Experiences of volt hockey from family members’ perspectives: an interview study

Abstract

Volt hockey is a team sport developed for persons with physical disabilities. Because family members are important resources to enable sports participation, the purpose of this study was to illuminate experiences of volt hockey from family members’ perspectives. Focus group interviews were conducted, including 20 family members, and the verbatim transcripts were inductively analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Family members saw the value of enabling participation in volt hockey, being an inclusive team sport that brings enjoyment and strengthens social relationships within, and outside of, the family. Trying to facilitate sport participation, the need for material resources and other actors was emphasised, such as personal assistance, funders, and healthcare professionals informing about the sport and the engagement of the volt hockey clubs. In conclusion, involvement in volt hockey is emotionally and socially rewarding for family members, but there is a need for additional enablers to allow the sport to grow.

Keywords:

• Adapted sport
• family system
• leisure activities
• physical disabilities
• qualitative inquiry

Introduction

The family is vital for a child’s introduction to sport and for their continuing sport participation (Haycock and Smith 2014). There is, however, limited research about family members’ experiences of team sports for people with severe physical disabilities. Volt hockey is one of few team sports with speed available for persons using motorized wheelchairs (powerchairs) for mobility. It is a relatively new competitive team sport that is still unknown to many people. Playing volt hockey can contribute to subjective feelings of well-being because it stimulates positive emotions such as joy, enables engagement, nourishes positive relationships, brings meaning, and can lead to feelings of achievement (Aho et al. 2021). Because family members are important resources when it comes to enabling sport participation, understanding family members’ experiences can bring increased knowledge of the support needed. The focus of this study is therefore to illuminate experiences of volt hockey from family members’ perspectives.

Children’s first sporting experiences are usually in a family context as part of leisure activities performed together with parents and siblings (Haycock and Smith 2014). Parents especially have considerable influence on their child’s motivation to take part in a sport (Bailey, Cope, and Pearce 2013). This means that parents are key role models and enablers of children’s participation in an organised sport (Dorsch et al. 2021). Broadly, parents are involved as supporters, coaches, managers, and providers of opportunities. Nevertheless, parental involvement is influenced, for instance, by their own sporting experiences, other family responsibilities, and the amount of time and costs they can commit to their child’s sport (Knight et al. 2016). Parents of children with disabilities experience similar sporting benefits and barriers like parents of children without disabilities (Ferrari 2019). However, parents of children with disabilities face additional challenges due to the consequences of their child’s impairment which, on a sporting level, makes it more difficult and complex to train and successfully perform. This becomes evident through parent’s descriptions of their child’s negative experiences of physical education and team sports in school and the child not being able to physically perform or compete on equal terms with able-bodied peers (Coates and Howe 2023). Moreover, experiences described by siblings to children with physical impairment involves difficulties in doing sporting activities together and therefore having to choose another activity or trying to find a solution by adapting the activity (Pit-Ten Cate and Loots 2000). Overall, parents experience a lack of sporting opportunities for their children with physical disabilities (Coates and Howe 2023; Shirazipour and Latimer-Cheung 2017). Team sporting opportunities for individuals using powerchairs are especially limited (Duvall et al. 2021). Two team sports where the powerchair is used as a sporting equipment is power soccer, also known as powerchair football (Jeffress and Brown 2017), and power hockey (Royse 2020). Previous research shows that the child being able to take part in a team sport, such as power soccer, can evoke new feelings of parental pride when seeing the child strive to achieve sporting success (Bragg et al. 2020). In contrast to using the power chair as a piece of sporting equipment, the sport of volt hockey is performed in a specially designed volt hockey chair.

