Category: Young Persons’ Sports Panel

Meet the SDS Young Persons Sport Panel

Each month, two of the SDS Young Persons Sport Panel will pair up to write an article for the website so we can all get to know them a little better! This month we hear from Thomas Boers and Rory McKinna.

Thomas’ Report on Rory:

With everything going on, most people sit bored at home. Not Rory though. No, he’s definitely keeping busy. He’s at college twice a week studying product design as it’s a very hands-on course. Out of everyone at City of Glasgow College, his class is in most often. Can’t say I’m not jealous! Right now he’s busy designing a lunchbox for a company called Joseph Joseph. And that’s just school.

There’s also sailing, the garden (which has never looked so good), his various businesses and a “small” flock of around forty chickens! But seeing as it’s winter right now, it’s too cold for them. Them being both the sailors and the chickens. So the sailing has been moved online and the chickens into a polytunnel. This way they’ll keep on laying eggs throughout winter.

The sailors have moved from the cold waters to the comfortable waters of the internet, by virtue of Virtual Regatta, an online sailing simulator. Through practically any device you can imagine, it simulates sailing races and keeps the sailing community together in these trying times. Added benefit; since you’re on your own you don’t have to worry about the use of profanities, so you can quite literally swear like a sailor! They even race for actual prizes!

Rory’s also been attending several conferences. Normally they would be in person, but again, strange times, so they’ve been moved online. Reduced risk for spreading the disease, but sadly also reduced chance for mingling with people. This would be the way to get sponsorship deals, but even now it’s going okay.

With Christmas fast approaching, another one of Rory’s businesses is picking up: his Christmas tree-rental, a concept I was incredibly intrigued by. He’s got several pot-grown trees that customers can rent and put in or outside their homes to be decorated and loved throughout the holidays. And then after all the festivities are over and the neighbours start to judge the decorations that are still up, Rory will collect the tree and grow it on for next year! It’s amazing, and he’s really picking up steam. The most busy time to deliver the trees seems to be around the 2nd week of December, and by the 1st week of January most have been collected. It seems like most people tolerate decorations two weeks before and two weeks after Christmas. I personally disagree with that and think that it’s acceptable the whole year round! But Rory is probably the expert on the topic.

So, the lockdown outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful. And since we’ve no place to go, just stay home just stay home just stay home.

Rory’s Report on Thomas:

With everything going on, most people sit bored at home. Including Thomas (in a good way though)!

Thomas is currently studying forensic science at Robert Gordon University, the work for which is his main priority at the moment. After finishing a lab report, he is now preparing a presentation on (and I can honestly say I have never heard this one before) culpable homicide and murder! However, almost all of Thomas’ work must be conducted from his home, which he shares with several flatmates.

On this note, upon interviewing Thomas, he had just recovered from an early Christmas dinner that he and his flatmates held as one of them was returning home early and would have otherwise missed out on the festivities. Now debating whether it was worth while taking the decorations down, only to put them back up in a couple of weeks, Thomas launched a survey asking if Christmas decorations:

  1. Should go up two weeks before Christmas.
  2. Ten days before Christmas (the Dutch tradition, as Thomas is from Holland).
  3. Are acceptable all year round.

Apparently the results were overwhelmingly in favour of all year round, although Thomas reckons that the respondents were answering sarcastically, which I hope is true!

Unfortunately, there was little to talk about regarding Thomas’ sport, wheelchair basketball. Due to the pandemic, all competitions and training have been postponed and will not return until next year. Despite this, Thomas is keen to get back on the court. Which he’ll need to be, as he’ll have to work off two Christmas dinners!

YPSP: Caitlyn Ross – My Amazing Journey this Season

Where do I start: this year has been amazing and went so quickly – like who can believe it’s November already! Now, people say new years are about trying new things and exploring new opportunities. I have definitely done that this year. First of all I have joined the Young Start programme and have done courses with them that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do anywhere else and will hopefully be a qualified swimming teaching and athletics level 1 coach and also an athletics assistant official by the end of the year or start of next year. I also will be doing my lifeguard award around Easter time next year.

I have also begun my journey with the Law Enforcement Torch Run to help raise awareness and money for the Special Olympics which has opened a lot of opportunities for me as I have gone into the police academy and made my first ever attempt at public speaking, where I spoke about Myself and My Special Olympic Journey. I have also joined them on Torch Runs at events like the Special Olympics 40th Anniversary Games in Stirling in 2018, Forth Valley Flyers Athletics Championships this year and also Scottish Disability Sports Senior Athletics Championships this year. This has been an amazing experience so far and have met some amazing people that I hope to continue to work with and support them as much as I can. I would also like to thank them for the support they have given me too.  Also you can show your support and keep updated on what they are doing through their Facebook page Law Enforcement Torch Run – Scotland.

