Tag: lothian disability sport

Photo of Shona standing beside one of the clubs tandems with solo bikes in the background.

Women and Girls in Sport: Shona Black’s Story.

By William Moncrieff, Communications Officer.

 

Shona Black puts great value on being physically active, socially active, engaged in the outdoors and surrounded by nature. These things have remained important to her throughout her journey of sight loss and accessible, thanks to her determination and love for tandem cycling.

Shona (aged 61), who is registered severely sight impaired, has been attending tandem and cycle clubs across the East of Scotland for many years. She said, “I got my own tandem and that really opened so many doors for me.

“I get a buzz from cycling, I really enjoy it. I just love being in the outdoors and in nature.”

Although Shona gets a real sense of excitement from taking part, recently she has been focusing on providing inclusive and accessible opportunities for individuals with disabilities across the East of Scotland. This has resulted in Shona starting two inclusive tandem clubs, called In-Tandem East Lothian and VIE Velo.

One reason for Shona starting her clubs, was to help provide others with the same benefits that she has been provided with. “It’s great being with people. You can be out for a cycle, listening to the bird songs and chatting to the people around you,” Shona said.

Shona first became a member of Talking Tandems, a tandem club based in Fife. However, after trying to create an opportunity that could be based out of Edinburgh, Shona co-founded VIE Velo. VIE Velo is a cycle group that is based in the heart of the city, which go on cycles the first and third weekend of the month.

Following the creation of VIE Velo, Shona wanted to provide more opportunities in the East Lothian region and to reduce travel requirements for those living outside of the city. Consequently, she founded the In-Tandem East Lothian club, which ride on the second and fourth weekend of the month.

Through her experiences over the last few years of attending and founding clubs, Shona has really started to notice the psychological benefits that her clubs can provide. She said, “The social part of it is so important, especially as people can feel socially isolated. Often I think that the social part is just as important as the physical activity.”

Shona has also found inclusive ways to create a social community within In-Tandem East Lothian.

“We try and provide a shorter ride and a longer ride, and we always try and start together. One group can stop and have a coffee and the group doing a longer route can continue on to somewhere else before stopping for their coffee,” Shona explained.

Shona’s next project is supporting more women to feel comfortable being volunteer pilots at her clubs (The pilot goes at the front of the tandem and is in charge of steering.)

Shona commented, “I have found that a lot of female pilots can be quite nervous thinking that they often can’t do it.”

As a result, Shona and her friend have created an action plan to try and showcase how being a pilot is achievable for anyone. “We are really targeting getting more female pilots involved in the club. Along with my friend who is a pilot and the chair of the club, we are going to go along to some of the Breeze Rides, just to show some females that they definitely can do it.”

Shona is keen that this proves to be successful in helping create more opportunities and growing confidence with potential female pilots, resulting in more individuals being physically active.

“I believe in sport for all, to be outdoors exercising with other people can do so much for your mental health,” she said.

Furthermore, the physical benefits are substantial. Shona said: “There was one gentlemen who came along to In-Tandem and at the beginning he could only do the shorter route. Now he has moved up to the longer ride. He has really enjoyed getting his fitness up and getting more confident being out and about.”

In-Tandem East Lothian pride themselves on being a tandem club that cater for individuals with varying abilities and disabilities. To help with this, the club have recently received funding from Mussleburgh Area Partnership, which has supported the club purchase an E-Tandem, which will further help the club continue to deliver a person-centered approach.

If you would be interested in finding out more about In-Tandem East Lothian and VIE Velo, plus potential opportunities to become either a participant or volunteer at the club, you can email: intandemel@gmail.com

Alternatively, you can reach out to your Regional Development Manager to discover what opportunities are available throughout your region.

To keep up-to-date on all of the ongoing work. Make sure to follow Scottish Disability Sport on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

East of Scotland Para Bowls Development Day

East Lothian Indoor Bowling Club provided the ideal location for the recent East Para Bowls Development Day, inviting individuals to come along and try the sport of bowls under the expert eye of a number of experienced coaches.

The development day took place on Sunday 12th of February, aiming to promote disability bowls in the East of Scotland area and provide an environment where beginners could gain experience of the sport while more advanced players could benefit from the expertise from coaches present and keen to impart their knowledge.  The session welcomed fifteen bowlers to East Lothian with many of that number coming from a mainstream club background, highlighting the number of players with an impairment who are actively participating in the sport.

The day was coordinated and delivered in partnership between East Lothian Indoor Bowling Club (ELIBC), Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) and Lothian Disability Sport (LDS), looking to increase the awareness of opportunities in disability bowls and ignite a longer term objective – establishing a regular ‘HUB’ session, providing the platform for players from Edinburgh, the Lothians and the Scottish Borders with an impairment to progress and develop within the sport.  SDS will aim to support players from grassroots participation right through to a performance level, should they display the talent and desire to do so.

ELIBC have recently received Direct Club Investment from sportscotland, a support package which will aim to help and develop the club through increased membership, youth engagement, player retention and of course increased participation in disability bowls.  LDS were also in a position to provide funding to support this Direct Club Investment, resulting in the creation of a Development Coordinator position which was filled by renowned East Lothian based bowler Billy Mellors.  Billy has been instrumental in the work done thus far and will be a key figure in developing disability bowls in the East region moving forward – Billy highlighted ‘We are delighted that so many participants attended the session and encouraged that a genuine spread of experienced bowlers and new starters took part which is exactly the purpose of the Hub. Our coaches excelled on the day and look forward to the programme that will be scheduled soon.

Inclusive Bowls Performance Development Manager for Scottish Disability Sport, Ron McArthur was also present on the day to provide his experience in the world of Para bowls and provided disability specific training to ten coaches from the East and Midlothian in the lead up to the event to ensure they were comfortable and confident to work with a range of players with varying disabilities including visual impairment, cerebral palsy and learning disability.  Ron added that ‘Bowls is a total inclusion sport open to everyone regardless of disability, ability or age.  Whether you want to you play fun games or go onto International Level, Billy and his coaches will guide you on a pathway that will best suit your needs and help you achieve your full potential.  Play well and enjoy’.

If you are keen to attend the new HUB session or looking for further information relating to disability bowls in the East of Scotland, please get in touch with Neal Herbert (Regional Manager, SDS) on neal.herbert@scottishdisabilitysport.com or 0131 625 4414 or Billy Mellors (ELIBC Development Coordinator) on development@bowlseastlothian.uk or 07930 716073.