The sport of volt hockey

The sport of volt hockey was developed in Denmark in the late 1980s for persons with physical disabilities, and it has spread to Sweden, Norway, and Germany. A few clubs have also been established in the United States and Canada (Variety Ontario 2020). All players are sitting in specially designed three-wheeled wooden chairs that are battery driven and steered with a joystick (Figure 1). A plastic stick attached in front of the volt hockey chair allows the player to manoeuvre the ball, and the rules are similar to those in floorball. The volt hockey chair can be viewed as an equalizer, allowing persons using powerchairs in daily life to play and compete with persons who are walking or using a manual wheelchair. Females and males of various ages can play together. Based on results from a previous study, however, volt hockey is a male-dominated sport (Aho et al. 2021). Participation in volt hockey involves enjoyment of being active and competing in a sport, learning new skills, having fun together with friends, experiences of physical benefits, and forming an identity as a volt hockey player. The opportunity to play volt hockey, however, depends not only on material resources, but also on human support that is often provided by family members (Aho et al. 2021). This means that there might be a need for the family to become involved in volt hockey.

Figure 1. Volt hockey chair. Picture: Elisabeth Renmarker.

The family as a system

The theoretical perspective in this study is based on the family being a system, which means that family members affect each other in mutual interactions (Bowen 1966; Kaakinen 2018). This perspective was chosen considering the importance of family members being engaged to enable sporting participation for children with physical disabilities. Besides the importance of parental involvement (Coates and Howe 2023; Shirazipour and Latimer-Cheung 2017), siblings often want to help the child with a disability and perform activities together (Pit-Ten Cate and Loots 2000). Grandparents, with their experiences and time, are often part of the family system, providing practical and emotional support to other family members (Lee and Gardner 2010). In general, the term family refers to two or more persons who depend on each other for emotional, physical, and economic support (Kaakinen 2018). The members of a family are self-defined, which means that the family is who they say they are. The family as a system can be viewed as a unique organized whole but also as individuals within the family who interact and spend time with each other. This means that there are subsystems within a family, which refers to the relations between individuals who are part of the family. Each family has boundaries to other people and the environment in order to control the impact of stressors and to protect individual family members or the family as a whole. A boundary is, for instance, the level of permeability when sharing information about the family’s situation with other people and healthcare professionals. The family as a system is designed to maintain stability but is simultaneously constantly changing and adapting in response to stressors in the internal and external environment (Kaakinen 2018). The emotional interdependency within a family is highlighted in Bowen family system theory. Bowen (1966) described the family as a number of different systems with focus on a combination of emotional and relationship systems. The term emotional refers to the power that motivates the family system and the term relationships refers to the ways it is expressed, which involves communication and interactions between family members. The Bowen family system theory was originally developed through the work with persons with schizophrenia and their families, but it has continued to be developed and can now serve as a theoretical framework to view the person as part of the family (Haefner 2014). The family can thus be viewed as a complex and interactive system in which all family members’ needs and experiences affect the others. This means that a person’s health and illness influence all family members, and the family’s ability to function affects each family member’s health (Kaakinen 2018). Traits of a healthy family include, for instance, that each member is affirmed and supported, having a sense of play and humour, and sharing leisure time together (Kaakinen 2018). An option for spending leisure time together is the child being involved in a sport, which can allow the family to experience a feeling of togetherness (Martin 2017). In a previous study, support needed from family members to enable participation in volt hockey was described by players (Aho et al. 2021). In this study, family members are in focus to gain knowledge about their experiences of volt hockey.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to illuminate experiences of volt hockey from family members’ perspectives.

Method

This study had a qualitative descriptive study design following the Consolidated Criteria for reporting Qualitative Research (Tong, Sainsbury, and Craig 2007). This study also followed the Declaration of Helsinki (WMA 2013) and was approved by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (Reg no: 2019-03699).

Participants

A purposeful sample of family members of volt hockey players in different clubs were invited to participate in focus group interviews. Inclusion criteria were Swedish-speaking family members with experience supporting a volt hockey player. After having received both verbal and written information about the study, the participants (n = 20) signed an informed consent before the data collection started.

