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“Caterpillar Rugby” aims to level the playing field for people with and without disabilities

ロケットニュース24 Oct 30, 2015
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Sports are supposed to bring people together, giving a group a common goal to work towards and developing community spirit. Nevertheless, it can be difficult to find sports that everyone can enjoy, with many left out due to physical disabilities. However, the World Yuru Sports Association, which goes by Yuru Sports for short, has developed a game intended to level the playing field for everyone so people with and without disabilities get on the ground and play together.

And we mean get on the ground literally: the name of the game is caterpillar rugby and it’s incredibly accurate!

The video below, produced International Business Times UK, takes a look at this burgeoning sport, which has captured people’s attention around the world even though it’s still so new that the rules still haven’t been completely sorted out.

Caterpillar rugby has even been featured by the Reuters news agency, with one of our writers in the UK even catching a segment about it on a morning news show earlier today. Clearly, the concept is something that people are excited about, though we’re not sure how widely known it actually is in Japan itself.

The game follows rules similar to rugby, but with some specific and major differences. For one thing, teams are limited to five players. For another, no one is allowed to use their legs to move about, and players must wear the green-and-yellow caterpillar-like ring suits pictured above. Created by Yumi Sada, a designer who specializes in clothing for people with disabilities, the suits both help keep everyone grounded and prevent bruising to the players’ bodies as they drag themselves around the square playing field by hand. This means that anyone can join, even if they don’t have full use of their legs.

Tomohiro Sawada, the creator the sport and “total producer” for Yuru Sports, told Reuters that he has many friends who use wheelchairs or have limited use of their legs, so this was a way for everyone to play together. As one player explained: “Even if someone told me to stand up and run, I wouldn’t be able to,” so caterpillar rugby allows him to participate with others on the same level.

This isn’t the only game that Yuru Sports has developed—on fact their website lists everything from “zombie soccer” to “hand soap ball”, which is…basically exactly what it sounds like, actually! The group, which aims to develop sports for everyone, is still quite young, but they’re growing quickly with 12 level-playing-field sports listed on their homepage, including the international sensation, bubble soccer.

▼ A Japanese news report about hand soap ball

Though we imagine it will take a while for caterpillar rugby to become a worldwide phenomenon, we can’t help wanting to start our own team. A sport you can play while lying on the floor? That sounds right about our speed!

Sources: World Yuru Sports Association, Facebook/World Yuru Sports Association, IBTimes UK, YouTube/IBTimes UK, Reuters
Top image: screenshot YouTube/IBTimes UK
Insert images: screenshots YouTube/IBTimes UK