Bushey and Watford Phab Club
Following coach Brian’s attendance at the Adapted Sports Coaching courseduring the Herts Sports Partnership’s Coach Education Week, the Bushey and Watford Phab Club decided to apply for funding through the Disability Sport Support Scheme to purchase new sports equipment.During the course, Brian learned more about some of the activities Bushey and Watford Phab already provide like Boccia, and then learnt about other new activities that the club don’t currently provide, namely the table top sports of cricket and adapted table tennis. The application asked for a table cricket set, adapted table tennis equipment and some extra Boccia equipment.On receiving the approval for the grant, Brian ordered the equipment and started planning on its use.
When the Boccia ramps arrived, they were added to the existing Boccia set the club been trying out as part of the Phab integrated sports section. The section, which has been running for a couple of years based on shooting sports, was being reviewed when this grant was approved, and has encouraged the club to expand how they organise the section and what they offer.
The shooting sports (air weapons and archery) are good individual sports for increasing hand/eye coordination, and give a sense of power people with a disability often don’t experience in their lives. Byreorganising the sessions to include Boccia, the club can expand the sports section to include a sport the members can play as part of a team with its own personal skill. At present, Boccia has been used on a trial basis as the club are still working to find the best way integrate it into their sport section, but everybody who has taken part has enjoyed it and are talking about putting together a team to challenge other clubs.
The table cricket and adapted table tennis sets also generated huge interest when theyarrived. Although they will be used within the sports section in future, they will enable us to include an aspect of sport in our separate social club evenings. While we have had issues in getting use of a table tennis table at the venue we use, we have been able to try adapted versions of the games to start learning the required skills and try them out, and those of our Phab members who tried the table tennis and cricket very much enjoyed it!
John, one our newer Phab members who has quite severe autism and attends our sessions with a carer from the home he lives in, tried the table cricket.He instantly got involved in bowling and batting, and with the concentration needed for the controlled activity all signs of his autism disappeared, he had total focus on what he was doing and showed surprising skill much to the surprise of the carer with him who had never seen him so focused.
The equipment provided after a period of organising its introduction for regular use will enable us to provide our Phab members with something else to not only make their time at Phab more enjoyable but also increase their personal skills.