The “No Excuses-Have-Fun-Clinic” targets those who need exercise the most, including smokers, sedentary children and adults, and even the mentally or physically disabled, but who also have little opportunity to participate.

As the brochure title reads, “Wanted: Smokers and Couch Potatoes to Get Reward for Exercising and Having Fun,” the program aims to bring in sedentary individuals and instill in them healthy exercise behaviors by simply having fun.

Bill Yaiser, Research Director and Founder of Second Chance Therapies and Engineering Solutions, has been running the program for more than five years in the Capital Region with notable success.

“It’s a way of getting people started,” said Yaiser, “a way for them to exercise without thinking about it.”

Skidmore College will play host to the “No Excuses” Clinic starting in January 2008, with evening programs offered throughout the week in racquetball, tennis and golf.

All participants are welcome regardless of age or physical condition, and can choose dates and times that best fit their schedule.

“We come up with creative solutions to get people to exercise,” said Yaiser. “You can put a gun to somebody’s head and tell them to exercise and they won’t do it, but you can’t stop them from having fun.”

Yaiser is doing his best to provide motivation to attend, offering free sport-related Gift Certificates for all attendees. Although there is no fee for the clinic, donations are welcome and fund disabled sport programs within Second Chance Sports.

Working with the disabled population is nothing new for Yaiser, who has spent more than 30 teaching sports to the mentally and physically disabled. During that time, he has taught tennis and racquetball to individuals in wheelchairs, and has been a pioneer in developing alternative athletic equipment and supplies.

Most recently, he partnered with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to develop a golf cart that allows individuals who are missing, or who have lost the use of their leg(s), to balance on the cart in order to swing a golf club.

Second Chance also strives to find solutions for combat wounded veterans within the disabled community. Yaiser himself is a Vietnam War veteran in both the Navy and Marines, and hopes to help disabled veterans overcome obstacles that prevent them from participating in physical activities that able-bodied individuals take for granted.

The eventual goal of the “No Excuses” program lends participants the motivation to make exercise a part of their daily life.

“We want to give people the skills so they don’t need us anymore,” said Yaiser, adding, “You don’t stop playing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop playing.”

For more information about Second Chance Therapies or the January “No Excuses” clinic at Skidmore College, contact Bill Yaiser at 587-3262.