A study of sports participation of disabled table tennis players

[[abstract]]The study aimed at understanding disabled table tennis participation and investigating the difference of their participation motivation and behavior from different demographical varieties. Our subjects were the 125 disabled table tennis. The study was conducted by the questionnaires of the disabled table tennis made by myself. After the obtained data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA and Chi-Square Test, the results are as follows: 1.The majority table tennis participants among the disabled were male, aged mainly between 41 and 50, university or college graduates. Their monthly income ranged from NT 20,000 to 40,000 dollars. Their continual participation was over 10 years. Most of them were polio suffers and belonged to wheelchair group. As to sport achievement, few of them had ever represented any organizations to compete in the game. 2.Among the disabled participants, the frequency of participation was mostly 2 times weekly with 61 to 120 minutes’ participation duration. Participation time was mainly in the evening. Most of them participated at their leisure time. Their friends played an important role in influencing them to play table tennis. The main obstacle of participating the sport is the lack of time or incapability of finding the right time. 3.The first five entries of participation motivation are as follows: stress-relief demand, health-improving demand, accomplishment demand, social demand, and knowledge demand. 4.The results of the study indicates that the motivation of participation for the disabled in Taiwan varied significantly from different gender, age, academic degree, income, handicap types and sports achievement. 5.The results of the study indicates that the participation behavior for the disabled in Taiwan varied significantly from different gender, age, academic degree, income, handicap types, participant levels and sports achievement.