Podcast

Podcast Episode 6: Joon Reid, Multi-Sport Athlete and Professional Chef

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In this episode, we talk with Joon Reid about the benefits of adapted sports and his life’s journey. Joon has played many sports in his lifetime and it led to him competing for the United States internationally. Joon also discusses his passion for cooking, working as a professional chef for the last 26 years. He stays close to sports through his work at the Lakeshore Foundation, cooking for athletes when they come to train and coaching several sports.

A full episode transcript is available below or on Buzzsprout.

Get notified about new episodes by subscribing on your favorite streaming apps, or follow our social media channels on Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn to stay updated with new episode announcements.

Where to check out Wellness, Health & Everything Else: A NCHPAD Podcast

Buzzsprout website (no subscription required): https://www.buzzsprout.com/2397451

Streaming apps for podcasts: https://tr.ee/_AxhoopNgN

Episode Transcript

Quick Navigation (click the linked text below to jump to a new section)

Intro
Joon’s early life
Joon’s evolution as a young athlete
Joon’s appreciation for different sports
Joon featured at the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum
Playing internationally for USA Wheelchair Handball and Floorball
His love of being active and adapting to the challenges of different sports
Handling the ups and downs of competition
Lessons learned as an athlete
Joon’s coaching experience
Adapted sports growth and challenging misconceptions
Joon’s career as a professional chef
His final message to athletes and coaches
Conclusion

Host

0:01

This is Wellness, Health and Everything Else: a NCHPAD Podcast.

Welcome to Wellness, Health and Everything Else: a NCHPAD Podcast. NCHPAD is the National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability – the nation’s premier center dedicated to promoting the health and wellness of everyone. In each episode, we’re exploring topics at the intersection of health, wellness and mobility limitations. If you have an idea for a topic, would like to learn more about a topic, or are interested in our free resources, programs and partnership opportunities, email us at nchpad@uab.edu, give us a call at 866-866-8896 or check out our website at nchpad.org.

Music Interlude

In this episode, we’re talking about the important impact of adapted sports with Joon Reid. Joon has been involved in adapted sports since he was a teenager, playing in many sports that eventually led him to play for the U.S. internationally and take on coaching. When his talents aren’t being shown on the court or playing field, Joon takes his talents to the kitchen as a professional cook, a job he’s had for the last 26 years.

Let’s get to know Joon from the very beginning…

Joon

01:20

So, I lost my left leg above the knee when I was about four years old. I was actually adopted from South Korea and from what I was told, I was found at a bus stop. My mom had died, and my dad just left me there. And then at the orphanage, the people that found me brought me to an orphanage, and then from there, they said the only thing that I knew was my name. And then they said, based off my vocabulary, that I was about four years old. I was adopted and then moved to the states in Atlanta, Georgia. And so, I have like Christmas pictures and family photos with myself with two legs. And then I was adopted in the fall. And then that spring, March, the following year, my adopted dad and his friend were going to fly from Atlanta to Texas to visit his side of the family. We got about a couple hundred feet in the air and I only know this because my mom, my adopted mom, wasn’t on the plane, [and] saved all the newspaper clippings. But the cockpit doors opened and there was a guy that said he saw the cockpit door open. He saw the pilot reach over to close the door and then as soon as the door closed, the plane went down. So, the plane went down headfirst. It broke in half at the wings. And so the tail came up at a 45-degree angle. They both died. And then my leg was caught under a chair. And then at the hospital, it was too burnt to save, so they amputated it at the hospital. Broke my right femur, and I have traction marks on my shin from where they put that metal pin in your shin bone to hold your leg up. I got skin grafts on my thigh and the back of my calf because I broke out in a rash on my stomach from the penicillin. So that’s how I lost my leg. And then my first introduction to adaptive sports was that following year. My mom took me to Colorado for a vacation to snow ski. Tried it out once, fell in love with it, and then I eventually became good enough to join the Winter Park Disabled Ski Team.

Host

03:31

Here’s Joon discussing his evolution as a young athlete.

Joon

03:35

I don’t know, I think with the introduction of snow skiing and then after I lost my leg, I played soccer, baseball and basketball stand up for like the city rec teams. I enjoy competing. I like being active and it wasn’t until high school when I got introduced to wheelchair basketball. Because I got to high school and that’s kind of when puberty hit and then I realized that all these other boys were able to run faster, jump higher and were quicker than I was. And luckily at that time, I was at the Homewood YMCA shooting hoops in their CIT, the Counselor in Training Program, and it just so happened that the junior wheelchair basketball coach at Lakeshore was in there walking around, saw me, and asked me to come try wheelchair basketball.

Host

04:28

It took some time for Joon to like some of the sports that he was involved with.

