How does a person with Parkinson's emotional well being and attitude impact their outlook and willingness to fight their disease?  Can Rock Steady Boxing turn a person's outlook on everyday life around?  Is improving quality of life and emotional attitude towards living with Parkinson's a potential benefit of Rock Steady?

The paper PDQ format is troublesome.  I would look at the 3 pages of check marks and I couldn't "see" what it was supposed to be telling me.  So, I filed it away and didn't bring it up to the boxer because I couldn't tell them why they even filled it out.  Then, I quit using it. 

For 2 years I didn't know the questions were organized into 8 categories.  Finding that out was huge.  But I still couldn't "see" anything.  So, using an Excel spreadsheet we worked on a way to put a score on the PDQ organizing it by category and it all made sense.  Now, I am disappointed that I don't have all the PDQs I didn't give!

Using personal perceptions from the PDQ and measured physical capabilities (FAB, TUG, S2S) during the assessment, we can "see" their fight factor...  a person's willingness to fight; a person's likelihood of sticking with it.  And we can measure in future assessments whether their physical and daily life perceptions are getting better together or getting worse together or individually.

You will have assessments where their PDQ shows they were handling things well... and their physical tests fall in line with their mental/emotional perceptions.  But what about people like me who are in complete denial and check "Never" for everything in the PDQ...  but their physical tests show weaknesses.  Or a person who answers everything in the PDQ with the-earth-is-ending "Always" but their physical tests are stronger than you expected from their PDQ.  

What is the relationship between the PDQ and the physical tests?  In the BwP Score box we organize their scores into meaningful numbers based on a 100-point scale so they are relative.  The first score is M & DL... Mobility and Daily Living.  How do they perceive their mobility and daily living challenges compared to their physical FAB and TUG?  Then we take Cognitive and Communication.  Then we group the other 4 PDQ categories into what we call Outlook.

The numbers are just one indicator in understanding your boxer's motivation or feelings of victory or defeat.  As an example, if the delta between their M & DL (Mobility and Daily Living) and their Physical score is within 5 points either way, they are well balanced and realistic about their situation.  If the M & DL is significantly higher than their Physical score, they may be like me... in complete denial!  If their M & DL is significantly lower than their physical score, they may be angry, depressed or anxious about their condition or future and subject to whining or even dropping out. 

If Rock Steady builds a boxer's physical conditioning and fitness to make them stronger...  If Rock Steady begins to reverse or reduce some of the symptoms...   If the comradery inspires them to work harder and expect more... then you might see a significant move in their PDQ scores as well as in their Physical scores.  And, their quality of life perception is what really counts when they are with their family and friends. 

We look for ways to show a boxer how they are doing.  They want to justify their time and money.  We also want to know that what we are doing is working for more than just the inspiring success stories, but for each individual boxer. 

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