Essentials of Cerebral Palsy Football (Routledge Focus on Sport, Culture and Society)

Essentials of Cerebral Palsy Football introduces the reader to the practice of Cerebral Palsy (CP) football. This is a worldwide 7-a-side style of football played by people with CP and acquired brain injuries. CP football is played across the world in over seventy countries covering six continents and is governed by the International Federation of CP Football (IFCPF) and a multitude of regional federations responsible for promoting, managing and governing CP football.

This book examines the current research and findings and provides an understanding of the history of CP football, the basics of CP and eligible impairments, game rules and regulations and current scientific knowledge regarding the sport’s performance. Special emphasis is given to providing CP football coaches and professionals with relevant information to apply in the practical field.

Essentials of Cerebral Palsy Football provides a practical, hands-on guide for the CP football community based on the current status of scientific research related to this team Para sport development and performance. It also seeks to provide students instruction into the different areas of disability in a high-level sports environment and understanding how professionals from different fields can contribute to the improvement and professionalisation of the different areas of sports performance and development.

This cutting-edge book is key reading for the CP football community including people registered in CP sports or football federations, Para sport stakeholders, coaches, conditioning coaches, physiotherapists, nutritionists, medical staff and practitioners.

Iván Peña-González, PhD, is a Lecturer in the Department of Sport Sciences at the Miguel Hernandez University of Elche, UMH, Spain, and a Researcher in the GIAFIS research group at the Sport Research Centre of the same university. His research is focused on physical performance in football. He has done specific research about the physical performance demands, talent identification and international selection processes in CP football. He is the Head of the Sports Research Department of the Spanish Federation of CP Sports (FEDPC). He has collaborated with the FEDPC as a physical-conditioning coach in the Spanish CP football National Team for five years, including the U19 and Absolute teams. He achieved a silver medal in the U19 World Cup and a bronze medal in an Absolute European Championship.

Raúl Reina, PhD, is a Full Professor of Adapted Physical Activity and Para sports in the Bachelor’s on Physical Activity and Sport Sciences and in Occupational Therapy at UMH, Spain. He is a Researcher at the Sports Research Centre of the UMH and a Member of the research group on motor control and learning. His main research interest is focused on classification in Para sports to explore the relationships between physical impairments and activity limitation when performing sports skills to develop evidence-based and sport-specific classification systems. He is also the Classification Director of the IFCPF and International Classifier for World Para Athletics (former IPC Athletics) and World Boccia and the Director of the Classification Commission of the Spanish Paralympic Committee.

Manuel Moya-Ramón, PhD, is a Full Professor in the Department of Sport Sciences at the UMH, Spain, with extensive experience in research regarding training periodisation, training load monitoring and quantification, and physical performance assessment in sports and CP football. He is also the Director of the Sports Training Analysis and Optimization Laboratory, one of the four laboratories in the Sports Research Centre of the UMH, and the Head of the GIAFIS research group.