Data collection

Four focus group interviews, each consisting of two to eight participants, were conducted in secluded rooms in connection with the regular volt hockey training at the sports facilities during October to November 2019. The interviews followed an interview guide starting with the open question ‘What is the first thing you think of when you hear the words volt hockey’ to encourage the participants to start thinking and speaking about their experiences of volt hockey as family members. Gradually, the questions became more focused followed by probing questions to capture various aspects of experiences, for example, ‘What do you think volt hockey means for the players’ and ‘What does volt hockey mean to you as a family member?’ Follow-up questions were asked to reach an understanding of the participants’ experiences, for instance, ‘How do you mean’ and ‘Can you give an example?’ The researchers, two at a time, conducted the focus group interviews, with one moderating the interview and the other acting as co-moderator asking supplementary questions (Krueger and Casey 2015). The focus group interviews were audio recorded, lasted 62–76 min, and were transcribed verbatim. In connection with the focus group interviews, the participants also self-reported background data.

Data analysis

The data were inductively analysed according to reflexive thematic analysis as described by Braun and Clarke (2006, 2019). This means searching for repeated patterns in the data that are relevant for the aim of the study. To become familiar with the data, the transcripts were read through several times by the researchers individually. Emerging thoughts and ideas arising during the readings were written down for comparison and discussion among the researchers. During the subsequent collaborative and reflexive coding, the transcripts were systematically inspected and data relevant to the aim of the study were labelled with codes representing the content following discussion and reviewing. Thereafter, the codes were sorted by content into a potential preliminary theme and subthemes in a dynamic process. Codes that did not fit within a subtheme, i.e. did not share the same patterns of meaning, were moved to a better-matching subtheme. The preliminary theme and subthemes were then examined based on their content and were compared with the entire data and preliminary names were set. Finally, the preliminary theme and subthemes were reflected on in relation to the codes and the data and the names of theme and subthemes were finalised.

Results

Twenty family members took part in this study, including 11 males and 9 females between the ages of 37 and 72 years (mean age 52 years). The participants’ relation to the person playing volt hockey were fathers (n = 9), mothers (n = 8), and grandparents (n = 3). Altogether, the participants were family members of 15 males playing volt hockey, including children (≥ 9 years), adolescents, and young adults (mean age 19 years). There was a variation in the diagnoses of the persons playing volt hockey, hereafter referred to as players, but a majority had been diagnosed with cerebral paresis or Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The mean time for playing volt hockey was 9 years. The result is presented in the theme: Seeing the value of enabling participation in volt hockey and three subthemes: Appreciating volt hockey being an inclusive team sport; Building and retaining social relationships through volt hockey; and Trying to facilitate player participation in volt hockey.

Seeing the value of enabling participation in volt hockey

Family members saw the value of enabling player participation in volt hockey with it being an inclusive sport that the players enjoyed. Experiencing the value of volt hockey for the players brought positive experiences and feelings of joy to family members. It provided an opportunity to spend quality time with the player and to be part of a social community. Efforts trying to facilitate volt hockey by providing emotional and practical support to the player were described. Furthermore, family members tried to get more players to become interested in the sport, but the need for additional enablers was also described.

Appreciating volt hockey being an inclusive team sport

Family members described volt hockey in terms of being an inclusive team sport. Several of the players had tried different non-adapted sports before coming across volt hockey, and family members had throughout the years witnessed their struggle to keep up with their same-aged peers. Seeing the player being excluded from sports activities due to physical disability had been troublesome for family members. By searching on the internet, through friends or healthcare professionals, or arranged try-out days, information about volt hockey had been received. In contrast to other sports, volt hockey was described as a sport possible to perform on equal terms. It was also appreciated as a sport in which the player could perform without assistance from another person. Volt hockey was thereby viewed by the family members as a unique and inclusive team sport.

Mother (9): In volt hockey, you become more involved on equal terms, because you are in the same situation. You are no different … here, he can show what he can do … he can play independently. (Focus group 2)

Seeing the joy and excitement of the player being part of a team sport and having fun together with others was a source of joy for family members.

Father (1): He’s very happy and it’s fun, you feel happy as soon as you see them laughing and having fun together.