Joon

04:32

Well, I didn’t… I don’t think I liked it because I think I was in the mindset of… I wasn’t qualified to play, in a sense, because I didn’t use a wheelchair. I didn’t feel like I should play basketball in a wheelchair. And I think I was still young enough to think that I could still play stand-up basketball. But like in high school, I just realized there was no way I was going to make the high school basketball team and actually play. I didn’t want to ride the bench. But as soon as I got in a wheelchair, it literally opened up my eyes to a whole world of new possibilities. It let me, you know, there is no, obviously, there’s no jumping verticality or any lateral movement, but I could push the chair. I could still shoot the ball. I could still dribble, pass and do everything that I wanted to do and essentially play the same sport, just in a different mode in a sense. And then that just kind of led me into being in all sorts of adaptive sports since then.

Host

05:46

In high school, Joon was featured at the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham, Alabama, in an exhibit showcasing athletes with disabilities playing sports. Here he is describing that moment.

Joon

05:57

That was pretty cool. I didn’t realize quite what it was back then and what it was for. I mean, I realized, like, it was showcasing disabled athletes in sports and just trying to get more exposure to it. But looking back on it, like, I realized the kind of significance and importance of being able to be in the Civil Rights Museum with all the history that the city has gone through and everything. But it was just a really cool experience to kind of go in there and see not just myself, but other athletes like myself, whether they had the same disability or not, being given the opportunity to see what they’re able to do and to give that exposure of other disabled athletes that are more than just sitting on the sidelines rooting for their teams. They’re active, they’re competing competitively, they’re going to be the best that they can be and not just sitting at home watching TV and feeling sorry for themselves.

Host

07:01

Joon’s hard work ethic and skills took him to the big stage, playing internationally for the USA wheelchair handball team and floorball team.

Joon

07:09

That was an amazing experience. Egypt, of course, like we went in September and so it was hot, you know, it was in the desert. So, everything was dusty, and it was very hot. But the gameplay itself and being able to compete on a U.S. team and play against the top countries of the world. And we actually beat the reigning world champion, Brazil. And I actually had the goal-winning-save to bring us into the championship match against Egypt, which we then lost. So, we ended up second. But the experience as a whole, like the food, the culture, we actually got to go see the pyramids on my birthday. So that was a really cool birthday present. I know they didn’t plan it like that, but I like to think they did. But to see the pyramids in person and just realize how enormous even a single block is. There’s the smaller pyramid we were able to go up and sit on. And I mean, I couldn’t spread my arms wide enough to fit one block. And so, to see that history and that culture and to experience that food, it was just amazing overall.

So, I had played floorball a little bit like as a rec sport for Lakeshore and so I was somewhat introduced to it but never played it at a competitive level, and because they needed a goalie they called me up and said that they had tryouts [and] didn’t see anyone they liked and then they saw me play goalie for Egypt, or in Egypt, and they’re like, “Well hey like the skills might transfer over.” And so, they called me up, [and] asked me to be a goalie in Sweden. I said, heck yeah. Went over there with them and got to play other countries like Sweden, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia. And so, to be on another U.S. team and to compete at another world championship was amazing, too. And it was kind of not, I guess, ironic, but I went from literally one extreme in Egypt, the hot desert climate, to in December I went to Sweden, so it was cold, rainy and windy. But again, like the culture there, everyone was super nice. The food was amazing. We got to explore a little bit. So, I got to see a little bit of Malmö where we were. [I] got to see the Christmas village. And then everyone else, like everyone on the team on both the handball and the floorball were, everyone was really cool [and] wanted to hang out. And we’re looking to help each other be better so that way the team could be better.

Host

09:60

Joon has played a wide variety of sports in his lifetime. He reflected on his love for being active and the challenges from some of the sports that he’s played.

Joon

10:08

I think initially it’s just the love of sport. I like being active. I like playing sports, but I also like to be challenged. And so to be able to play different sports keeps me active but challenges me because it’s different skill sets. The hand-eye coordination might be the same, but it’s different. The handball is bigger than the floorball. The basketball is bigger than the handball. And tennis, it requires a different hand-eye coordination. So, I like competing, but I also like going out and just shooting hoops, hitting the tennis ball with a couple of friends of mine, or just being out and about, pushing the Lakeshore trail, just being out, getting out in the sun, and just staying active in a sense. But I just, yeah, I think it’s just both. I like to be challenged to see what I’m capable of. And I want to be able to push my teammates and my friends to see what they’re capable of and make them the best that they can be and then just playing sports because I love it.

[The] greatest challenge sport-wise individually was Alpine racing. Being that young, the coaches left it up to us to wax and tune our equipment, our skis. And so given that responsibility of first they showed us how to do it, and they taught us, obviously, but then it was up to myself to make sure I put the right wax on. It was up to me to make sure I put the right angles on my edges and to make sure they were sharp enough. Because if I didn’t have the right wax or if I didn’t make my edges sharp enough and I slipped because my edge didn’t catch, then that was on me and not my coaches. So, they provided the tools and the know-how to do it, but then it was up to me to be held responsible to take care of my equipment and realize that if I didn’t do it properly, then I was the one at fault and there was no one else to blame.

