Initiative ‘fantastic' chance to learn

Otago Daily Times

05-06-2025

John Marrable is always looking for ways to improve.
The Dunedin para athlete recently wrapped up his time as part of the second intake for the para sport collective, a Paralympics New Zealand initiative to provide more support for athletes.
The collective involved three in-person camps and monthly Zoom sessions over the past year, with topics including skills, nutrition, mental resilience, recovery and injuries.
A range of sports, including shooting, taekwondo, equestrian, snowboarding and swimming were covered.
Marrable was one of three table tennis players among the cohort, and each athlete worked through personalised performance programmes.
"I'm grateful to Table Tennis New Zealand for putting my name forward to be part of the para sport collective and also the New Zealand coach John Tuki,"Marrable said.
"They've been really good support."
Marrable, who has been involved in para sport since an accident as a child left him in a wheelchair, relished being part of the collective and listening to Paralympians share their stories.
"I've been involved in para sport almost ever since I had an accident, so a lot of it was great to get reinforced where I'm heading and then also up-skilled with a lot of the changes in dietary requirements or that type of thing."
Programmes such as the para collective were important for all athletes but especially in para sport as there was the "added challenge of having your disability or impairment".
Being able to bounce ideas off athletes who fundamentally understood what others went through, and had various different strategies for travelling with additional equipment or helping their bodies respond in different situations, was invaluable.
"It was just fantastic meeting other like-minded people."
Marrable is part of the New Zealand para table tennis development squad and hopes to be included in the Oceania championships in Auckland later this year.
He is also a seventh dan in karate.
"The two sports really go hand in hand, because through the karate you're doing your stretching, your aerobic work, plus reaction time.
"Then of course with the table tennis I'm doing the ball skills and stretching."
Marrable has tried his hand at countless sports through the years.
He felt New Zealand had always had great representation at the Paralympics and world championships.
But there had been great improvements across the board, and ParaFed Otago and the Halberg Foundation played a big role in helping get more youth involved.
"As the sports improved, the athletes have had to improve and really it's people's attitude as well.
"Not the athletes or the coaches... but sometimes people didn't really think that the paras were serious athletes.
"I think sometimes that can affect the athlete and that's, again, knowing that the opportunities are there.
"Any sport you can think of can be adapted."
Dunedin was fortunate to have a good athletics programmes through Athletics New Zealand para lead Raylene Bates, and strong wheelchair rugby and table tennis programmes, he said.