Grandparent (2): It’s just so rewarding to be a part of. It’s an enormous joy. And the kids are great with each other, in a way you don’t see anywhere else….It’s absolutely amazing. I look forward to it as well. It’s great fun, when you see the sense of community and how much fun they have together. (Focus group 1)

Family members experienced personal development and enhanced self-confidence of the players thanks to volt hockey. Several of the family members had been engaged in sports activities themselves as youths. The value of being able to play and compete in a team sport was therefore also reflected on based on their own experiences. Volt hockey was viewed as a way for the players to develop new skills and to show competence in the sport, but the importance of learning how to handle a loss was also described. The fact that players were able to train and become talented in a team sport was perceived to bring enhanced self-confidence that could be useful in everyday life.

Mother (17): There’s a self-confidence that I don’t think would have existed if it weren’t for the fact they’ve been able to prove to themselves that they have talent and have succeeded at something.

Father (19): I agree, self-confidence, self-esteem, definitely. And the feeling of being good at something … and you have had to train for it. From maybe not being very good, over the years developing with age and knowledge and training, and realising that things are possible if you want them and have the ability. And I think that’s something you carry with you. (Focus group 4)

Building and retaining social relationships through volt hockey

Family members experienced that social relationships could be built and retained through volt hockey and the feeling of being part of a larger sporting community was expressed. Several of the family members described how they had found people in similar situations through volt hockey and the value of being able to share experiences, information, and advice with each other. The players’ training and tournaments provided an opportunity for family members to take a pause from everyday life and to socialize with each other while watching the game. Based on mutual experiences of being family members, it was found to be easy to talk to each other about various matters, such as assistive devices. Family members therefore felt that they could receive support regarding everyday matters from each other. Travelling to tournaments and staying at a hotel provided additional time for family members to socialize with each other. It was also an opportunity to meet and spend time with family members from other clubs. Through the years, friendships that reached beyond volt hockey had thereby developed among family members.

Mother (9): I’ve got to know many parents of children with the same disease through volt hockey. And naturally that’s positive, because you need to find others in the same situation as yourself and you make friends through this and can meet outside the clubs.

Mother (10): Yes, we’re never short of things to talk about. As a parent, being able to sit and chat and exchange experiences of various things fulfils a function in itself … you can give each other tips and so on. (Focus group 2)

Family members in all interviews described the value of volt hockey in terms of enabling social interactions and friendships among players. Participation in a team sport and having fun together was perceived by family members to create a sense of togetherness among the players and increased social competence that could be used in everyday life. At tournaments, some family members noticed how players on different teams, who were rivals on the field, socialised with each other. Seeing the fellowship among the players brought happiness to family members who highlighted their experiences of social benefits for the players through volt hockey.

Grandparent (3): In my opinion, this has provided them with greater opportunities to socialise on a completely different level … they have grown mentally and they are much more outgoing and can cope in community with other kids who don’t have disabilities. The social element has become much, much greater now they are here meeting other kids.

Father (4): Of different ages, and precisely that social competence has really grown.

(Focus group 1)

Family members recognized that being involved in volt hockey created opportunities for them to spend quality time with the player. Going to practices and tournaments was perceived as an opportunity to socialize with each other and to talk about everyday matters, or just to be silent together. In contrast, some family members also expressed having a guilty conscious about not being able to be equally involved in activities performed by the player’s siblings. It was therefore perceived as important to give attention to and to make amends with the siblings by spending time and doing activities with them. Growing older, siblings could come along and help the player when going to trainings and tournaments, which was perceived to strengthen the relation between the players and the siblings.

Father (19): We go on long trips, you stay in hotels, have time to yourself with your child in the car …. I find it to be a positive experience … but then I can see a certain amount of jealousy from my daughter, who doesn’t have this … so X comes first in many ways … so, absolutely, I have a bad conscience about that.

Mother (16): I also have a daughter and she has had to take a bit of a backseat all the time, has had to help and be involved and such, although in recent years [the daughter] has actually travelled with X to tournaments … So they have some kind of bond as well (Focus group 4)

Trying to facilitate player participation in volt hockey

Seeing the value of volt hockey, family members described the importance of being involved and how they tried to provide emotional and practical support to the player to facilitate participation in volt hockey. Although some of the family members mentioned an initial fear of injuries among players, the importance of not being a hindrance but rather to encourage and facilitate the players to participate was emphasized. Family members therefore tried to encourage the players during practices and tournaments. In general, the importance of not holding the players back due to physical disability was highlighted.

