Bankshot Event Set for Mattie Stepanek Park in Rockville

The National Association for Recreational Equality (“NARE”) is sponsoring a non-competitive all-inclusive Bankshot Shoot-Around with participants with Autism at the Bankshot Court in the King Farm Mattie Stepanek Park in Rockville.

The event takes place Sunday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The park is at 1800 Piccard Drive.

The event is free and open to the public.  All are invited to shoot-around playing alongside members of our community with Autism, ADHD and other challenges.

The game is a mixture of basketball, billiards, miniature golf and fine art.

The design is intended to stimulate motor coordination in a dynamic kid-friendly inclusionary game. Bankshot Court presents a series of uniquely shaped backboards in an area half the size of a tennis court. Hoops are placed at 8 feet rather than 10 feet.

A complete circuit usually takes about 45 minutes.

Varying points, determined by distance and difficulty, are scored for each shot that goes in, and bonus points are gained by hitting from all three circles at any given station.

In the middle rounds the backboards get trickier, calling for wraparound shots and double backboard ricochet shots.

The game culminates with the 19th station, known as the “Black Hole.” At this station you must bank the ball off of two rimless boards into a basket a few feet away.  The highest possible score is 240, which is pretty difficult to reach.

NARE was created for the purpose of fulfilling the recreational needs of those who are physically and cognitively challenged. We understand that providing for special populations and their families is a human rights and social justice issue.

The participation of children with disabilities in sports and recreational activities promotes inclusion, minimizes de-conditioning, optimizes physical functioning and enhances overall well-being.

Participation in recreational activities is the context in which people form friendships, develop skills and competency, express creativity, achieve mental and physical health, and determine meaning and purpose in life.

Children with disabilities tend to be more restrictive in participation with their peers—a gap that widens as children become adults.

One way people can help children with disabilities to participate fully in the lives of their families and communities is by promoting participation in sports and other recreational activities in the least restrictive environment.

Such programs should target cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, balance, coordination, agility, muscular strength, safety and enjoyment.

Our organization has been instrumental in establishing hundreds of inclusive ball-playing facilities known as Bankshot Basketball throughout several local and national inner-city communities and the entire globe. Bankshot Basketball Courts have been constructed throughout the United States and the world.

Locally, there is a large Bankshot station at the joint Anacostia-Bolling Air Force Base, which will become increasingly important for Wounded Warriors and other members of the military. The City of Manassas, Virginia, has two Bankshot Courts, and the City of Rockville has courts at King Farm and Montrose Park.

The College Gardens Elementary School will be adding Bankshot to their school’s property alongside the playground. Both Fairfax, Virginia, and Prince George’s County are committed to building Bankshot Courts by next year.

There are Bankshot Courts in three cities in New Zealand and five cities in Israel. Turkey obtained its first Bankshot Court in 2017, and Japan will install a six Bankshot Courts in time for the 2018 Summer Olympics.

All over the country over-built tennis courts are being repurposed with Bankshot Playcourts. The latest example is the Annapolis Watergate Apartments. Such repurposing has increased participation twenty-fold and has provided for unmatched diversity.

What was perhaps the most successful and well-used recreational facility besides the swimming pool to meet the need for diversity and inclusion, the Bankshot Basketball Court at the Rockville Swim Center. When first opened and available with full access to the public at no charge, this facility was an unqualified success in meeting the needs of the disabled for years. Jane Salzano of the Salzano Center for Autism, testifying at a Rockville meeting on diversity, called the Rockville Swim Center Bankshot Basketball Court “a treasure.”

On the Bankshot website, there are posted dozens of documents, letters and photographs taken in the early years after the facility’s construction which show a massive number of able-bodied and disabled individuals, young and old, of all ethnicities, using that court on a regular and frequent basis.

The Rockville Swim Center Bankshot Playcourt was so important for achieving pluralism and popular that the Rockville Department of Parks and Recreation advocated and arranged for the construction of additional courts, including one in the King Farm community.

You can read more about Bankshot Basketball at bankshot.com and narletsplayfair.org.

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