Teamwork-wise, basketball comes to mind because when you join a basketball team, you have at minimum four other strangers, in a sense, when you first start. To be able to work with them and to know their tendencies requires you to be understanding of their abilities. You know, like, does my teammate want a chest pass or a bounce pass? Or do they, if it’s a tall guy playing center, does he want the ball in the air with his arm outstretched? And so, learning other people’s tendencies, they’re strangers, essentially, you know, until you become more familiar with them and become teammates and friends, learning those characteristics and tendencies is typically the hardest because there’s a lot of confusion. You might say one thing like, come pick for me, but I might take it as something else. And so, you have to get on the same page terminology-wise. What do you mean when you say this? Well, this is what I mean. Well, I thought you meant this. Well, now we have an understanding, and now we can work together and be more fluid as a team.

Host

13:44

Competing at the highest level can be both thrilling and exhausting. Here’s how Joon handled the ups and downs.

Joon

13:50

You got to be in the moment, you know, whether it’s, like… When I had the gold-winning save against the reigning world champion Brazil, that was one of the best feelings in the world. And then the very next day, we ended up second. We didn’t win the gold. And so those two extremes, literally within less than 24 hours, [are] tough. But you’ve got to have that mental toughness to be able to enjoy the highs and to eventually take what you can from the lows and the down and outs, but then to overcome it. You know, not dwell on it and feel sorry for yourself. You know, what I like to do is go back and see, hopefully, I can figure out what went wrong, [and] what happened, and then learn from that mistake and hopefully not make it again in the future.

Host

14:52

Here are some of the great lessons Joon learned as an athlete.

Joon

14:56

If you don’t put in the work, you’re not going to see the success. If you don’t put in the work, you’re not going to see the results. I’ve had teammates [who] don’t push hard, that show up late, that don’t stay late, that don’t go in the gym on their own time, and then they wonder why they’re not starting, or why they’re not getting subbed in, or why we don’t pass them the ball. It kind of reminds me of Kobe and his mentality [that] he’s putting in all this work and he expects his teammates to put in all this work. It doesn’t have to be the same level but just putting in work in order to get better results. And if you don’t put in the work, then you shouldn’t be rewarded. And you can see that with just any athlete in any sport people that, like, in football, in the offseason you don’t necessarily have to train five days a week, but if you don’t go into the gym and keep conditioning and you show up spring training, you know, you’re slower, you’re heavier, [and] people notice that. And so, it’s that level of commitment of putting in the work in order to see the results, you get your own reward. Not necessarily from playing time, but me personally, like I feel better getting in the game and being able to put out more than I put in. You know, getting more rewarded [for] being able to pass the ball faster or sharper or being able to push down the court quicker or, getting my chair in a position because I know during the off-season, I work on my chair skills. I condition on my own. I put in my own time outside of practices in order to get better. So that way, hopefully, the team will be better. And so that’s kind of one of the lessons I’ve learned is just [that] if you don’t put the work in, then you can’t expect the reward. You can’t expect the wins.

Host

17:12

From playing to coaching, Joon gives his thoughts on what he’s enjoyed most about it and how he’s approached the leadership role.

Joon

17:19

Coaching is definitely different. It can be frustrating because what I envision as a coach in my head does not always play out to the athletes that I’m coaching. And they might not understand what I’m saying, and so it gives me, it forces me to think outside the box and to think of how should I tell them how to do this drill, or how do I better explain this drill so that they understand. Because not everyone is the same, not everyone thinks the same, [and] not everyone hears and interprets the drills the same. And so, it forces me to kind of take a step back, look at a third person view, and be like, what can I do to make this athlete better understand what I’m trying to tell him or her and what do I want them to do and how do I make them better? Because I believe as a coach, if I can make each athlete better, then they in turn will make the team better, which in turn makes the coach better.

Host

18:33

Adapted sports have grown over the years. Joon discussed the changes he’s seen and challenging some of the misconceptions around the sports.

Joon

18:42

Changes I’ve seen in adaptive sports [are] mainly equipment. The chairs have gotten better. They’ve gotten lighter. The materials are stronger. They’re better made. The personal training aspect of it too, I guess the more science behind it. There’s, you know, college teams have dietitians, collegiate wheelchair basketball teams have dietitians, they have nutritionists, they have strength and conditioning coaches, just like the able-bodied sports. And so, for the public, I guess, to see and realize that athletes in wheelchairs put in just as much time and effort and hard work as their able-bodied counterparts, for them to take that consideration of, oh, well, they need to eat properly too. They need to do this lifting program that best fits them. And so, to integrate that into the different adaptive sports programs, even at the highest level, at the Paralympic level, they’re doing specific lifts and conditionings for each sport that is for that athlete.

Changes in the future? I don’t know. I would think that chairs would get better. I don’t know how they would get better. But as technology gets better, then that just filters down into the rest of the world. Like with the Fitbits and the Apple Watches, being able to have the ability to register how far a person in a wheelchair is pushing and how they adapted that from someone walking or running, to someone in a wheelchair.

