By William Moncrieff, Communications Officer 

 

In East Lothian, Port O’Leith Boxing Club continue to find new ways of providing boxing sessions to people with a disability.  

This includes their recent delivery of boxing classes in British Sign Language (BSL), which was inspired by one of their participants. 

“One of our members is deaf and we have had him in the gym for a while,” said Lily Priggs, who works at the boxing club. 

“He brought his dad along, who is also deaf, for a ‘bring a friend for free class’ and as coaches we didn’t like that we couldn’t communicate with them.”  

Being extremely passionate about making sport inclusive and accessible for all, Lily quickly got the wheels in motion. “I said to the coaches and the staff, let’s do a BSL course and try and engage more deaf people in the gym.”  

Following this, members of the boxing club’s staff and coaches decided to do a 16 weeklong course in BSL. This is something that they all loved – not only did it contribute to making the club more inclusive but it also gave themselves a challenge in the process.  

Lily said, “We enjoy having a diverse community and the challenge of being creative in adapting boxing drills.”  

Lily is already seeing the benefits, enjoying being able to communicate in sign with participants. The club are excited at how this could possibly grow, creating a community within the gym where more participants have the opportunity to learn BSL whilst boxing. Lily said: “The idea is really that we can run our basics course (a course for beginners), and integrate people who are deaf into it. I like the idea that other participants also have the opportunity to pick up some of the signs.” 

 

Getting active and taking part in sport, such as boxing, has a range of benefits from physical, mental, emotional and social.  

“When we have done our feedback surveys, we know that people really enjoy mixing,” Lily said. 

“In our gym, it’s the intergenerational community within it. The youngest person in the gym is about three months old and the oldest is one of our members with Parkinson’s who is about 80.” 

Lily and the rest of the team at Port O’Leith Boxing club run a range of other inclusive programmes, including Punching with Parkinson’s, a class that provides those with Parkinson’s an inclusive opportunity to take part in sport and come together in a community environment. 

 

Lily highly values and enjoys the social aspect that the club provides, saying: “the group dynamic and the relationships we’ve all built, it’s great having the older generation in – bad jokes – but great stories.”  

Port O’Leith’s devotion to inclusive practice continues further with their newest addition to the coaching team – an Inclusion Coach for the club.  

“The thing is with boxing, if you are creative, you can apply the sport to most people,” Lily said. 

To find out all about the opportunities that are available at Port O’leith Boxing Club, email: info@portoleithboxing.co.uk 

Alternatively, visit the Scottish Disability Sport website to find out about sporting opportunities within your region.  

To keep up to date with all things disability sport across Scotland, follow Scottish Disability Sport on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.