Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Justin Smith | Sgt. 1st Class Douglas Norman serves the ball during a sitting volleyball match at the...... read more read more
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado. - Sgt. 1st Class Douglas Norman, a member of U.S. Special Operations Command’s team SOCOM and a former member of 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), competed in the 2018 Department of Defense Warrior Games held at the Air Force Academy, June 1-9.
Norman, who suffered a traumatic brain injury while serving as a Green Beret, first started participating in adaptive sports two and a half years ago.
“It was not anything that I expected,” said Norman, “I usually push back from stuff like that because there is an idea that adaptive sports is only for people that are missing limbs and it’s not for an able-bodied person.”
His first introduction to adaptive sports was an adaptive sports triathlon camp. Although Norman admitted was not good at any of the sports, he said his time there re-lit his competitive spirit.
“What really hooked me was seated volleyball and cycling,” he said. This year Norman participated in track, sitting volleyball, swimming, and cycling.
Norman initially started playing adaptive sports as simply a distraction, but he was soon surprised to find that it was helping him recover.
“It’s amazing how fast and targeted it was to my recovery, and still is,” said Norman. “We are not ones to run to sick call. We are not ones to sit in the waiting room. We suck it up and drive on. We work through all natures of malfunctions.”
Norman hopes his participation in adaptive sports will help to change these misconceptions within the Special Operations Forces community.
“A lot of our injuries leave us focusing on everything we can no longer do and it’s frustrating,” said Norman. “The adaptive sports side of it gave me a sense of empowerment. It showed me everything that I am still capable of doing.”
Adaptive sports is certainly an unconventional recovery method, which has proven to suit this unconventional warrior perfectly.
“What a tool it is for recovery,” he added “It’s that internal drive that starts to push us and we start pushing our recovery. It’s unconventional and its where we come from.”
| Date Taken: | 06.11.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 06.11.2018 16:45 |
| Story ID: | 280526 |
| Location: | COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, US |
| Web Views: | 211 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Unconventional Healing: Former 10th Group Green Beret participates in DoD Warrior Games, by SSG Dustin Miller, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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