Month: March 2020

SDS Bids farewell to Norma Buchanan

Tuesday 31st March is the final working day for Norma Buchanan as part time administrator with Scottish Disability Sport. Since 2000 Norma has worked part time for SDS and part time for Disability Sport Fife. From 1st April 2020 Norma will retain her part time post with DSF but retire totally from SDS.

Norma has always worked in the Fife office of Scottish Disability Sport where her responsibilities lay largely in the areas of events and finance. Initially Norma worked closely with the late David Thomson from Glenrothes, who was treasurer of SDS for many years.

More recently Norma’s responsibilities centred wholly on the events side of SDS business and she became the named person for all issues relating to the comprehensive SDS events programme. All SDS branch representatives dealt directly with Norma and she became a highly respected and hard working SDS officer. Norma was the name on the events entry form and there was very little about the programme that she did not shape and develop. She is a consummate professional in every sense and highly respected by those she worked with. Mark Gaffney is well and truly the man in the driving seat in events these days and Norma has enjoyed immensely her time working with him.

Although no longer working directly with Scottish Disability Sport, we are delighted that Norma will remain within the wider Scottish Disability Sport family.  Norma‘s work will continue to contribute to everything we all do – as it has done over the many years.

Live on Curious Coaches Website

Curious Coaches’ Club

What are the things that separate good coaches from great coaches? Well, we know that one of those elements is curiosity; it is the urge you feel to know more about something. Alongside this is the knowledge that the more we learn and find out, the more we realise we don’t actually know as much as we thought! This is where the ‘Curious Coaches Club’ comes in!

Each week we will be holding a conversation about a particular coaching topic that we know is important to coaches and one that many would like to learn more about. You see, we are all coaches as well and are fascinated by the process and art of coaching, helping people to learn and grow whilst using sport and activity as the vehicle to achieve this. Sometimes this might be helping another person get better at a specific technical or tactical outcome or it could be to support someone else to increase their confidence or communication skills.

The ‘Curious Coaches Club’ will have three parts to it:

  1. Watch ‘A Conversation About…’ between expert coaches live on a Monday or on-demand via UKCoaching.org or our You Tube channel.
  2. Engage and take part in a more in-depth conversation about the topic on Wednesday or Thursday via smaller informal gatherings of coaches hosted by one of our team.
  3. Continue the conversation via the community aspect of ‘Connected Coaches’ hosted on our website.

Over the coming weeks we will be following this process to talk about all sorts of different topics and feel free to share with us if there are any specific topics, discussions or coaches you would like to hear from and we will see what we can do!

Our First Theme is Coaching from your Home to their Garden  where we will be discussing remote coaching all week

Curious Coaches’ Club – Open Webinar

  • Monday 30 March, 14:00 – 15:00

Join Mark Bateman and Andy Bradshaw for a conversation about remote coaching. They’ll share practice, explore some of the essentials and discuss how you’ll be able to support the people you coach during this challenging time. They’ll also look to draw on some positive consequences from having to work in a different way and how these may also become staple parts of our coaching craft.

Click here to book your place

Curious Coaches’ Club – Community of Practices

  • Wednesday 1 April, 11:00 – 12:00
  • Thursday 2 April, 18:00 – 19:00

Join some of the UK Coaching Team to engage and take part in a smaller more in-depth community of practice style conversation around Monday’s ‘Coaching From your Home to their Garden’ webinar. To attend this session you must have attended the live session on Monday or watched it on demand via UKCoaching.org. Places are limited so get in quick to secure your place.

Click below to book your place

Young Fife Para Swimmer Inspiring Others

Disability Sport Fife is immensely proud of Glenrothes High school former pupil Craig Smith. In his day he was a talented Para swimmer with a very promising career ahead. Excellent school exam results and university beckoned. Circumstances changed but work and further study then followed. One day Craig appeared back in the DSF office and volunteered to sign up for a succession of Scottish Swimming teaching and coaching awards.

Mentored on the pool deck by Lara Ferguson, Craig joined Glenrothes Amateur Swimming Club and became a very popular and successful teacher. Never one to sit around Craig was then off to Glasgow to pursue the next chapter of his young exciting life.

Craig has recently committed his time and expertise to the Scottish Disability Sport Young Start Futures team. One of Craig’s roles was to work as a member of the team and help members with the application for future programme funding. Craig’s role was to create a member’s survey that would determine how team members envisaged the programme developing if a funding application was successful.

On the back of the survey responses Craig reached out and attended meetings with SAMH and Scottish Sport Futures to determine what they could offer to the programme and also of course to seek advice. Craig collaborated with other members of the Young Start Futures team plus the programme mentors. A summary of the plans for the programme was prepared and Craig was proud to be part of the team that presented the details to members of the Big Lottery at their office in Glasgow.