[About misconceptions around sports]

Probably the same one that I had when I was younger, first getting into adaptive sports, that you don’t necessarily have to be in a wheelchair or use a wheelchair to play sports in a wheelchair. You just have to have a physical disability. I think even now, I have amputees, new amputees that come into Lakeshore and I show them or give them a tour and tell them about all the sports. And one of the first questions is, out of their mouth is, can I play wheelchair basketball? You know, I don’t use a wheelchair. I walk on a prosthetic. Well, yes, you can. You know, it’s not limited to just people [who] use a wheelchair every day. It’s for people [who] have a physical disability that limits them playing able-bodied basketball or any able-bodied sport. And so, I think a lot of people get turned away because they see the wheelchair and they think because I don’t use a wheelchair every day, then I’m not able to play in a wheelchair in this sport of whatever it is.

Host

21:49

From basketball to baking, here’s how Joon got started as a professional cook and how he stays close to sports, even through the art of cuisine.

Joon

21:57

So, I’m in the rec and athletics department here at Lakeshore. And before that, so I’ve been a part of Lakeshore since I was 15, just playing sports, but for the past five years, I’ve been an actual employee. Before that, I was cooking professionally, went to culinary school, [and] worked at a fine dining restaurant where I, you know, was a sous chef. So, I did all the bread and pastries from scratch and then worked the hot line and was producing food for a white tablecloth establishment. I was a kitchen manager and then I opened up my own restaurant.

My favorite part of being a cook is being able to take three or four ingredients and make it into something that when that food gets set down in front of them, their eyes widen, [and] their mouths are open because they’re so surprised at how beautiful it looks. But then to watch them take that first bite and to see them close their eyes and have a big smile and whether they’re thinking of a past memory or I’ve created a new memory for them. You know, like food to me is, yes, it’s fuel for the body, but it’s also when you go out to eat, you know, especially like a higher-end restaurant, people don’t do that every day. And so, they’re going for the experience. They’re going for their birthday. They’re going for an anniversary, New Year’s Eve, [or] something like that. And they may only do that once a year, twice a year. And so at that level, it is more about the experience that they’re participating in, that they’re enjoying, that they’re partaking in everything from the minute they pull the car in the parking lot until they walk out the door from the hostess stand to the wait staff to us cooking their food, and then getting sitting there and watching them enjoy something that I personally made. And just to see that revelation of, oh, this brings me back to when I was a child, or this is something new that I’ve never tasted, and now I’m going to come back next year and get the same thing.

Host

24:15

Here’s Joon’s final message for young athletes and up-and-coming coaches.

Joon

24:20

For young athletes, play as many sports as you can. Try not, I don’t want to say don’t get pigeonholed, but try not to get pigeonholed into one sport. I’ve had friends [who] played wheelchair basketball from when they were three or four years old all the way through college at the highest level on the Paralympic basketball team and they get burnt out. You see that with able-bodied sports, too, there’s athletes that retire and they just don’t want to touch a basketball, don’t want to touch a football, don’t want to touch a hockey puck, because that’s all they’ve known. But with playing multiple sports, playing a variety of sports, if you get tired of basketball, like, oh, let me go hit tennis, or let me go kick the soccer ball around, or let’s go get on the ice and skate around for a little bit. But it also kind of hand-in-hand with me, like it teaches them different skill sets. And so, for young athletes, play as many sports as you can, and then you’ll come to realize, oh, I don’t like tennis, so I’m going to play basketball and football. Or I don’t like football, but, you know, like, let me try floorball. All of a sudden now I love floorball, you know, but you don’t really quite know until you experience it. And then I’ve had kids that, you know, look at power soccer and like, oh, I don’t know if I want to play power soccer, but they get in and it frees them and they’re doing something that they didn’t think they could do. Athletes come in and want to try wheelchair rugby. Well, there [are] many stories of people being disabled and not being able to do anything, but as soon as they get that first contact in that rugby chair, they fall in love with the sport. So, for me, it’s just that you don’t know if you like it until you try it. And kind of the same with food. How do you know you don’t like something until you actually eat it?

And for coaches, be understanding. I’ve had chefs and I’ve had coaches that are, it’s my way or the highway. And some athletes respond to that. Some don’t. But I feel like sometimes that can kind of push away athletes or young cooks because they’re doing their best and if you just continually yell at them and don’t adapt and evolve, adapt your programs, adapt your coaching skills or your drills or your cooking techniques, then you alienate them and then you push them away and they never come back. So, for coaches, be adaptable, be understanding. There are times when it’s called to be tough with an iron fist, but then there are times [when] you can kind of sit back and be more understanding and be more forgiving. And it’s just finding that balance of when can I be an iron fist, my way or the highway, but then turn around and be like, all right, well, let’s take a step back, take a quick water break, let’s decompress and come back at this at a new angle.

Host

27:39

Thanks for listening to Wellness, Health and Everything Else. We’ll provide a link with show notes, including full transcripts, links and more, in the podcast description.

If you would like to learn more about adapted sports, visit our website in the links provided in the episode details or visit nchpad.org and search adapted sports in the resources section. If you have questions about our free resources, programs and partnership opportunities, email us at nchpad@uab.edu, call us at 866-866-8896, or check out our website at nchpad.org.

