enough play it in the international level, but you're not in the right classification sort of thing. And

Anne-Marie Martin: 16:27

so can we ask about your disability? And what level in the game you're at? Yes.

Dylan Kelsall: 16:34

So it's, it's no secret for everyone that everyone that plays because you have to have a banner on the back of your chair, which has your club, it has your name as your number and also as your classification. So the referee knows that there's only you know, everyone's following the rules at the same time. So I have a condition called Alric. congenital muscular dystrophy, it's quite rare. It's a condition of I also have scoliosis, well, that kind of ties in with it. Where it's, it's quite rare. To my knowledge, there's only about seven or eight people in the UK that have my my condition. And with with the, my exact condition with different mutations, I'm the only person that we know of, but my condition essentially tightens my muscles, so my arms will end up getting closer and higher and higher, my my chest, and my neck muscles get tight as I can't to move my head, my legs, I can't walk. I have x, I've got scoliosis. So I've I've had 19 back operations, with lengthening titanium rods in my back to try and you know, straight my spine up. So at all, I'm a PF one, which is where you're quite severe on for the, for that classification.

Anne-Marie Martin: 17:51

And forgive my lack of knowledge yet. So that's a condition that you were born with.

Dylan Kelsall: 17:59

Yes, it was. So I was I was born and then diagnosed at the age of three. So yeah, there's a lot of people. If we went through the conditions within the sport, there's a large majority of people with muscular dystrophy, but it's called Duchenne. So their muscles are weaker, they struggle to move the joystick session or to, you know, move the head certain things like that. And a lot of them are PF ones because it's, it's quite, quite severe disability. And also a large majority does have CP, so cerebral palsy, people, so you know, muscle spasms, loud noises, kind of knock them off the game. So, again, you have to take everything into account. It's quite a rigorous sort of vigorous classification system.

Anne-Marie Martin: 18:46

So being born with that condition and, and growing up, how did you find inclusion and fitting in, and especially when it came to thinking about sports and physical activity?

Dylan Kelsall: 19:02

So I've always been quite into my sport of I mean, I could walk until the age of Legos 15. Basically, one of the titanium rods in my box snapped and I was in bed for a month, so I couldn't, couldn't care about. But growing up, I could do some sports, but it was very much a pity sport. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't always ever going to be very good. It was, oh, let's get me involved. So it feels okay. You know, don't feel left out. Which, you know, it's a bit difficult. Especially like, high school, I saw playing poker football. I'd say 2030 And I was about 10 years old. I remember one time in. In primary school. I took my poacher football chair in which at the time was my day chair with an extended bumper and a bigger ball. And it was the kids were amazed by it. It was amazing. I could play football, but the teachers were like, oh, that's dangerous or someone will get thrown overboard. If this happens. What happened? It's almost like the not allowing you to have that creativity and doing it.

Anne-Marie Martin: 20:05

Yeah, I was on a willpower course, a few months ago. And they were talking about inclusion in primary school education. So that's really interesting. Because we were tried to and a lot of PE teachers were on this course as well, wanting to know how they can be more inclusive and ensure that there isn't any tokenism and making sure that everybody feels included. And they were all discussing ideas of lessons based around the other sport. So bringing in, could we do a physical activity with the balls where everybody seated? Could we do this and that? And so it just, I think there is a bit of fear, maybe from from teachers. And yeah, the whole health and safety argument that's quite ridiculous, isn't it? But

Jack Wells: 20:58

it's just like it for life in general, isn't it? Yeah,

Anne-Marie Martin: 21:02

I just feel there's so much more education that can be done to help people explore more inclusion in sports. And I think what you're saying about the power chair, sport as well, big companies and it getting a lot more awareness, what more do you think can be done?

Dylan Kelsall: 21:23

I think I can say more awareness is a key thing. Like a lot of people don't don't really know about sport poacher football, but they're seeing it from maybe maybe seeing a viral video on Twitter or, you know, coming across it by chance on YouTube, I think if there's a lot of awareness from schools, from charities, from people to try and push people to know that this was available, or this sport is available, but there's also this other sports, there's a lot if, if people were aware of their sports, and people were, you know, PE teachers, a perfect example, they could go okay, well, we've got this got this child, they've got this, they've got this muscle condition. Let's go and find a sport they can play. Rather than I remember when I was in, I was in high school. I was sorry. So I'm fully wheelchair bound. I was in high school and my my PE teacher was saying things like Dodgems or some kind of team sport. And they said to me, yeah, you can just go play, go play table tennis in the room, if you want. So how was that inclusive at all?

