During lockdown, SDS is providing the opportunity for coaches to explore different concepts in short segments online.

The session themes have been selected to meet requests from coaches over the past year. There is no cost for these sessions – apart from your time.

If you are unable to attend on the specified dates and times, the content will be available to stream after each session.

You can register on the form below, or for more information please contact us on 0131 317 1130 or admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com.

Do you need new ideas to continue being active, or would you like to know where to start? We have produced these activity cards which will are now available to download from our website here.

The cards were originally aimed at people leading sessions but also work brilliantly for us all in our homes. There are a number of activities which could be used:

• in a warm-up;
• to introduce fundamental skills;
• for striking and fielding type activities and games;
• for net, court and wall-based games; and
• for invasion games.

Each card identifies the different ways in which the STEP – Space, Task, Equipment, People – principle can be applied to modifying, adapting and progressing a session, and provides specific top tips relating to the effective inclusion of participants with impairments.

The STEP Principle video provides more information:

The Activity Inclusion Model video highlights inclusion in physical activity and sport:

You can download the PDF here: STEP and AIM

Over the next few weeks we will show how we have adapted the activities to do at home. For example:

• Use socks instead of ball
• Use a ribbon or old shirt for a target.

The most important thing is to have fun, fun and more fun!

SDS is delighted to welcome Phillippa MacDonald to the SDS team in her new post as Tayside Get Out Get Active (GOGA) Manager. Phillippa lives in Dundee, and joins SDS from her previous role as Health & Wellbeing Worker within NHS Tayside. She has also previously worked for Barnardo’s and Dundee City Council.

Phillippa will drive forward the GOGA Tayside health based programme that supports disabled and non-disabled people to enjoy being active together. The Spirit of 2012 and London Marathon Charitable Trust funded programme is being run in close partnership with NHS Tayside and will work through encouraging and supporting the very least active disabled and non-disabled people to be active together. Support will also be available enhance physical recreation opportunities and to provide training for key volunteers and staff.

We all wish Phillippa every success in her new position and look forward to the roll out of the GOGA programme across Tayside.

Lothian Disability Sport (LDS), Edinburgh Active Schools and dedicated parents from Blackhall Primary School have been working together to establish a Goalball session in the West of Edinburgh. This session began earlier this year, targeting primary pupils from the Blackhall area however is welcome to any primary school aged young people from across Edinburgh and across East of Scotland.

This session has been supported by Goalball UK and Scottish Disability Sport (SDS), however driven by a couple of enthusiastic volunteers who secured funding to develop the activity. The parent volunteers also recently completed a coaching qualification in the sport allowing them to deliver structured sessions to all attendees. The sessions at Blackhall PS have also been supported by upcoming star in the sport, Samantha Gough.

Currently, there are no other Goalball opportunities across the East of Scotland and LDS, in partnership with partners including Goalball UK and SDS, are aiming to establish a regular session for individuals of all ages looking to participate in the sport. Ideally, the session at Blackhall would lay the foundations for a regular opportunity in Edinburgh with the overall aim of developing a sustainable club.

Goalball, is an exciting Paralympic, indoor 3-a-side sport of attack and defend which is played by people who are blind or partially sighted. All players are required to wear eye shades so that nobody can see anything and ensures an even playing field for all. The idea of the game is quite simply to score goals by bowling the ball along the floor, past the opposing team. The ball has a bell in it, meaning players must rely on their other senses. To find out more about the sport, please visit www.goalballuk.com.

If you are interested in becoming involved with Goalball, please contact SDS Regional Manager (East) Neal Herbert on 0131 317 1130 or neal.herbert@scottishdisabilitysport.com.

UK Coaching is sharing some of their resources during this unprecedented time.

As we’re all working from home, our learning and development platform ukcoaching.org remains fully operational and is being updated regularly with great content and guidance to service the many coaches who have been directly affected by this virus.

To this end, we have temporarily unlocked 10 of our most valuable subscriber resources, making them available to all registered on UKCoaching.org.

These will remain freely available until 3 May.

The selection of tips, guidance, videos, webinars and expert opinions will give coaches the opportunity to take stock and reflect on their coaching practice.