Podcast

Podcast Episode 6: Joon Reid, Multi-Sport Athlete and Professional Chef

In this episode, we talk with Joon Reid about the benefits of adapted sports and his life’s journey. Joon has played many sports in his lifetime and it led to him competing for the United States internationally. Joon also discusses his passion for cooking, working as a professional chef for the last 26 years. He stays close to sports through his work at the Lakeshore Foundation, cooking for athletes when they come to train and coaching several sports.

A full episode transcript is available below or on Buzzsprout.

Get notified about new episodes by subscribing on your favorite streaming apps, or follow our social media channels on Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn to stay updated with new episode announcements.

Where to check out Wellness, Health & Everything Else: A NCHPAD Podcast

Buzzsprout website (no subscription required): https://www.buzzsprout.com/2397451

Streaming apps for podcasts: https://tr.ee/_AxhoopNgN

Episode Transcript

Quick Navigation (click the linked text below to jump to a new section)

Intro
Joon’s early life
Joon’s evolution as a young athlete
Joon’s appreciation for different sports
Joon featured at the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum
Playing internationally for USA Wheelchair Handball and Floorball
His love of being active and adapting to the challenges of different sports
Handling the ups and downs of competition
Lessons learned as an athlete
Joon’s coaching experience
Adapted sports growth and challenging misconceptions
Joon’s career as a professional chef
His final message to athletes and coaches
Conclusion

Host

0:01

This is Wellness, Health and Everything Else: a NCHPAD Podcast.

Welcome to Wellness, Health and Everything Else: a NCHPAD Podcast. NCHPAD is the National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability – the nation’s premier center dedicated to promoting the health and wellness of everyone. In each episode, we’re exploring topics at the intersection of health, wellness and mobility limitations. If you have an idea for a topic, would like to learn more about a topic, or are interested in our free resources, programs and partnership opportunities, email us at nchpad@uab.edu, give us a call at 866-866-8896 or check out our website at nchpad.org.

Music Interlude

In this episode, we’re talking about the important impact of adapted sports with Joon Reid. Joon has been involved in adapted sports since he was a teenager, playing in many sports that eventually led him to play for the U.S. internationally and take on coaching. When his talents aren’t being shown on the court or playing field, Joon takes his talents to the kitchen as a professional cook, a job he’s had for the last 26 years.

Let’s get to know Joon from the very beginning…

Joon

01:20

So, I lost my left leg above the knee when I was about four years old. I was actually adopted from South Korea and from what I was told, I was found at a bus stop. My mom had died, and my dad just left me there. And then at the orphanage, the people that found me brought me to an orphanage, and then from there, they said the only thing that I knew was my name. And then they said, based off my vocabulary, that I was about four years old. I was adopted and then moved to the states in Atlanta, Georgia. And so, I have like Christmas pictures and family photos with myself with two legs. And then I was adopted in the fall. And then that spring, March, the following year, my adopted dad and his friend were going to fly from Atlanta to Texas to visit his side of the family. We got about a couple hundred feet in the air and I only know this because my mom, my adopted mom, wasn’t on the plane, [and] saved all the newspaper clippings. But the cockpit doors opened and there was a guy that said he saw the cockpit door open. He saw the pilot reach over to close the door and then as soon as the door closed, the plane went down. So, the plane went down headfirst. It broke in half at the wings. And so the tail came up at a 45-degree angle. They both died. And then my leg was caught under a chair. And then at the hospital, it was too burnt to save, so they amputated it at the hospital. Broke my right femur, and I have traction marks on my shin from where they put that metal pin in your shin bone to hold your leg up. I got skin grafts on my thigh and the back of my calf because I broke out in a rash on my stomach from the penicillin. So that’s how I lost my leg. And then my first introduction to adaptive sports was that following year. My mom took me to Colorado for a vacation to snow ski. Tried it out once, fell in love with it, and then I eventually became good enough to join the Winter Park Disabled Ski Team.

Host

03:31

Here’s Joon discussing his evolution as a young athlete.

Joon

03:35

I don’t know, I think with the introduction of snow skiing and then after I lost my leg, I played soccer, baseball and basketball stand up for like the city rec teams. I enjoy competing. I like being active and it wasn’t until high school when I got introduced to wheelchair basketball. Because I got to high school and that’s kind of when puberty hit and then I realized that all these other boys were able to run faster, jump higher and were quicker than I was. And luckily at that time, I was at the Homewood YMCA shooting hoops in their CIT, the Counselor in Training Program, and it just so happened that the junior wheelchair basketball coach at Lakeshore was in there walking around, saw me, and asked me to come try wheelchair basketball.

Host

04:28

It took some time for Joon to like some of the sports that he was involved with.