Anne-Marie Martin: 22:28

No. Yeah, it's Yeah, that's exactly what I mean is. So how did you feel because so you said you could walk up to the age of 15, that transition to then going into being completely wheelchair bound? How did that affect you, knowing that you've loved sports so much, it

Dylan Kelsall: 22:48

had a had a hard like, impact on my mental health, it was very difficult to, you know, go from being able to walk so then now you're relying on a chair, you are then reliant on other people. Luckily, I can, you know, I haven't let the chair define who I am, I drive my drive and say the Sprinter, van, I play football, whatever photography, or a job a CT or children, I do everything I can to not be defined by this lack of ability to walk. I think a lot of people, it tends to be over two ways you either get your diagnosis or you either lose the ability to walk or whatever it may be, and you go first have to deal with that. And you don't really do anything, you just kind of live life as it is. But I found poetry or football that gave me something to to drive towards something to focus on. You know, I tried my hardest I train as often as I can. I represented England two times I share why and I and then one in France. It's you need to have something to drive yourself or you need a friend to focus on.

Anne-Marie Martin: 23:53

Yeah. And so do you think finding that sport that you connected with when you were enjoying? Do you think that really helped your mental health

Dylan Kelsall: 24:02

definitely definitely gives you something to focus on. It gives you the social side of things. Like I was quite introverted. When I talked to anyone at home at that high school at primary school at college, I was very much keeps myself whoever else. But when I got to playing poker football, when I get to play on an equal playing field, my friends, were teammates or opposition people. It's just everyone on the same level, completing it. You're not defined by your condition. You're not defined by a disability. You define that how hard you could you'll train and how hard you'll focus on the game. Yeah,

Jack Wells: 24:35

I find that very much the same with with the sport I do. You kind of once you sat in that chair, everyone's the same on the same level and you're not having that, like you say, where you went from school and someone's going, I'll just go and play table tennis in the other room. It's not we're all in here, whatever level you're at, let's all give it the same sort of go and that's what and that's what we're doing. So

Anne-Marie Martin: 24:56

your stories. I mean, obviously So when Jack lost his leg that was down to cancer, yeah. What do you think was your driving point where it was because like you said, Didn't it can go either way you could get home and say, right, I'm just going to sit here now and worry about what my life will be now, or I can focus on what

Jack Wells: 25:20

I can do. I think my main, my main focus to start with was more family and friends and kind of, you know, they had a, not a certain expectation of me as such, but I had a role within my family that I felt that I wanted to keep that up as well as I can. But then certainly, from a social aspect, I think I found a lot of times where you was in a social environment where you did feel maybe a little bit left out, or someone would go and do something that you maybe couldn't do. So then to find then there's sort of some form of sport where everyone was equal. It's now you know, I go to rugby training, I go to my tennis training, and it's just, it's my way of my release of the week where I can go and spend time with other people that maybe have felt the same as me. And you feel just free and open to discuss that and let your energy out. And yeah, I think you'll end up focusing on that one sport you're doing rather than some of the other issues you've maybe got going on a bit tougher to deal with?

Anne-Marie Martin: 26:18

Do you find that within your team as well, Dylan, do you? Do you all chat quite openly to each other? If any of you are struggling? Or do you do you have that camaraderie within

Dylan Kelsall: 26:28

polish or football itself, there's a league there's there's 12 teams in the Premiership, and will often speak to each other because, yes, we are on different teams. But we're all one big community, we all want the best for each other we all want. Even if it's a I bet for West, Brom and aspire are our biggest rivals. I want someone from Australia to get this grant to get his funding to get to him Bucha as much as I want someone for my own team, because it's building a better community for all of us, I find that you, you gain some social aspects, from talking to people from making friends from everything else, whether the poacher footballs more than a sport, it's just, it's everything. Because if you didn't have it, you'd be lost. You've got people that have been through the same experiences that you've been through people that we're all yet to go through that experience. So like the younger people, you can help to guide them. It's it's so much bigger than just, oh, we're just kicking a football around. Yeah.