On the 23rd October SDS held another very successful Central Para Sport Festival, where everyone there got involved and tried a mixture of different sports. These sports were athletics, badminton, boccia, climbing, curling, football and power chair football, sailing and swimming. Also to finish off the Festival we had an athlete Q&A with our amazing wheelchair curling and wheelchair racer athletes Robert McPherson and Meggan Dawson Farrell as they told us about themselves and what their sporting journeys have been like so far and where they want them to go.

After the success of this event we have had participants from the Central Para Sport Festival join clubs of the sport they enjoyed and wanted to do more of. This makes all the hard work that SDS put in to run this event every year worth doing as we get more children and young people into sport that they might not get to do anywhere else. For any more information on this event check the article write-up on the SDS web page.

On the 24th October Forth Valley Disability Sport and Go Out Get Active held an Adult Multi-Sport to help celebrate 3 years of GOGA. This was also a huge success with everyone there getting to try some new sports as well as some of the original sports we provide at FVDS. The sports they got to try were Soft Tip Archery, Athletics, Boccia, Boxing, Table Cricket, Quick Curling, and MATP (Motor Activity Training Program). It was an amazing event where everyone taking part loved it and had loads of fun trying all these sports and loads of laughs were shared as they went round all the activities.

YPSP: Lewis McConnell

Since completing my Coaching Futures apprenticeship in October 2018 I have been selected for the Scottish Squad in Powerchair Football which is keeping me busy!

January was a quiet month for competing but very busy in terms of training for Powerchair Football. Being part of the Scotland Squad meant I needed to step up my own individual training over the winter break for Club Football. Training three and sometimes four times a week, doing a few hours at a time on my own, was tough but it needed to be done and I continue to train hard to try and reach the top of the sport.

We also had three Scotland training sessions in January on the 5th, 19th and 20th. The sessions were very intense and long with us training from four to six hours at a time, working on our shape and tactics. All this training may sound crazy but as a player I love it because “if you’re standing still you’re going backwards”. I’m looking forward to the international fixtures coming up in Leeds during February and future fixtures throughout the year.

I’m also looking forward to finishing the league with Clyde Alba and trying to retain the league title. If we manage to retain it then we qualify for the Champions Cup (Powerchair Football Champions League) so there’s still loads to play for this season.

Young Start Programme Residential

What a positive, engaging and fun two days at Inverclyde for the first ever residential for the Young Start programme.

This involved coach mentees and the SDS Young Persons Sport Panel members, made possible by a grant from the Big Lottery Young Start Fund, and is a two year programme to mentor athletes to become coaches.

It was a fruitful and productive two days with workshops in leadership, influencing and communication. Though these workshops participants were given the opportunity to gain qualifications and learn new skills. This will help the group to become future coaches and leaders of the Young Start and Young Peoples Sports Panel. The young people shaped this agenda to meet their needs, aspirations and skills they wanted to develop further.

Aileen Neilson, GB Paralympic Wheelchair Curling Skip, joined the group on day 2 of the residential and was hugely influential in demonstrating, resilience, leadership and how to make the most best of all situations and instilling a can do attitude.

“I was blown away by the confidence, ethos, and atmosphere of the group. There is a great friendship and camaraderie that is apparent within the group as well as being athletes and coaches across a variety of sports.”

SDS are delighted to welcome Aileen as an ambassador of the Young Start programme and are looking forward to working with Aileen over the next 18 months of the programme.

Young Start member Hope Gordon said: “I learnt a lot from the weekend and it was great to work with the group for a longer period of time. I thought the workshops helped us improve the skills of leadership and communication and I hope to use the presentation and influencing skills moving forward with my involvement in the programme.”

The Young Persons Sport Panel will meet again in June and the Young Start Mentees will continue their mentoring and coaching programme before coming together as a bigger group in October.

Wicked on Wheels! Starting a New Journey

I’ve always been lucky enough to have been involved in sport from a very young age and since moving to Fife seven years ago I’ve been given the opportunity to develop my skills with the support of Disability Sport Fife.

