CLASSIFICATION: TRUNK ASSESSMENT REFINEMENT 

In 2016 a first research on the Trunk Assessment was conducted by students of the University of Applied Science in The Hague (The Netherlands), the project led to reconsider which athlete had a zero (0) trunk and which athlete had a 0.5 trunk.

After the World Championship 2018 Classification Committee, also on the basis of the inputs arrived by some players and coaches from different Nations, addressed the need to investigate more on the Trunk function in order to evaluate our current assessment system and investigate if there was any possibility to improve it.

Therefore a new research project was started in between 2018 and 2019 by Sjoerd Vennema, for his third year internship of the program Health and Technology at The Hague University of Applied Science.

In that same timeframe the IPCH Classification Committee was analyzing data showing the fact that till 2019 only a small group of athletes were assessed with the 0 trunk scores, another small group of athletes with the 1.0 trunk score but a big group of athletes with the 0.5 trunk score.

The report of the practical study about the influence of limited trunk mobility on the arm-reach in Powerchair Hockey was made available to the IPCH Classification Committee in September 2019.

In accordance with the findings of the study the IPCH Classification Committee started an evaluation about how to improve the trunk assessment in Powerchair Hockey.  Further investigations were conducted by IPCH Classification Committee and Classifiers during the IPCH Euro Stars 2020 in Lignano Sabbiadoro.

Talks and discussions with coaches and players were also very useful for Classifiers to come to a final refinement. The initial objective was to finalise a review of the trunk assessment methods and eventually of the Classification Manual for the Sport Congress 2020.

The aim of the SEC was, in fact, to explain this refinement during the Sport Congress scheduled for the 8th June 2020 in Pajulahti. Because of the postponement of the EC to 2021 IPCH SEC and Classification Committee have analysed the Masterlist and classification forms from previous competition and classification sessions and found out that the application of the Trunk refined criteria affects totally 11 already classified players worldwide.

Because of the postponement of the EC there will be only 1 year in between 2 major official competition (IPCH World Championships are due to happen in 2022) and as the revision of the IPCH Classification Manual is now finalised and approved, the SEC decided to inform the Nations that the refinement is going to be put into practice effective immediately in order to give a reasonable time to all Nations to adapt and plan/select their teams according to those new refined rules.

IPCH will organize a webinar session on 25th June from 19.30 on Google Meet to which all nations are invited to participate with at least 1 representative to get to hear a presentation/introduction of this refinement. All IPCH licenced Classifiers got the information of the refinement in advance but are also invited to participate in the webinar to get the correct information.

In order to make sure those changes are well understood and eventually put into practice also nationally (for those Nations who already follow the IPCH Classification System also in their national leagues) we do encourage the participation of the National classification coordinator for Powerchair Hockey. National Classifiers and National Team Staff members are also welcome.

If you are interested to participate please register here: https://forms.gle/ojgy54pUuQLQhbbX9  – latest by 23rd June.