Father (4): We parents are an important contributory factor. That we push them, I think that’s vital … and then it’s important to try things and meet obstacles and find out what suits me, and what doesn’t. I think that’s very important, not to hold your child back just because they are disabled in some way. But, of course, everyone is different. (Focus group 1)

The importance of providing practical support to the player was emphasised in all of the interviews. Although the volt hockey clubs usually owned the volt hockey chairs and allowed access to practice on a sport field, the on-going and continuous work to enable volt hockey participation was perceived to mainly be performed on a voluntary basis by family members. Apart from supporting the player’s needs for human aid in daily life as carers, family members described experiences of handling and repairing the volt hockey chairs and the equipment, becoming a trainer and/or a referee, and driving to trainings and tournaments. The importance of everybody contributing and helping each other was described. A sadness when seeing that players were not able to take part in volt hockey activities due to lack of human support or financial resources was expressed. Besides family members, personal assistants contributed to support and were seen as a resource to enable volt hockey for players. This was viewed as a way for the player to perform an activity independently from family members, who also did not have the opportunity to be present every time. Because personal assistants could quit and be replaced by others, however, the importance of family members being involved and dedicated was highlighted in order to preserve the knowledge about volt hockey and of how everything works in connection with trainings and tournaments.

Father (20): You have to invest a lot of time, it’s not just that there’s an established association.

Father (19): We are dependent on everybody helping out, but then people know different amounts about different things, that’s just the way it is.

Father (20): Many players have assistants who are here, but they get replaced … but, in the end, the parents still need to obtain the knowledge, otherwise it probably wouldn’t work….There are many who can’t get away … for some it might be a financial thing that stops them. Perhaps they don’t even own a car and then it can be difficult. So, it can be unfair (Focus group 4)

Considering volt hockey is a relatively new competitive team sport for people with severe physical disabilities, the importance of trying to contribute to the growth of the sport was emphasised by some of the parents. Efforts were made in raising awareness of volt hockey and facilitating for more persons to participate in the sport involved, for instance, arranging try-out days and spreading information about volt hockey in different contexts. There was, however, a mutual concern about how volt hockey could be spread and how new clubs could be established considering the cost of the chairs.

Father (12): The sport would be much more widespread if the chairs didn’t cost so much. So, it’s a pity that they can’t be manufactured more economically (Focus group 3)

Furthermore, there was a limitation to what was perceived as possible to do as family members on a voluntary basis to enable participation in volt hockey by more persons. A quest for other actors, such as the volt hockey clubs, funders, and society, to contribute with resources and support to enable players to take part in the sport was highlighted. The perception was also that healthcare professionals, with increased awareness of the benefits of volt hockey, could contribute to sharing information about the sport with potential new players.

Father (19): It’s also up to the association how much one does. We all have civilian jobs on top of this and then you need to be there for siblings, the family … all of our children go through habilitation so that’s where one would have liked to see more support to spread the word. Naturally, one would love to do more but we focus on keeping what we already have going (Focus group 4)

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to illuminate experiences of volt hockey from family members’ perspectives. The results showed that family members appreciated volt hockey in terms of it being a unique and inclusive sport. This in turn was perceived to enable social interaction and a sense of belonging. It was found to be valuable to meet families in similar situations and to be able to exchange experiences. Sharing the joy and interest of the player brought positive experiences to family members and quality time with the player. Experiencing the benefits of volt hockey, family members tried to facilitate and support the players’ sport participation. The need for additional resources and enablers to allow the sport to continue to grow was also described.