Joon

04:32

Well, I didn’t… I don’t think I liked it because I think I was in the mindset of… I wasn’t qualified to play, in a sense, because I didn’t use a wheelchair. I didn’t feel like I should play basketball in a wheelchair. And I think I was still young enough to think that I could still play stand-up basketball. But like in high school, I just realized there was no way I was going to make the high school basketball team and actually play. I didn’t want to ride the bench. But as soon as I got in a wheelchair, it literally opened up my eyes to a whole world of new possibilities. It let me, you know, there is no, obviously, there’s no jumping verticality or any lateral movement, but I could push the chair. I could still shoot the ball. I could still dribble, pass and do everything that I wanted to do and essentially play the same sport, just in a different mode in a sense. And then that just kind of led me into being in all sorts of adaptive sports since then.

Host

05:46

In high school, Joon was featured at the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham, Alabama, in an exhibit showcasing athletes with disabilities playing sports. Here he is describing that moment.

Joon

05:57

That was pretty cool. I didn’t realize quite what it was back then and what it was for. I mean, I realized, like, it was showcasing disabled athletes in sports and just trying to get more exposure to it. But looking back on it, like, I realized the kind of significance and importance of being able to be in the Civil Rights Museum with all the history that the city has gone through and everything. But it was just a really cool experience to kind of go in there and see not just myself, but other athletes like myself, whether they had the same disability or not, being given the opportunity to see what they’re able to do and to give that exposure of other disabled athletes that are more than just sitting on the sidelines rooting for their teams. They’re active, they’re competing competitively, they’re going to be the best that they can be and not just sitting at home watching TV and feeling sorry for themselves.

Host

07:01

Joon’s hard work ethic and skills took him to the big stage, playing internationally for the USA wheelchair handball team and floorball team.

Joon

07:09

That was an amazing experience. Egypt, of course, like we went in September and so it was hot, you know, it was in the desert. So, everything was dusty, and it was very hot. But the gameplay itself and being able to compete on a U.S. team and play against the top countries of the world. And we actually beat the reigning world champion, Brazil. And I actually had the goal-winning-save to bring us into the championship match against Egypt, which we then lost. So, we ended up second. But the experience as a whole, like the food, the culture, we actually got to go see the pyramids on my birthday. So that was a really cool birthday present. I know they didn’t plan it like that, but I like to think they did. But to see the pyramids in person and just realize how enormous even a single block is. There’s the smaller pyramid we were able to go up and sit on. And I mean, I couldn’t spread my arms wide enough to fit one block. And so, to see that history and that culture and to experience that food, it was just amazing overall.

So, I had played floorball a little bit like as a rec sport for Lakeshore and so I was somewhat introduced to it but never played it at a competitive level, and because they needed a goalie they called me up and said that they had tryouts [and] didn’t see anyone they liked and then they saw me play goalie for Egypt, or in Egypt, and they’re like, “Well hey like the skills might transfer over.” And so, they called me up, [and] asked me to be a goalie in Sweden. I said, heck yeah. Went over there with them and got to play other countries like Sweden, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia. And so, to be on another U.S. team and to compete at another world championship was amazing, too. And it was kind of not, I guess, ironic, but I went from literally one extreme in Egypt, the hot desert climate, to in December I went to Sweden, so it was cold, rainy and windy. But again, like the culture there, everyone was super nice. The food was amazing. We got to explore a little bit. So, I got to see a little bit of Malmö where we were. [I] got to see the Christmas village. And then everyone else, like everyone on the team on both the handball and the floorball were, everyone was really cool [and] wanted to hang out. And we’re looking to help each other be better so that way the team could be better.

Host

09:60

Joon has played a wide variety of sports in his lifetime. He reflected on his love for being active and the challenges from some of the sports that he’s played.

Joon

10:08

I think initially it’s just the love of sport. I like being active. I like playing sports, but I also like to be challenged. And so to be able to play different sports keeps me active but challenges me because it’s different skill sets. The hand-eye coordination might be the same, but it’s different. The handball is bigger than the floorball. The basketball is bigger than the handball. And tennis, it requires a different hand-eye coordination. So, I like competing, but I also like going out and just shooting hoops, hitting the tennis ball with a couple of friends of mine, or just being out and about, pushing the Lakeshore trail, just being out, getting out in the sun, and just staying active in a sense. But I just, yeah, I think it’s just both. I like to be challenged to see what I’m capable of. And I want to be able to push my teammates and my friends to see what they’re capable of and make them the best that they can be and then just playing sports because I love it.

[The] greatest challenge sport-wise individually was Alpine racing. Being that young, the coaches left it up to us to wax and tune our equipment, our skis. And so given that responsibility of first they showed us how to do it, and they taught us, obviously, but then it was up to myself to make sure I put the right wax on. It was up to me to make sure I put the right angles on my edges and to make sure they were sharp enough. Because if I didn’t have the right wax or if I didn’t make my edges sharp enough and I slipped because my edge didn’t catch, then that was on me and not my coaches. So, they provided the tools and the know-how to do it, but then it was up to me to be held responsible to take care of my equipment and realize that if I didn’t do it properly, then I was the one at fault and there was no one else to blame.