The idea of one day becoming a coach is something that really appeals to me. Being able to learn new skills and ideas that I can teach and pass on to a younger generation of athletes. My main focus is wheelchair racing but hopefully this opportunity will teach me how to coach athletics as a whole. I would hopefully like to be a coach when I finish Wheelchair Racing and learning the skills now will not just make it easier but better for me to start coaching quicker once I retire. It also helps that I will have my coach mentor to guide me through my journey and give me tips on how I can improve or what I’m doing well. I’m looking forward to being able to gain experience in coaching athletics and more specifically, the younger generation of athletes who will be able to learn and progress from what I‘ve been able pass on.

Callum Sloan, Young Persons Sports Panel

Ready to rock in 2018 – Colette Martin

Having graduated from university last summer my life is as busy as ever! I am currently undertaking an internship with Scottish Disability Sport in which I am learning a whole new side of sport, through a sports development and events perspective, which I am really enjoying.

I have enjoyed helping out at various events over the past few months and getting to know different sports which I had little experience with. My time during the internship has definitely helped with my ambition to work in sport development and has hopefully given me knowledge that I can use in my future career.

Since October I have also been coaching in North Lanarkshire. This has given me an opportunity to gain experience in this area. It is a really great feeling when the young kids I am coaching enjoy the activities you are helping them with, and this is one of the reasons I wanted to have a career in sports development.

We are half way through the season in basketball and this has been another experience that I am glad that I have continued with. This season at my club, Lothian Phoenix, I was promoted to 1st team and have gained a lot more knowledge of the game and hope that this opportunity will further increase my ability to play and be part of this team. As part of the 1st team I had the opportunity to play for Lothian Phoenix in the Scottish Cup. Lothian Phoenix were lucky enough to reach the final. Unfortunately we lost the final to St. Mirren Warriors, however I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at such an amazing event at the Oriam in Edinburgh. My first experience of a Scottish Cup weekend in basketball was an exciting one.

At the end of last year the first round of Women’s League took place in Sheffield. Going into division 3 with a brand new team – Scottish Women Warriors. A lot of the team had never played together before and to come away with 2 out of 2 wins was a great result! The second round of Women’s League takes place in the first weekend of February and Scottish Women Warriors are going doing to Nottingham to play the same two teams as before.

Overall I think that 2018 is shaping up to be a very good year. I am hoping with my internship with SDS I will have more opportunity to help out with Young Persons Sport Panel and other events this year.

YPSP: Hope Gordon, British Para Championships

I am now in my final year at university doing Sport and Exercise Science – between uni, training and work, life is very busy, but I wouldn’t change a thing.

My most recent competition was the British Para-Swimming Championships down in Manchester, which fell right in the middle of exams. However I am very lucky as I have really supportive lecturers at Napier who managed to change one of my exams to before the competition meaning I could focus more on racing while only having to revise for one exam.

This competition is one of my favourites on the racing calendar because the Scottish team travel, stay and race together. I have some great friends within the Scottish team so it’s always nice to catch up and having a team environment makes racing so much more fun!

I had four races and was pleasantly surprised to get personal bests in them all, including dropping over 18 seconds in my 400m front crawl which resulted in a Scottish record! I also came home with a gold, silver, bronze, so all in all a great weekend! It was great to see quite a few new young athletes in the Scottish Team all who swam brilliantly and have a promising future. I am now the granny of the team, but I’m ok with that!

After an amazing weekend away racing I got a quick bump back to reality by having my final uni exam the following day. I am now looking forward to finally having some time to go home for Christmas as I think my family will have forgotten what I look like.

After Christmas I will start my dissertation, which I am actually really looking forward to, and I will juggle this with training and racing. I am also looking forward to having a bit more time to spend working with SDS Young Persons Sports Panel – we are developing well as a team and I think 2018 will prove very successful by being a voice for young people with a disability within Scotland.

 

Callum Sloan with coach Pamela Robson after the marathon

YPSP – Callum Sloan’s London Mini Marathon 2017

London is one of the biggest and coolest cities in the world. It also hosts one of the biggest events on the athletics and sporting calendar, The London Marathon.

Of course being fourteen years old I’m not able to do the 26.2 mile course, so instead I do the London Mini Marathon which is 3 miles. It starts from Old Billingsgate and finishes at the main marathon finish line on The Mall.

