Powersport: achieving sport for all

Power hockey requires a specialised wheelchair, equipped with a shooting mechanism, protective bumpers, and high manoeuvrability. Rapid acceleration is also vital, so the motor technology that drives them is an essential aspect of wheelchair design. Powersport Engineering partnered with maxon brand Parvalux to develop a drive system fit the demands of this high-paced game. 

Power hockey is fast and furious. The sport combines the speed and dynamism of hockey with the power of a motorised wheelchair, matching four-players-against-four in a game of two, 20-minute halves. The wheelchairs are specially made, with two electro-magnets that strike the ball, enabling players to shoot and pass, as well as large metal bumpers covered in dense plastic that protect the players.

First played in Liverpool 25 years ago, power hockey can pit able-bodied people alongside people with disabilities, and the powered wheelchairs are a great leveller: it’s the skill of controlling the wheelchair that makes a great player, and people with wide ranging disabilities can compete on equal terms.

While a player typically manoeuvres the wheelchair with a joystick controlled by one hand, people with tetraplegia and neck-down motor skill impairment can also play with techniques including chin control. This level of inclusivity truly embraces the ethos of ‘sport for all’, and today, the game has come a long way since its inception where it was developed to help a little boy join in a standard game of hockey.

Sport for all abilities

“At the Greenbank Sports Academy in Liverpool in 2000, former Paralympian Gerry Kinsella started a hockey club for disabled children,” explains Pete Wyman, Managing Director of Powersports Engineering that makes the specialised wheelchairs for power hockey. “One boy’s disability prevented him from joining in, so Gerry developed a special wheelchair that enabled him to play. Although the design of the chair has changed a lot since then, the principles of the game remain the same.”

Pete himself has been a disability sport development officer for 33 years, and also coaches wheelchair racers for the national team, which included his attendance at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. Since 2009, Pete has also worked at the Greenbank Sports Academy, which has a particular focus on disability sport. Greenbank is also a popular venue for power football, which is the longer-running and more well-known counterpart to power hockey, a game now played around the world with over 50 clubs in the UK alone.

Power football uses the same motorised wheelchairs as power hockey but with a different bumper that can be switched dependent on the game, with the power football bumper design being longer and acting like the contact area of the foot. Both sports require a high level of coordination, skills, and physicality. 

Powersport Engineering wheelchair development 

By 2020, with demand for power-assisted wheelchairs growing at Greenbank Sports Academy, greater organisation was required, not only to further the design of the wheelchair and increase manufacturing output, but also to fund the project. As a result, Powersport Engineering was created as a not-for-profit social enterprise. This has enabled Powersport Engineering to design and manufacture wheelchairs for power hockey and power football for use at Greenbank Sports Academy, as well as for wider retail. Such is the success of the social enterprise that it has a growing international market, including Europe and Australia. 

Today, the design of the chairs has been refined to the demands of the games while still enabling maximum inclusivity, almost irrespective of the physical limitations of the player. The two rear wheels powered by Pavalux electric motors drive and steer the chair, controlled by a joystick. Through the controller, the motor can drive the wheels forwards and backwards, and a differential system allows the wheelchair to turn. 

“The chairs need to be fast, so the motors have to be powerful and responsive,” says Pete. “The maximum speed limit with power football and power hockey is 10km/h, but you're allowed to get to that speed as quickly as you want. If you’ve not been in a Powersport wheelchair before, you will be shocked at how quickly it can accelerate. 10km/h is safe for everyone, but rapid acceleration gives exhilaration to the game.” 

Rapid acceleration and durability 

The peak torque requirements of repeated, sudden accelerations meant that the originally specified motors would overheat. The organisation worked with several different motor manufacturers before its relationship with the maxon brand Parvalux began in 2015. 

“The Parvalux motors are great at acceleration, and they can cope with repeated, sudden bursts of torque, so they’re really reliable,” says Pete. “You also need a motor that’s robust, because in power hockey, players will bump into one another, so the motors and connections have to withstand a lot of impact and vibration.”

Parvalux already had long expertise providing drive systems for powered wheelchairs. And, as a British company, the ability for Parvalux to provide local engineering expertise made design integration significantly easier. 

Powersport Engineering uses a Parvalux motor with an integrated worm gearbox and brake. The motor shaft has also been customised to fit the specific size and design of wheelchair wheel. 

“We've changed the gear ratios from 15:1 to a 25:1 ratio, and we’ve had the gears cut as well, so Parvalux provided an engineering service,” Pete adds.

 

Not-for-profit enterprise

The present design of chair is called the Equalizer 2. Powersport Engineering manufactures approximately 50 units per year, selling them at a cost price of £5,000. While players can access these chairs at Greenbank as well as other power football and power hockey venues, players and wider institutions and clubs can also buy the chairs, and the price tag is also around half the price of a similar brand. 

“We are not there to make money,” says Pete. “The chairs are virtually sold at cost-price, which is a challenge because we have to continually seek and find investment.” 

Greenbank Sports Academy has 30 powered wheelchairs for public use. Greenbank & the GB Power Hockey Association, funded by Sport England, are setting up Power Hockey hubs in England & Wales. These hubs mean that disabled people can turn up at centre, get into a chair, and play power hockey and power football. More widespread, there are hubs at Cardiff, Middlesborough, and Coventry with their own stock of powered wheelchairs.

Powersport Engineering is now developing the Equaliser 3 – EQ3. This chair will hopefully come on the market after Christmas, and it will be even more manoeuvrable for power hockey and football. It will also be able to strike the football with more power. For this new development, Powersports Engineering is working with Parvalux to further increase acceleration, as well as making the motors even more efficient. Battery-run, the longer a chair lasts and the less time required for recharge, the more playing time it gives. 

“We're one of the first electric wheelchair companies to use lithium phosphate batteries, which are much longer lasting than acid gel equivalents,” says Pete. “You can get three sessions out of a lithium phosphate battery before it needs charging.” 

Ambitions for power hockey

Since its origins 25 years ago, Greenbank now welcomes up to 40 power hockey players every week. 

“When it started it was just three of us playing but then over the years it's mushroomed. Now, the players lead and run the club themselves,” says Pete.

The current aim is to set up more power hockey hubs across the country to promote the sport in local schools.

“The ‘Sport for All’ ethos of how we can knock down the barriers to allow everybody to play: that's what it's all about,” concludes Pete.  

The long-term aim of the GB (Great Britain) Power Hockey Association is to achieve inclusion in the Paralympics. To find out more about power hockey, watch here.