Sitting volleybal: a sport that gives sense to the life

Abstract

This paper is the result of an investigation whose aim was to interpret the sense that a group of players of sitting volleyball gives to this sport. Those that allowed the development of this study are ex-military officers who, in their professional duty, lost one of their limbs as a result of anti-personnel mines, planted by armed groups out of the law. The qualitative approach was used in order to go deeply in the players’ subjectivity and to unveil their feelings, and the interview in depth and the focal group were performed as gathering data techniques. The narratives were analyzed and categorized using the content analysis technique and the guidelines of the based theory. The results show that the amputation is an episode that changed their lives and led them to a world of uncertainties, challenges and goals that had to overcome together with their relatives and close friends. In this grief the victims found in sitting volleyball a space to find themselves and their pairs, giving again a sense to their lives. Therefore, they conceive the volleyball team as a family that has taught them that limits go beyond the physical condition.