1. The Power of Holistic Coaching: Why Coaches Should Develop the Whole Person
2. Understanding Self: Creating a Coaching Philosophy
3. Understanding the Individual: The Key to Helping Your Participants Thrive
4. Understanding Environment: Provide Your Participants With a Sense of Empowerment
5. Understanding Coaching Practice: Reflective Practice Essentials
6. Sports Psychology: Developing Mental Toughness
7. Athletic Development & Physical Preparation: The Importance of Fundamental Movement Skills
8. Health, Lifestyle & Wellbeing: Being a Mindful Coach
9. Building Relationships: Why Mastering the Coach-Athlete Relationship is Important
10. Skill Acquisition: How to Develop and Use Attention to Improve Performance

Safeguarding and Protecting Children workshops

Our traditional face-to-face safeguarding and protecting children workshop is now being delivered online – this move has been supported by the Child Protection in Sport Unit and bookings can now be made through our website. The course is also still worth three CPD points as accredited by CIMSPA  There’s a full statement should you require any more information.

Curious Coaches’ Club

Every Monday, we’re hosting a Curious Coaches’ Club for coaches to take part in engaging and insightful online coaching discussions. Attached are some infographics should you wish to share the opportunity across your social media channels.

How does it work?

The Club has three parts to it:

1. Coaches can watch and listen to ‘A Conversation About…’ between expert coaches live on a Monday or catch up with the previous episode on-demand via UKCoaching.org.
2. Coaches who have listened to the Monday webinar or watched it ‘on-demand’ can then engage and take part in a more in-depth conversation about the topic on Wednesday or Thursday (the same week) via a smaller, informal community of practice hosted by one of our team.
3. Coaches can also continue the conversation via ConnectedCoaches – our free online community for coaches of all sports and activities.

More information on the Curious Coaches’ Club, including bookings and upcoming sessions, can be found on our website.

Keeping people active at home

We have produced three infographics to give insightful guidance to coaches, parents and households on how to create great coaching experiences to those around them, whilst at home. They are:

• Coaching People Online: Tips for coaches on how to deliver sport and physical activity sessions remotely
• Encouraging Our Children to be Active: Tips for parents on encouraging their children to be active
• Coaching Yourself: Tips on how to create and sustain active habits – whether as individuals or as households

You can read the full story on our website.

How is COVID-19 changing Scotland’s sport sector? How are we responding and preparing for life afterwards? And what will society and community sport look like a year from now?

The OSS is staging a free webinar for people involved in all aspects of community sport where we will put key questions to leaders at sport’s coal-face.

Chaired by David Ferguson, Executive Director of the OSS, the panel for our first webinar will be Billy Garrett, Director of Sport and Events at Glasgow Life, the leading sport and leisure trust in Scotland; Craig Graham, chairman of Edinburgh community club Spartans FC, whose Ainslie Park facility has become a food distribution point to help communities through coronavirus; and Keith Russell, CEO of Badminton Scotland and former SRU Director of Rugby.

The webinar will take place on: Thursday 16 April, 2020 (1pm-2pm) – see link below for details.

https://www.oss.scot/community-sport-and-covid-19-challenges-and-opportunities-free-webinar/

On Thursday 2 April, SDS held its very first general knowledge virtual quiz with members of the Young Persons Sport Panel, Young Start Programme and Scottish Boccia Squad. There were 22 teams in total playing to win the title of quiz champion. The winner of the quiz was Scottish Boccia player, Ross Munro, closely followed by Young Start programme member Abby Cook in second position and Colette Martin from the Young persons Sport Panel in third place. It was great to see so many smiley faces during this strange time and fantastic that lots of other family members got involved too.

During these unprecedented times SDS is exploring various ways online to ensure our programmes can continue in some shape or form and make sure the wellbeing of our participants is at the centre of this. Watch out in the coming weeks for more ways in which you can get involved. Roll on the next quiz!

The Tokyo Olympic Games will start on 23 July, 2021 and run to 8 August after being postponed for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) executive board met on Monday to make the decision.

Full article on the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/52091224