Teamwork-wise, basketball comes to mind because when you join a basketball team, you have at minimum four other strangers, in a sense, when you first start. To be able to work with them and to know their tendencies requires you to be understanding of their abilities. You know, like, does my teammate want a chest pass or a bounce pass? Or do they, if it’s a tall guy playing center, does he want the ball in the air with his arm outstretched? And so, learning other people’s tendencies, they’re strangers, essentially, you know, until you become more familiar with them and become teammates and friends, learning those characteristics and tendencies is typically the hardest because there’s a lot of confusion. You might say one thing like, come pick for me, but I might take it as something else. And so, you have to get on the same page terminology-wise. What do you mean when you say this? Well, this is what I mean. Well, I thought you meant this. Well, now we have an understanding, and now we can work together and be more fluid as a team.

Host

13:44

Competing at the highest level can be both thrilling and exhausting. Here’s how Joon handled the ups and downs.

Joon

13:50

You got to be in the moment, you know, whether it’s, like… When I had the gold-winning save against the reigning world champion Brazil, that was one of the best feelings in the world. And then the very next day, we ended up second. We didn’t win the gold. And so those two extremes, literally within less than 24 hours, [are] tough. But you’ve got to have that mental toughness to be able to enjoy the highs and to eventually take what you can from the lows and the down and outs, but then to overcome it. You know, not dwell on it and feel sorry for yourself. You know, what I like to do is go back and see, hopefully, I can figure out what went wrong, [and] what happened, and then learn from that mistake and hopefully not make it again in the future.

Host

14:52

Here are some of the great lessons Joon learned as an athlete.

Joon

14:56

If you don’t put in the work, you’re not going to see the success. If you don’t put in the work, you’re not going to see the results. I’ve had teammates [who] don’t push hard, that show up late, that don’t stay late, that don’t go in the gym on their own time, and then they wonder why they’re not starting, or why they’re not getting subbed in, or why we don’t pass them the ball. It kind of reminds me of Kobe and his mentality [that] he’s putting in all this work and he expects his teammates to put in all this work. It doesn’t have to be the same level but just putting in work in order to get better results. And if you don’t put in the work, then you shouldn’t be rewarded. And you can see that with just any athlete in any sport people that, like, in football, in the offseason you don’t necessarily have to train five days a week, but if you don’t go into the gym and keep conditioning and you show up spring training, you know, you’re slower, you’re heavier, [and] people notice that. And so, it’s that level of commitment of putting in the work in order to see the results, you get your own reward. Not necessarily from playing time, but me personally, like I feel better getting in the game and being able to put out more than I put in. You know, getting more rewarded [for] being able to pass the ball faster or sharper or being able to push down the court quicker or, getting my chair in a position because I know during the off-season, I work on my chair skills. I condition on my own. I put in my own time outside of practices in order to get better. So that way, hopefully, the team will be better. And so that’s kind of one of the lessons I’ve learned is just [that] if you don’t put the work in, then you can’t expect the reward. You can’t expect the wins.

Host

17:12

From playing to coaching, Joon gives his thoughts on what he’s enjoyed most about it and how he’s approached the leadership role.

Joon

17:19

Coaching is definitely different. It can be frustrating because what I envision as a coach in my head does not always play out to the athletes that I’m coaching. And they might not understand what I’m saying, and so it gives me, it forces me to think outside the box and to think of how should I tell them how to do this drill, or how do I better explain this drill so that they understand. Because not everyone is the same, not everyone thinks the same, [and] not everyone hears and interprets the drills the same. And so, it forces me to kind of take a step back, look at a third person view, and be like, what can I do to make this athlete better understand what I’m trying to tell him or her and what do I want them to do and how do I make them better? Because I believe as a coach, if I can make each athlete better, then they in turn will make the team better, which in turn makes the coach better.

Host

18:33

Adapted sports have grown over the years. Joon discussed the changes he’s seen and challenging some of the misconceptions around the sports.

Joon

18:42

Changes I’ve seen in adaptive sports [are] mainly equipment. The chairs have gotten better. They’ve gotten lighter. The materials are stronger. They’re better made. The personal training aspect of it too, I guess the more science behind it. There’s, you know, college teams have dietitians, collegiate wheelchair basketball teams have dietitians, they have nutritionists, they have strength and conditioning coaches, just like the able-bodied sports. And so, for the public, I guess, to see and realize that athletes in wheelchairs put in just as much time and effort and hard work as their able-bodied counterparts, for them to take that consideration of, oh, well, they need to eat properly too. They need to do this lifting program that best fits them. And so, to integrate that into the different adaptive sports programs, even at the highest level, at the Paralympic level, they’re doing specific lifts and conditionings for each sport that is for that athlete.

Changes in the future? I don’t know. I would think that chairs would get better. I don’t know how they would get better. But as technology gets better, then that just filters down into the rest of the world. Like with the Fitbits and the Apple Watches, being able to have the ability to register how far a person in a wheelchair is pushing and how they adapted that from someone walking or running, to someone in a wheelchair.

