By William Moncrieff, Communications Officer.

 

Over the past four years, Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) and sportscotland have been embarking on an exciting opportunity for boccia players with high performance experience to join the SDS Performance coaching team on a volunteer coaching apprenticeship.

This opportunity has been made possible through sportscotland’s Coaching Futures programme, which aims to increase the pool of home-grown world class coaches, whilst retaining sports-specific knowledge within Scottish sport.

The Boccia coaching Futures Programme had a cohort of three former players; Peter McGuire and brothers, Scott and Jamie McCowan. All of which have competed nationally and internationally, representing Great Britain and Paralympics GB.

The programme has provided the group with many great opportunities to learn and develop. All of the coaches from the programme have had different highlights. Peter explained that: “A great highlight has been working with the likes of Kayleigh (Kayleigh Brown) and Alex (Alex Medley), where we are helping them to progress to that top level.”

Whereas Scott has enjoyed working closely with Lesley McKenna, part of sportscotland’s Coach Development team. Scott said: “The biggest highlight for me has to be working with Lesley our coach mentor and just having her to bounce ideas off of.”

Jamie added, “I would second that, working with Lesley has been a highlight. I think it is one thing to have good experience and to develop that on the job but to have that outside voice to give you feedback or to ask the right questions in order to get the right answers out of yourself has been very important.”

All of the coaches were interested in joining the programme for different reasons. “I was coaching for a few years before the programme started. What really drew me to the programme was the opportunity to set up a high-performance ecosystem in Scotland for boccia athletes, which is being delivered by current and former boccia athletes”, Peter explained.

Although Scott and Jamie were still part of Boccia UK’s World Class Programme and were both performing at a high level when they joined the programme, the pair decided to retire from performing towards the end of 2022 in order to focus on developing their coaching. “I just want to pass on knowledge and help create more Paralympians and successful athletes from Scotland”, said Jamie.

Throughout their time on the programme, they’ve all learnt a great lot. “I said at the beginning that I wanted to gain confidence. I would say that throughout the programme I can fully trust myself as a coach”, said Scott.

The endless search for perfection is a curious thing and has been a particular element that Peter has enjoyed delving into. This has been highlighted through the opportunities the coaches have had to meet, connect and network with other high-performance coaches from other sports throughout Scotland. “It can be humbling, going to speak to experts from different fields. The thing that this has highlighted is that they are experts in their fields but they don’t know everything. They are always looking to evolve and learn”, the Hamilton born coach explained.

Whereas one of Jamie’s most valuable lessons has been learning to have confidence in what is important to him and understanding to trust his coaching philosophy.

“It can take you a while to find but everyone has their own unique style of coaching. Ultimately, we all have a set style or a set philosophy, obviously that develops and that changes but fundamentally you must have confidence in what you bring and what is important to you”, Jamie said.

Scott explained how having experienced the trials and tribulations of being a high performance athlete has helped him support up-and-coming players. “I think whether you have been a competitor or a coach who hasn’t competed doesn’t make you a great coach, I think it can certainly help in the sense that you can really relate with what they (the athletes) are going through”, he said.

Lesley McKenna has had the opportunity to work closely with all of the coaches on the programm. She commented, “I am super proud of all of the coaches. They have all come such a long way.”

Lesley continued to say: “I am really starting to see how they are bringing themselves into their coaching practices, and how in doing that they are able to work collaboratively together to develop plans, to organise, to come up with new ideas and deliver coaching within the Scottish programme and then being able to take that to the Boccia UK programme.”

With the programme set to come to a close soon, the current cohort is looking at what their next steps in the sport may be.

Scott said, “My aspirations now that the programme is coming to an end are the same as they were at the beginning. I want to coach boccia and work with people that enjoy the sport. I want to develop and progress and ultimately, I want to work with players that want to compete.”

Although the programme is coming to an end, all involved throughout its implementation are keen that it sets a precedent for future coach development opportunities in Scotland. “I am keen that this is one of the first examples of a long-term programme with a group of coaches with a coach developer in Scotland, we are really leading by example”, said Lesley.

“Boccia hasn’t had a history of athletes becoming coaches, for whatever reason we haven’t had many examples of that over the years. For me it’s quite important. If we can be the start of a movement where we are showing players within the sport that there is a route into the sport, if that happens, I would be proud of that”, said Jamie.

If you would be interested in finding out more about boccia opportunities in your local area, you can do so by reaching out to your Regional Development Manager or alternatively, SDS’s Boccia Development Officer, Jonathan Kennedy, at: jonathan.kennedy@scottishdisabilitysport.com.

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