Jack Wells: 27:29

I agree with that community aspect, because the rugby team that I've just joined only actually was created last August. And we've already had people from the England team come down and watch us trying to watch us play matches. And like you say, it doesn't seem to matter what team you're on. Other than when you're actually playing, it becomes quite competitive. But when you're not playing, everyone's giving each other advice, everyone's going, Oh, maybe you could improve your game by doing this. Like no one's scared of helping each other out and chatting. And I think that's the biggest difference between sort of disability sport and sort of mainstream sport, if you like that, you know, that once the match is over, everyone's just helped each other out, have a chat and is

Anne-Marie Martin: 28:16

nothing just because people understand

Jack Wells: 28:19

how much you like to say you need it. And it's that that focusing point, so everyone's in the same boat, getting the same thing out of it, really.

Anne-Marie Martin: 28:26

So actually, it's a massive impact you, and you said socially, as well. So what would you say to anybody thinking about getting into power chair football, or actually any disability sport,

Dylan Kelsall: 28:41

I feel if anyone's got the motivation or drive to want to buy any sports we want to be we want to better themselves as a person, you know, 100% just give it a go. You don't know where it's gonna be like, you don't know what impact is going to have on your life, it could be the best thing to happen to you. And if it isn't, you just stop playing. It's just there's no issue in trying a sport. You know, I, I fortunate that I found poetry or football, but anyone who I speak to now who was in a wheelchair, or who has a physical disability, I'll try and get them playing poker for all because I know how much it's changed my life.

Anne-Marie Martin: 29:15

It's amazing. It's so inspirational as well. And I think we we brush over sometimes the impact of physical activity for everybody. It because it is so much more than just that activity, isn't it? And it's something we're very passionate about something we're focusing on, on this podcast and on our social media, of just give it a go. Because once you try and you start to feel all the extra benefits that you get from that is when you're really going to hopefully have that positive change in your life

Jack Wells: 29:53

as well. I was actually chatting to a guy at my last rugby session. And he was discussing about he's one of the guys that run Another session and he was like, oh, no, no, all the chairs are like perfect size for everyone and all that. And I was like, honestly, the fact that you've even provided us with a chair, you provided us with a sensor to go and play this form. You're never ever going to hear me complain about lack of equipment or lack of ease. It's just, I'm so happy to be here doing this. And I think that's the different field when you're a young child, and you maybe see a Christianna run out and go, oh, I want to be a footballer. But there's 1000s and hundreds of 1000s of people that all want to do the same thing. And I don't think the kind of appreciation of play in that sport maybe is lost a little bit sometimes because it's all so you got to do this, you got to train hard you got whereas with a disability sport, I think it is just that come and give it a go. It doesn't, you could be on your very first day of playing the sport, and you're playing alongside someone in the same team that's been planning for 10 years and represented England and, and it seems that close knit community that there's kind of no major barrier between levels, it's kind of, you know, the person, everyone was happy to help out someone that's just died, was in sort of the

Dylan Kelsall: 31:09

only barrier between major levels is how hard you are willing to train how hard you are willing to focus. It's all down to you. It's not down to some, you know, you've had you know, you've been diagnosed with disability, it's not down to Equipment, most of the time, I'd say, equipment, if you can find avenues to get support for their equipment. It's just down to how hard you physically want to how hard you're willing to try. What do we think

Anne-Marie Martin: 31:33

would be more adaptions and developments that could happen? I mean, for me, I'm always passionate about representation. So I know BT Sport, do a a day of it. But I'm sure if more people could watch the sport and see how, excuse me exciting. And what a good game it is. They would want to watch more and the demand would be there. But also for those young children who might be growing up watching Ronaldo and going but I can't do that. They're not aware of what they can do until they see it. Yeah, we need that representation so that they have someone like yourself, Dylan to aspire to. And be an inspiration. I

Jack Wells: 32:15

think they are progression on that. Yeah. I know. Like, at the end of 2023 they had the spokesperson out of the year and alpha Hewitt wheelchair tennis player was nominated and you know, made the final listen so so it's kind of little steps like that where it's on like a mainstream platform alongside able bodied sports people I think then that then straightaway raises the awareness, you know, a lot.

Dylan Kelsall: 32:45

It's very, it's very similar. So I saw at the Paralympics as well into you have the able bodied parallel able bodied Olympics and the Paralympics goes alongside it. There's so much interest in Disabled Sports come from Paralympics, because it's it's seen as an equal difficulty. It's not a pity play. It's not you play in this, you know, it's not a second thought it's this is a major sport. This is a major competition. These are athletes and they're treated like athletes.

Anne-Marie Martin: 33:18

Yeah, no, definitely. So

Jack Wells: 33:19

is powerchair. Football, is that in the Paralympics?