This year was my third year doing the Mini Marathon and after a less than impressive performance last year where I finished 3 minutes off my Personal Best (24.14) in a brand new racing wheelchair, I was out to have fun and push well but also for a little bonus, to beat my PB. I always feel that it goes too quickly because I love taking in all the atmosphere of the crowd and racing past some of the most iconic landmarks in London. I didn’t rush off at the start because I knew if I did then I might not have enough in me to really push it for the last mile so I tucked nicely into the pack and let all the older, stronger and faster boys go past me (the boys race and the girls race were set off at different times).

Coming out of Blackfriars and up the hill I decided to pick up the pace a bit more. I passed a few other racers until I came to someone who was so competitive. They decided to start cutting in front of me and forcing me to slam my brakes. They kept on doing it so when the opportunity came I put a nice move round the outside coming up to Westminster. At this point I honestly felt like Lewis Hamilton winning the Formula 1 World Championship just because I was so happy to make such a move in this race. After that I just kept a cool head and focused on crossing the finishing line because at the end of the day that was the most important thing.

Once I came off the final corner I was almost crying (happy crying, but luckily I didn’t) because I looked up to see the clock at just over 20 minutes so I pushed with all that I had left in me to make sure I could make it to the end. Honestly I think that point was actually the most nerve-racking moment of the whole race for me because I could see what time I was setting so I was trying so hard to make sure I didn’t just stop right at the line unable to finish. At last I crossed the line and immediately after felt a huge sense of relief that I had done it. I had completed my third and best London Mini Marathon yet!!!

Afterwards in the cool down tent, where all the racers gathered, I was trying not to shout in delight knowing that I had finished. I didn’t know the time but at this point but I was pretty sure I had beat my PB  (I knew it didn’t take me four and a half minutes to do 250 metres or so!) When my coach Pamela and my mum came to congratulate me they could see the delight on my face and so could all my family and friends. Oh by the way, my medal was awesome as well!!!

Sitting in the airport waiting for my flight home the London Mini Marathon times had officially been released. My time was 21.25, three minutes off my PB and six minutes off last year’s time!!! I was so happy and relieved to finally have confirmation that I had beat my PB! But the next day at school was harder than usual just because of how tired I was due to all the adrenaline the previous day.

Overall it was awesome and a great experience. Not many fourteen year olds can say they have run (or wheeled) the streets of London. After beating my PB as well, that was the highlight of what was a great London Mini Marathon.

CALLUM SLOAN 14 YEARS OLD

Dunfermline, Fife

SDS Board Presentation – June 2017

The panel were invited to send representatives to present at the SDS management board meeting on 12 June 2017. Lewis McConnell, Colette Martin and Hope Gordon gave an overview of the work of the panel and their plans for the future, and answered questions from the board on topics such as the challenges they face as a widely-spread national group, what they see the impact of the panel as being, how to identify and support the next generation of panel members and how the board, staff and panel can best support each other.

A copy of the presentation can be viewed here:

Ross Foley playing badminton

YPSP February Update – Ross Foley

2016 was a great year for me, going to different badminton tournaments around the UK and also working with Lothian Disability Sport Branch (LDS) and helping out at Scottish Disability Sport National events. The highlight of the year was winning the Princess Diana Award for inspiring people into sport. This was a great end to the year as it demonstrated that people were encouraged by me and understood what I was trying to achieve. I volunteered to give a speech at the end in front of everyone about what I do and why I won the award.

2017 started off a quiet year and our local club, Lothian Disability Badminton Club, worked in partnership with SDS to create the first National Badminton tournament as a pilot on the 28th of January. I played well and succeeded to the semi-finals of the singles and continued to win the doubles with my partner, Andrew Davies. In February I competed in the Scottish Four Nations ParaBadminton tournament in Ravenscraig, playing both singles and doubles competition. Although I didn’t win any of my matches I am happy with the way I played especially as gaining experience was one of my main objectives going into the competition. I’ve still got a lot of potential I just need to find more time to training and improve my skills. 

More recently, I have been asked to speak in Parliament in front of college students to talk about inspiring others – something I have been spending a lot of time doing over the last three months. This topic is a big passion of mine as I work and play sport to inspire others. I aim to show people that whatever I am or who you are, everything is possible, nothing is impossible, it’s all about you inspiring others and yourself to achieve goals, that you would never thought would happen. 

For the rest of 2017 I am going to be focussing training and also motivating and inspiring people. I will mainly be focussing on inspiring young people to believe in themselves and not to be scared about what lies ahead, use it as the future, something good and worthwhile to look forward to in life and inspire others to do the same.