Is Ryley Batt Too Good At Wheelchair Rugby?
Of the 20 sports that make up the Paralympic Games, without doubt wheelchair rugby features more crashes, crunches, bruises and bumps than any other. But there’s one player on the international scene right now who seems to be able to crash, crunch, bruise and bump harder than anyone else – Australia’s Ryley Batt.
In Ryley’s own words, he is “the main man out there.” The 22-year-old, who was born without legs and only two fingers on each hand, is already a veteran of both the Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. His unparalleled speed and manoeuvrability on court makes him arguably the most feared player in the sport, and without doubt the one to watch out for at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
But opinion is divided within the wheelchair rugby world as to whether Ryley’s inclusion in the sport signals its the death knell.
“In terms of where I sit in the debate, I think he is probably too good to play wheelchair rugby, but like everyone else I’d rather wait to see how he performs at London 2012 before fully forming an opinion,” says former GB wheelchair rugby squad member Justin Frishberg. Also a veteran of Athens and Beijing, Justin retired from international competition last year and will be commentating on Channel 4’s coverage of the London International Invitational Wheelchair Rugby Tournament on the 18th – 19th April.
To exclude those who play at too high a standard seems at odds with the concept of elite sport – but the roots of wheelchair rugby help explain why Ryley’s on court dominance is raising eyebrows.
“Wheelchair rugby was designed to be inclusive. It was invented in spinal cord injury rehab units by a bunch of people who couldn’t play wheelchair basketball,” continues Justin. “They were too disabled – they didn’t have the function in their limbs and their trunk (torso). So they invented wheelchair rugby, and it was inclusive enough to give people who have little or no triceps, stuff like that, a real role in sport.
“As it has grown to include other people – not just those with spinal injuries, but other disabilities too – the classification system has always attempted to involve them, but it’s just a question of whether that has been done in the right way,” he adds.
In wheelchair rugby, each player is classified with a points rating from 0.5 to 3.5 according to their physical ability, with 0.5 representing the least able and 3.5 the most able. Teams are only allowed four players with a maximum combined total of 8.0 points on court at any one time. A completely able-bodied player would be rated at 5.0 – but international rules dictate that any player rated 4.0 or above is ineligible at competition level.
As a 3.5 player, Ryley is deemed at the very top end of the ability scale and takes up nearly half of Australia’s total points allowance. Arguably, even this isn’t enough.
“Obviously he’s expensive for the Australian team, but it takes more than 3.5 points to nail him down. Sometimes it takes three players,” continues Justin, himself a 2.0 player.
“So how able-bodied is too able bodied? I think people will look at Ryley and think ‘Well, he doesn’t have any hands or legs, so how can he possibly be too able-bodied?’ but then he doesn’t have impaired movement in his trunk, so he can twist his chair without putting his hands on the wheels, leaving them free to reach out and grab the ball. He can tip his chair up and lean forward in it to gain extra height. He can hit that much harder. He starts quicker. He turns better. And he’s got so many extra bodily functions that spinal cord injured players don’t have – sweat function, lung function, blood pressure and so on. These are hard things to measure, and I’m not saying that people with these disabilities shouldn’t be in the game, but these are the advantages that they have. Seeing him on court and what he can do with his limitations, it’s really, really powerful.”
Perhaps surprisingly then, Ryley wasn’t always considered the most able. When he first burst on to the wheelchair rugby scene in 2002 at the age of 15 as the youngest player ever to cap for Australia, he was initially classified as a mid-ability 2.5 pointer.
“He was reclassified at Athens in 2004 as a 3.5, which slightly ruined the plans of the Australia coach, I seem to remember,” says Justin.
The controversy cost Australia a place in the medals, with the New Zealand team (whose rivalry with the Aussies is every bit as intense as in able-bodied rugby) going on to take the gold.
“No one in wheelchair rugby has ever said that people with different disabilities shouldn’t be in the sport, but that illustrates how we’ve never really known how to classify them.