Dylan Kelsall: 33:23

Not yet. We are we are trying to get into into the Paralympics, the main issue with what main reason it hasn't been put in a brand picture is a lot of the differing nations. So France, Denmark, Spain, Belgium, they all say they all they all don't agree with the WFE rulesets. Now we, we see as a as an English League, we like the passing style, the making the game look nice. Whereas France, mainly they see it more like I'd say rugby, they want the strongest cheer. They want the hardest, but you know, fastest players, rather than technical players. So we have different rules. And because people can't agree on a certain set of rules. That's what's holding us back. And it's a very, very frustrating thing. Yeah, that

Anne-Marie Martin: 34:17

must be because you all just want to play but actually everybody wants to play a little bit differently. And it's about coming to that set of rules in place. So any other message that you'd like to share with anyone listening?

Dylan Kelsall: 34:32

Mainly will just be don't be defined by your disability. It's not a it's not a get a jail free card. It's not an excuse to do nothing. If you if you feel like you want to be the next one out or the next messy. The only thing holding you back is you not seeing the sports go try and find the sport. Obviously we will try and raise awareness for sports. But, you know, try if you want to be physically active try and because of that you're trying to find Find anything you can do. Because I know the moment you scratch the surface and find one little bit of poacher football, you've come across somebody that wants to choke you in the chair, get you're playing in the National League and get you're competing against everybody else. Yeah,

Anne-Marie Martin: 35:14

amazing. So where can people find out more? Where would you advise them to go to find out more about powerchair football,

Dylan Kelsall: 35:20

I would advise, I would, if anyone wants to play college football and wants to get involved, we have a YouTube channel. If you type in the WFE, it'll bring up the YouTube channel. Same with Twitter, Facebook, that we have a website. And the website actually gives you all the stats for the sport, but also gives you an option, we can type in your address. And you can find the club most local to you. If you're unfortunate, and there's sorry, if you're unfortunate, and there isn't a club near you, you can always start a club. But there's always going to be one with I don't know how many clubs there is off top of my head. But I know that there is at least at least 50 clubs around the UK, whether that be from regional level to national level, there'll be something you can get involved with. Yeah,

Anne-Marie Martin: 36:08

brilliant. Well, I am loving our podcast, because I am learning about so many different things, so many different sports and activities. And I'm trying to remember all of the, like when we spoke to Liam, some of the rules and the offside rule and the handball rule, which is actually where your amputation is on your leg. I'm trying to remember all these differences is fascinating, and I'm absolutely loving it. Dylan, I'd like to thank you for being on our podcast today. I can't wait to pop it live. Jack, any final thoughts?

Jack Wells: 36:44

Oh, no, I'm just Yeah, it's like you say I think he's just so good to hear about other things. You know, I'm sort of into disability sports myself now. But powerchair football was something I was, you know, very much didn't know enough about and I'm, I'm pleased that you've been able to share sort of your story in the sport and hopefully more people can now find it for themselves and get involved. Yeah, well,

Dylan Kelsall: 37:08

thank you for the opportunity. So to raise awareness of other sports, I'd say anyone wants to get involved, jump at the chance to him in the chair. I'd say Jack, I don't know where you're based. But I'm sure that there's a club near you. You know, there's there's always going to be a club for everyone to get involved in. We try and do a lot of family fun days and open days and trying to get more people involved in the sports. I know that there's a club called St. George's nights, which are based in Stoke on Trent, based by corridor children. And most every time call our children do an open day where they talk about the services they provide. We have we bring a bunch of powered chairs so people can try the sport people can try playing football. And people just have so much fun doing it. You get you get siblings involved, you get families involved, you get people who with disabilities involved, and it's just a great day. Well, we

Jack Wells: 38:01

lost up there.

Anne-Marie Martin: 38:03

I've been to the centre quite a few times and it is fantastic day so I'd love to take you. Well, thank you so much for listening, everybody. We hope you've enjoyed today's episode. Don't forget to like, subscribe, follow hit those buttons, and share it with everybody you know, and we look forward to working with you on the next podcast episode soon. Thanks for listening.

Jack Wells: 38:25

Cheers, guys.

Anne-Marie Martin: 38:29

Thanks for listening today. We hope you feel inspired to get moving.

Jack Wells: 38:32

And don't forget to give us a follow here if you enjoyed today's episode and check us out on all over social media at the move in Michigan.