In the current study, seeing the value of volt hockey for the players was a source of joy for family members. This must be seen in the light of the fact that team sports opportunities for persons using powerchairs are limited (Duvall et al. 2021). Finding sporting opportunities for their child with a disability is a way for parents to ensure that their child has access to the full range of opportunities that a child without a disability might benefit from (Coates and Howe 2023). Being aware that their child might face difficulties in life due to their disability, parents consider the sport to be a meaningful activity that provides opportunities for the child to develop confidence, to experience social belonging, and to minimise feelings of being different compared to others (Coates and Howe 2023). This emphasizes the importance of volt hockey being viewed as an inclusive team sport that is possible to perform on equal terms. Similar experiences have been expressed by parents of power soccer players, who felt that the child being able to independently perform a team sport could create feelings of being an athlete, which is quite different from other ‘inclusive’ sport opportunities that are performed with able-bodied children who are faster and stronger (Bragg et al. 2020). This means that sport is not only associated with social inclusion, but also with physical well-being and the enhancement of self-esteem. Inclusion in sports for persons with disabilities should therefore be based on the person’s choices and preferences in regards to what they want to do and with whom (Kiuppis 2018). Volt hockey being an inclusive sport that can contribute to subjective feelings of well-being among players has previously been described (Aho et al. 2021). Based on the theoretical perspective of the family as a system (Kaakinen 2018; Haefner 2014), experiencing the joy and well-being of the player positively affects the other family members, as seen in the current study. Participation in sports also seems to imply a psychological empowerment that may lead to greater participation in other contexts of everyday life (Kissow 2015). This was also expressed by family members in the current study in regards to perceived enhanced self-confidence and social competence among player that could be used in everyday life. Based on these results, volt hockey can be regarded as an inclusive sport and leisure activity that can bring value to the whole family.

The results revealed social benefits of being involved in volt hockey and the value of meeting families in similar situations. This is in line with previous research, showing that a major goal for parents to enable sport participation for their child with a disability is to provide an opportunity for their child to experience social belonging and develop friendships. Simultaneously, parents often become part of a social community through their child’s sport participation (Bragg et al. 2020; Martin and Goh 2022; Coates and Howe 2023; Shirazipour and Latimer-Cheung 2017). According to the theoretical perspective of the family as a system (Kaakinen 2018) and based on the results of the current study, it seems as if the boundaries to other people may be more flexible when meeting people in similar situations, making it easier to talk and exchange experiences with each other. Families’ geographic boundaries may also be expanded by having the opportunity to travel to different places to take part in volt hockey activities. In the current study, the value of spending quality time with the player in connection with volt hockey activities was described. This means that the relations in different subsystems within the family can be strengthened when supporting the player, for instance, the relations between the player and a parent, a grandparent, or a sibling. In addition, social relations among family members can be nurtured and strengthened by the story value of shared experiences of sports participation (Martin 2017). This means that sports experiences can be recalled and be the topic of conversations within the family system and this may contribute to strengthening family ties. It could, however, be difficult for parents to balance their attention and time commitment for the activities of all their children, which can be stressful for the parents (Shirazipour and Latimer-Cheung 2017). This in turn can create a guilty conscience regarding siblings who do not receive the same amount of attention as the child with disability, as expressed in the current study. Siblings often notice differences in parental treatment, although appreciating their parents’ attempts to treat all children equally (Pit-Ten Cate and Loots 2000). At the same time, having a brother or sister with a physical disability creates an opportunity to develop a greater understanding of people and to become more supportive towards others. Experiences shared by the family can also lead to closer family ties (Dew, Balandin, and Llewellyn 2008).

