Tyler Merren, a 2002 graduate of Wayland High School, is training for his third trip to the Paralympic Games later this summer in Rio.
Merren, 32, is a U.S. Paralympic athlete and personal trainer at 24 Hour Fitness. He is visually impaired, married with four children (his wife is also visually impaired. They live in South Florida.
He is training as a member of the U.S. Men’s Goalball team after earning his spot last month. He also went to the international Paralympics competition in Athens in 2014 and Beijing in 2008.
Merren was introduced to the sport of goalball at age 15 while attending a sports education camp for blind youth athletes at Western Michigan University. He then began training with a group of goalball athletes and learned to compete with more experienced players. He played in his first international tournament only two years after taking up the sport.
“When you train with the big boys, you develop quickly,” says Merren. “They showed me no mercy, and I’m grateful for that.”
He and his wife, Leanne, volunteer at youth camps to help blind kids enjoy many of the same activities that sighted kids do. Merren serves as an an ambassador of the U.S. Paralympic team and of the sport of goalball.
Goalball is the only sport in the Paralympic Games that isn’t an adaptation of a mainstream sport. It was created with blind athletes in mind, and it’s intense. All players wear a blind-fold (to even the playing field in case one player is partially sighted) and try to block a three-pound ball with bells in it from getting into the goal they are guarding, often using their entire bodies to block (see photo).
“Being blind can be a huge challenge psychologically,” he says. “But sport has taught me determination and confidence. When you’ve been in the final round of a championship with other elite athletes and the ball is in your hands — in those moments of challenge — you gain confidence,” says Merren. “You start to learn you can do [anything] in any situation in life.”
Merren has established his own techniques for training clients – he uses his sense of hearing, sense of touch and modeling to help his clients understand form and technique. And in his fourth year of being a personal trainer (including three years with 24 Hour Fitness), Merren says that his training philosophy continues to be shaped by his athletic background. He preaches the importance of full-body and functional movements, focusing on balance, performance and even kickboxing with his clients.
Goalball was demonstrated at the Toronto 1976 Paralympic Games, 30 years after being invented. The sport officially became part of the Paralympic Games in 1980.
The objective of goalball is to score by rolling the ball at high speed into the opponent’s goal while the opposing team attempts to block the ball with their bodies. Each team has 10 seconds to throw, and any team member may throw the ball twice before another team member must have a turn. The team that scores the most goals is the winner. Three players per team compete on the court with up to three substitutes on the bench.
(Ashley Pitt, 24Life editor, a Bay Area-based writer, personal trainer and group fitness instructor, contributed much of the information for this report.)
PHOTOS: Tyler Merren, competing in goalball in past Paralympics. (Photos courtesy of 24Life)
