{"id":93943,"date":"2019-01-23T14:25:09","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T19:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=93943"},"modified":"2024-03-11T14:34:08","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T18:34:08","slug":"93943-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/93943-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaquem Griffin Receives NCAA Inspiration Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

An amputated hand did not hinder Shaquem Griffin ’16\u2019s<\/strong> potential \u2014 it strengthened it.<\/p>\n

At age 4, his left hand was removed due to extreme pain triggered by amniotic band syndrome, which he had suffered in the womb. The day after surgery, Griffin was already playing two-on-two street football. Freed of the unusable extremity, he instantaneously discovered what would become a lifelong passion for football \u2014 one that would one day inspire a legion of others, young and old, to understand that a physical limitation didn\u2019t have be one.<\/p>\n

Griffin was a star linebacker at the University of Central Florida and is now a member of the Seattle Seahawks alongside his identical twin brother, Shaquill ’16.<\/strong> Shaquem is the first one-handed player in NFL history.<\/p>\n

He wouldn\u2019t have reached those lofty heights without the resolve and competitive fire that his parents imbued from a young age. Whether playing pingpong or card games, Shaquem\u2019s mother, Tangie, and father, Terry, exuded intensity, which Shaquem was eager to absorb. \u201cIt was a competitive household,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I wanted to win at something, I had to work for it. It made me understand I could do anything I put my mind to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaquem brought that mentality to the weight room. He had to if he wanted to keep pace with, even surpass, his peers. In middle school and high school, he used chains and other innovations to lift weights \u2014 finding ways to train where others may have given up. In 2013, that discipline, coupled with burgeoning talent on the gridiron, earned him a football scholarship at UCF.<\/p>\n

The twins were inseparable at UCF despite Shaquem redshirting his first year while Shaquill earned time on the field right away. During his junior and senior seasons, Shaquem trained under former UCF head strength and conditioning coach Zach Duval, and Shaquem\u2019s adaptive techniques in the weight room evolved. While at UCF, Shaquem completed his first pullup via a prosthetic. On the bench press, he used a prosthetic with a carbon fiber sleeve hooked to a clamp that grasped the bar. And by the end of his junior year, he was squatting 700 pounds \u2014 more than three times his body weight.<\/p>\n