“And by allowing less and less disabled people in, the danger is that the classification process will become inflated to the extent it will start to exclude players who are at the bottom of the scale. As an experienced rugby player I probably have a different view about that to someone who is watching the game for the first time. But come London 2012, if Ryley is just dominating games on his own – if the Australian team makes it in to the final without his team mates having an important role – which I can see happening – then it takes away from the team element of the sport which is so important to us.”
Wheelchair rugby is a sport that is struggling to cope with its own increasingly high standards. As its popularity has grown since its inception in 1977, so too has the quality of athletes that compete in it. And Australia is by no means the only country trying to get that competitive edge by using players without spinal injuries.
“It’s a bit unfair focussing on Ryley in particular,” mulls Justin. “He’s a great guy. Whatever controversy there is, it’s certainly not around him as a person. It’s about whether our whole system is right. But at the moment, this is our system and this is why he’s competing in the Games. Good luck to him in 2012. He will be immense and exciting to watch, but I wouldn’t want to play against him.
At Beijing in 2008, Australia were forced to settle for second best. In a subsequent interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Ryley was honest about the impact of his own physical fitness on his team’s result, saying: “I don’t think I trained as hard as I could have and that’s a regret I have in life. In the final we were in it with a quarter-and-a-half to go when fatigue kicked in and that’s just a lack of training. We lost that game and got silver. At the time I was really happy with the silver, but I look back now and think that was an opportunity lost – all I had to do was train for the three years leading into it and I would have been fit and we could have got the gold.”
Justin thinks Ryley has the gold set firmly in his sights this time round.
“This is the fittest he has ever been. This is the first time he’s been a proper athlete. The sport has had big players and proper athletes before, without a doubt, but this is the first time Ryley has really been in shape and ready to do some damage. I think it could be a bit of a revelation for people.”
And as with any sport, it’s always those stand out competitors who come to define it in the public’s mindset. Wheelchair rugby’s crashes, crunches, bruises and bumps are expected to be one of the biggest crowd draws at London 2012.
Will those huge crowds worry about whether Ryley Batt is too good at wheelchair rugby?
Do you think Ryley Batt is too good at wheelchair rugby? Let us know by leaving a comment!
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There are 18 comments on this post
Having players like Ryley makes the game more exciting to watch and play. Having 3.5 players on court enables the inclusion of lower point players which actually promotes inclusion. It is not that Ryley is too good a player it is that the classification system within the game is flawed. GB had a player that would have gone head to head with Ryley , however was classified out of the game even though they are near identical in disability. This unlevel playing field is what has made Ryley stand out from the rest of the sport. Ryley is just doing what he is supposed to do and that is perform to the best of his ability. If the sport continues with the unfair playing field by not allowing similar players to compete then you will see Ryley put on a show. If classification is ever sorted within Wheelchair Rugby then you might see closer games and this will either be with or without players like Ryley.
So it is not that Ryley is too good it is that he is isn’t allowed equal competition and I know that frustrates him.
I agree Fossy. The fact is that Ryleys “loss of function in all 4 limbs” (in his case not having them) makes him classifiable. If you study the manual it could be argued that he should be a 3.0 or possibly lower, but study his game play and that would be ridiculous! You can look at every team and argue against someone’s class. GB has them, Sweden has them and so does the US. Consistency within the system seems to be the problem.
It’s not just the 3.5 class that’s controversial, it’s all classes. If Ryley was classed out and others classes didn’t change it ‘would be a joke’.
If you want to be the best go find your own Ryley I reckon…or 4 players as close as. Then go for gold!
You can’t win though because you could have 4 players all at the very top of their class and they’d most probably be the best team in the world. All classifications would be legit but everyone would still be winging!
Poms just having a whinge again…so what else is new?