[About misconceptions around sports]

Probably the same one that I had when I was younger, first getting into adaptive sports, that you don’t necessarily have to be in a wheelchair or use a wheelchair to play sports in a wheelchair. You just have to have a physical disability. I think even now, I have amputees, new amputees that come into Lakeshore and I show them or give them a tour and tell them about all the sports. And one of the first questions is, out of their mouth is, can I play wheelchair basketball? You know, I don’t use a wheelchair. I walk on a prosthetic. Well, yes, you can. You know, it’s not limited to just people [who] use a wheelchair every day. It’s for people [who] have a physical disability that limits them playing able-bodied basketball or any able-bodied sport. And so, I think a lot of people get turned away because they see the wheelchair and they think because I don’t use a wheelchair every day, then I’m not able to play in a wheelchair in this sport of whatever it is.

Host

21:49

From basketball to baking, here’s how Joon got started as a professional cook and how he stays close to sports, even through the art of cuisine.

Joon

21:57

So, I’m in the rec and athletics department here at Lakeshore. And before that, so I’ve been a part of Lakeshore since I was 15, just playing sports, but for the past five years, I’ve been an actual employee. Before that, I was cooking professionally, went to culinary school, [and] worked at a fine dining restaurant where I, you know, was a sous chef. So, I did all the bread and pastries from scratch and then worked the hot line and was producing food for a white tablecloth establishment. I was a kitchen manager and then I opened up my own restaurant.

My favorite part of being a cook is being able to take three or four ingredients and make it into something that when that food gets set down in front of them, their eyes widen, [and] their mouths are open because they’re so surprised at how beautiful it looks. But then to watch them take that first bite and to see them close their eyes and have a big smile and whether they’re thinking of a past memory or I’ve created a new memory for them. You know, like food to me is, yes, it’s fuel for the body, but it’s also when you go out to eat, you know, especially like a higher-end restaurant, people don’t do that every day. And so, they’re going for the experience. They’re going for their birthday. They’re going for an anniversary, New Year’s Eve, [or] something like that. And they may only do that once a year, twice a year. And so at that level, it is more about the experience that they’re participating in, that they’re enjoying, that they’re partaking in everything from the minute they pull the car in the parking lot until they walk out the door from the hostess stand to the wait staff to us cooking their food, and then getting sitting there and watching them enjoy something that I personally made. And just to see that revelation of, oh, this brings me back to when I was a child, or this is something new that I’ve never tasted, and now I’m going to come back next year and get the same thing.

Host

24:15

Here’s Joon’s final message for young athletes and up-and-coming coaches.

Joon

24:20

For young athletes, play as many sports as you can. Try not, I don’t want to say don’t get pigeonholed, but try not to get pigeonholed into one sport. I’ve had friends [who] played wheelchair basketball from when they were three or four years old all the way through college at the highest level on the Paralympic basketball team and they get burnt out. You see that with able-bodied sports, too, there’s athletes that retire and they just don’t want to touch a basketball, don’t want to touch a football, don’t want to touch a hockey puck, because that’s all they’ve known. But with playing multiple sports, playing a variety of sports, if you get tired of basketball, like, oh, let me go hit tennis, or let me go kick the soccer ball around, or let’s go get on the ice and skate around for a little bit. But it also kind of hand-in-hand with me, like it teaches them different skill sets. And so, for young athletes, play as many sports as you can, and then you’ll come to realize, oh, I don’t like tennis, so I’m going to play basketball and football. Or I don’t like football, but, you know, like, let me try floorball. All of a sudden now I love floorball, you know, but you don’t really quite know until you experience it. And then I’ve had kids that, you know, look at power soccer and like, oh, I don’t know if I want to play power soccer, but they get in and it frees them and they’re doing something that they didn’t think they could do. Athletes come in and want to try wheelchair rugby. Well, there [are] many stories of people being disabled and not being able to do anything, but as soon as they get that first contact in that rugby chair, they fall in love with the sport. So, for me, it’s just that you don’t know if you like it until you try it. And kind of the same with food. How do you know you don’t like something until you actually eat it?

And for coaches, be understanding. I’ve had chefs and I’ve had coaches that are, it’s my way or the highway. And some athletes respond to that. Some don’t. But I feel like sometimes that can kind of push away athletes or young cooks because they’re doing their best and if you just continually yell at them and don’t adapt and evolve, adapt your programs, adapt your coaching skills or your drills or your cooking techniques, then you alienate them and then you push them away and they never come back. So, for coaches, be adaptable, be understanding. There are times when it’s called to be tough with an iron fist, but then there are times [when] you can kind of sit back and be more understanding and be more forgiving. And it’s just finding that balance of when can I be an iron fist, my way or the highway, but then turn around and be like, all right, well, let’s take a step back, take a quick water break, let’s decompress and come back at this at a new angle.

Host

27:39

Thanks for listening to Wellness, Health and Everything Else. We’ll provide a link with show notes, including full transcripts, links and more, in the podcast description.

If you would like to learn more about adapted sports, visit our website in the links provided in the episode details or visit nchpad.org and search adapted sports in the resources section. If you have questions about our free resources, programs and partnership opportunities, email us at nchpad@uab.edu, call us at 866-866-8896, or check out our website at nchpad.org.