SHAW Robert

Classification
Quad (itftennis.com, 05 Feb 2020)

Type of Impairment
Spinal Cord Injuries (Athlete, 05 May 2021)

Origin of Impairment
Acquired (Athlete, 05 May 2021)

Impairment Details
He was injured in a diving accident at age 21, becoming partially paralysed from the neck down. (paralympic.ca, 23 Aug 2019; ontennis.ca, 01 Sep 2019; northernontario.ctvnews.ca, 27 Jul 2021)

General
EVENT TRANSITION
He played able-bodied tennis before his accident and found the transition to wheelchair tennis difficult which led him to take a break from the sport. "I realised two years into it [playing wheelchair tennis] that it wasn't as easy as it looked, [and] that it was mainly a lot of mental frustration for me. Being so recently injured, I had a very clear memory of how easy the sport was standing up and how good I was at it standing up, so I was not able to hit the ball like I used to. That sort of played into my mentality of disliking the sport and being more frustrated and angry than happy with it, which obviously led me to taking that two-year break." (ontennis.ca, 01 Sep 2019)

IMPAIRMENT
He says that while his arms appear to function pretty well from an outsider's perspective, he only has about 50 percent use of his left triceps, which hinders his daily movement. "I have very little function in my hands, so my hands are really good from a dexterity standpoint and I can do intricate movements but I have very little strength. I have the grip or the pinch of a one-month-old in my right hand, which is why I have to tape the racquet to my hand because I have no grip whatsoever. There's a huge variation in the sport in terms of function level and disability types, but I'm someone who uses a day chair all-day-long. I do have some function in my legs, so I can stand up if I have support for a few minutes, which is quite lucky." (ontennis.ca, 01 Sep 2019)

FURTHER STUDIES
After completing a bachelor's degree in physical and health education in 2013, he began a doctorate degree in health and exercise sciences in 2016 at the University of British Columbia in Canada. (LinkedIn profile, 01 Jan 2021; Athlete, 06 Aug 2021)