It’s players like Ryley that make this game watchable. If it was a bunch of C-5 quads out there, I wouldn’t even give a damn. Players shouldn’t be aiming to take him out of the sport, they should be aiming to get good enough, so that he doesn’t seem as outstanding. Keep him in the sport, if there’s ever a day where the Battman can’t play, the sport has changed everything they aim for. “Impairment in all four limbs” shouldn’t be “impairment in all four limbs, unless you’re better than everyone else”
Tetra says, “aiming to get good enough,”I like no one else is working hard. That’s the crux if this entire debate, even at our peak, true quads will never, ever compare to a disability like Batt’s. The ability to regulate blood pressure alone is enough of an unfair advantage to be disqualified. Just because you’re missing a few digits does not make you a quad.
I feel this goes back to the argument of how much does trunk help and what weight it should be given. I know several paras that would class out even though they have no control from nipple-down and they could not do anywhere near what the 3.5 “quads” with trunk can do. I have no problem with allowing higher point players on the court but give them a fair classification. I would like to see the game expand to allow 4-pointers but still only 8 points total. Give guys like Riley a 4.0 based on his trunk but force teams to offset these borderline players with a .5 and a 1.5 or 2x 1.0′s.
Hey Crip!!!
I agree totaly!!! They have got nothing better to do but whinge!!
It’s typical Poms behaviour….
Boo frickren hoo….
Why he can´t be 4.0, but still play –> we´ll need a new group for classification.
Ryley Batt has a classification of 3.5. Regardless of how many times he has been protested or complained about he is in our game to stay and I think the sport is better for it. He is the fiercest competitor I have ever come across. He will never say die. He is the best, he believes it and I wish him all the best in his quest for Gold and encourage everyone to rise to his standards.
havent seen him recently but without doubt game would be a more even playing field without him,steve pate ryley etc go throw a shotput play basketball challenge yourself not taking the glory against lesser functional quads lol
I’ve been watching quad rugby over the past two years and enjoy the sport, and the athletes. The way I here the athletes talk, they undestand ryley’s ability, but he is not a team by himself, and Austrailia is not the best team. Quad rugby arguably is the ultimate team sport. I know coach Gumby will condition the US Team and he will put a game plan together that will crush a player like Riley, and if Riley should prevail, good for him. Great players can only dominate for a period of time, it’s your challenge to try and be the next great one!
How come nobody’s mentioned Joel Wilmoth who played in USA’s gold medal winning team in Beijing? He had equal upper limb and trunk function as Ryley, only with even more lower limb function than Batt. He’d walk in to the stadium carrying his chair on his back, but nobody complains…it’s not Ryley’s function that sets him apart, it’s his skill, work ethic and ability to read the game quicker than most.
@athen instead of wanting the easy route, how about quitting your whinning and rising to the occasion?
I must agree with Crip. Although Ryley has a good amount of function, his athleticism, his ability to instantly read a play along with his complete understanding of the game makes him head & shoulders above his rivals.
I have never met another player with such a great attitude as Ryley. He NEVER blames or yells at his teammates. The only person I’ve ever seen Ryley get mad at is himself.
What this sport needs is MORE Ryley Batts!!
[...] last week’s That Paralympic Blog – Is Ryley Batt Too Good At Wheelchair Rugby? – I created something of a ruckus by suggesting that the man in question was perhaps not [...]
what about the new GB amputee? what aboutthe france amputee? they play whelchair-basketball too and why they have to play rugby now? and what about the belgium? so let quad-rugby be quad-rugby and let the amputees get their own sports!
Players like Riley should not be allowed to play wheelchair rugby. The reasons are clear and these players make real Lowpoints look like nothing.
But if you talk about Riley, you should also talk about Lars Mertens! … or Tobias Sandberg, or P.J. Uhlmann, and some others that are too abled!!
he has no legs and does not have the “normal” number of fingers, if he wants to play arguably his national sport, rugby, then let him!! If he is “too good” then maybe some of the players rate 1 – 1.5 should be reclassified to 0.5 – 1, but saying someone in his condition is “too able” is a nonsense. It may go against certain views of grassroots, but things evolve, including sport.
Maybe it’s time to split the sport into 2 classifications – “Quad Rugby” for spinal cord injured players and “Wheeled Rugby” for other grades.