Family members described the importance of being involved and efforts made trying to enable participation in volt hockey. Besides being involved as supporters, coaches, managers, and providers of opportunities, as described by Knight et al. (2016), several of the parents in this study were involved as care providers, providing personal support to the child. Caring responsibilities as well as transport and accessibility issues mean that a parental presence often is a requirement to allow engagement in sport (Coates and Howe 2023). This is a major difference compared to families with children without disabilities. As children without disabilities grow older, they can participate in sporting activities independently from their parents, whereas children with disabilities may need human support regardless of their age. Parents therefore need an expansive social network that can provide support, for instance, by taking the child to an activity (Piškur et al. 2012). In the current study, grandparents as well as siblings were involved in facilitating participation in volt hockey. According to the Bowen family system theory, the importance of family interdependence is highlighted but also the need for children to learn how to function autonomously and make self-directed decisions (Haefner 2014). As the child grows, this should involve the opportunity to perform a sport activity without being dependent on practical support from family members. Moreover, all families do not have the resources needed to perform a sporting activity, which was expressed in the current study. This means that although volt hockey is viewed as an inclusive sport, persons might be excluded due to lack of human support or financial resources. The findings in the current study provide knowledge about parents’ efforts trying to enable participation for more players and wishing for the sport to grow. The need for other actors outside the family system to enable sports participation was highlighted in the current study, and the player having access to personal assistance can be viewed as an important resource. Access to personal assistance is therefore a way to override barriers in society and empower the person to participate in sport activities in accordance to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN 2007). This highlights the families’ needs not only for funding, but also for human support to enable sports participation for a child with disability (Luymes, Fletcher, and Bryden 2021). These results emphasize the importance of family members facilitating participation in volt hockey, but also the need for various forms of external support in order to include players regardless of resources within their family system.

Methodological considerations

Focus group interviews were conducted to enable family members to express their experiences with volt hockey. Compared with individual interviews, focus group interviews present a more natural environment because the participants can interact with each other (Krueger and Casey 2015). Focus group interviews put demands on the researchers conducting the interview because all participants should be encouraged to take equal part in the discussion. Having two researchers present at the interviews enhanced the quality of the discussions because the moderator could focus on the core of the discussion while the assistant moderator could observe the dynamics in the group and could involve participants who had not been as active in the discussion as others. The researchers in this study worked to create an inviting atmosphere in order to make the participants comfortable, and the focus groups were conducted in secluded rooms in a familiar environment. Indeed, the discussions during all focus groups were energetic, reflecting a willingness to discuss and share experiences of volt hockey from the family members’ perspectives. A potential weakness may be the uneven number of participants in the focus groups, and one focus group consisted of two participants and one of eight participants. Krueger and Casey (2015) recommend five to eight participants in each focus group. Groups that are too large make it difficult to control the discussion and interaction and influence the amount of space and time for each participant to speak during the interviews, while groups that are too small limit the total range of experiences provided. However, the remaining two interviews included five participants each, and in total the focus groups provided experiences from 20 family members with a variation in age and gender as well as position in the family. This means that the size of the sample and the heterogeneity of the participants provided a variation of experiences from family members’ perspectives. A limitation is that siblings were not represented among the participants, which means that insight from across the family system was not obtained. Likewise, family members of female players did not take part in this study. Moreover, family members of players who for various reasons had stopped playing volt hockey could not be invited to take part in this study. This is a limitation of the study because their perspectives would probably have contributed with more variations in experiences. A strength is that the audio-recorded focus group interviews were transcribed verbatim and that the inductive analysis was performed close to the text in a dynamic process between the researchers in order to minimize the risk of forcing or fitting the data into subthemes based on potential preconceptions. Furthermore, the thematic analytic steps described by Braun and Clarke (2006, 2019) were followed and clearly accounted for.

Conclusion

Volt hockey is an inclusive team sport that enables persons with varied physical disabilities and strength to play and compete with each other on equal terms. It is also an opportunity for families in similar situations to meet and expand their social networks. This in turn can strengthen family ties. Seeing the value of volt hockey, family members try to facilitate participation in the sport by providing emotional and practical support to the players. In order to allow the sport to continue and to grow, the need for external support outside the family system was highlighted. This consisted of material and financial resources, considering the cost of the volt hockey chairs, but also the engagement of other actors, such as the player having access to personal assistants. Being one of the few inclusive team sports with speed for persons using powerchairs, increased awareness about volt hockey is needed, along with societal interventions and sponsors to allow more persons to enjoy the sport.

Acknowledgments

All participants are acknowledged for contributing with their time and experiences.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The study was supported by unrestricted grants from The Swedish National Association for Disabled Children and Young People.