A Boston nonprofit brings volt hockey to US, ‘a perfect sport’ for people with physical disabilities
Marley Robinson doesn’t consider herself a sporty person. She has spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disease that impacts nerves and muscles, and says that she was never drawn to sports because of her disability.
But on a recent Saturday afternoon in Roxbury, Robinson, who just graduated from Northeastern University last week, found herself racing around a gym floor playing volt hockey, a sport for people with physical disabilities that’s being introduced to the United States by the nonprofit Boston Self Help Center.
Robinson says volt hockey is built for people like her, who have limited upper and lower body mobility and haven’t tried many adaptive sports. She was hesitant to start playing at first because her own wheelchair is customized perfectly to her body. But once she tried volt hockey, she was “hooked.”
“It’s a perfect sport for me because it’s basically like driving my own power chair in a