Craig was also thrilled to be part of the small team from Scotland that travelled to London for the UK Coaching Awards. Craig’s role was to represent the Scottish programme as finalists in the transforming coaching award section.

At the recent Young Start Futures residential at Inverclyde, Craig was part of the Young Start Futures team that presented the ideas for the future of the programme to the rest of the Young Start group. Scott Tait from Wee Flee productions provided an excellent session on creating videos with phones. Leading on from this session, Craig met up with Scott to assist with the edit of the footage from the weekend and ensure the young person’s message comes across as intended. Robert Nesbitt of SAMH was also in attendance at the residential.

Over the years I can think of several Disability Sport Fife members who have enthusiastically offered their time and expertise for the benefit of others. Craig Smith is the most recent and we wish him continued success in his quest to support, encourage and inspire other young people with disabilities into sports coaching. Craig’s teaching/coaching journey has been impressive so far and I am sure he has much more to offer. Well done Craig, we are all so proud of you back here in Fife.

Richard Brickley OBE MBE Chairman DSF (SCIO) Board of Charity Trustees

Branch Communication Update 1

Hi everyone,

SDS intends to keep our member branches updated with latest news and helpful information during this challenging situation. Many of you will be facing unfamiliar circumstances throughout this period so SDS aims to ensure our communication with our key individuals and organisations is relevant and helpful. Please find below the first updates as part of this regular correspondence:

  1. Please see the information attached with some practical tips for working from home and managing mental health: Supporting your mental health while working from home
  2. SDS Consultation: An online consultation questionnaire will be distributed prior to Easter. SDS hopes that as many of you as possible can respond to assist in the strategy formulation from 2021 onwards.
  3. Funding:
    • SDS’s ongoing commitment to supporting branches in accessing funding has continued with two further branches securing financial support from our key partner Trefoil.
    • Information was circulated to branches recently regarding funding opportunities available currently (Bank of Scotland Reach programme and Corra Foundation).
    • Funding will be a topic at the upcoming Branch Networking Day which will held as a virtual meeting on 13 May, 1pm – 3pm.
  4. Although face-to-face branch activity may have stopped there are a number of ways of continuing branch business during this affected period. Some branches have held virtual branch meetings and SDS is happy to assist in facilitating these for branches where required.

Please do get in touch if SDS can be of any assistance throughout this ever-changing landscape.

Please keep safe and well and we looking forward to seeing you soon.

Joint BOA, BPA and UK Sport Statement

The British Olympic Association (BOA), British Paralympic Association (BPA) and UK Sport welcome the news of the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Chief Executive of the BOA, Andy Anson, said: “It is with profound sadness that we accept the postponement, but in all consciousness it is the only decision we can support, in light of the devastating impact COVID-19 is having on our nation, our communities and our families.

“Alongside UK Sport and the BPA, we have consulted with the National Governing Bodies of summer Olympic and Paralympic sports and with athlete representative groups, including our Athletes’ Commissions and the British Athletes’ Commission. It is with their input and support that we have a unanimous view that the impact of COVID-19 on athletes’ training and preparation means their regimes are now compromised irreparably. It is time for them to stop thinking about Tokyo 2020 for now and be home and safe with their families.

“It would have been unthinkable for us to continue to prepare for an Olympic Games at a time the nation and the world no less is enduring great hardship. A postponement is the right decision.

“We have incredible sympathy for the Tokyo 2020 organising committee and indeed our colleagues at the IOC, who are working tirelessly to seek a positive outcome to this difficult scenario. The Olympic Games is a symbol of hope for us all and we are sure that we will be in Tokyo at the right and appropriate time as the world re-emerges from this dark period.”

Sally Munday, CEO of UK Sport said, “We welcome today’s decision from the IOC, IPC and Japan that the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be postponed. Given the unprecedented global challenge we face, today’s news means that athletes, their coaches and support staff can now fully focus on what really matters at this terribly difficult time, keeping themselves and their families safe.

“We are working closely with government to ensure we can effectively support sports and their athletes through this distressing period. I’d like to take the opportunity to reassure sports that our guidance from last week remains in place that we will not seek to recover any financial performance investment or Athlete Performance Awards due to disruption caused by COVID-19. We also realise that today’s decision has significant financial implications for our high performance system and we are working hard to identify the wide ranging impacts and scenarios and are in close contact with government to establish how best to support our summer Olympic and Paralympic sports and athletes to be ready for the Games when they do take place.

“I’d like to thank all our athletes who are playing a role in so many different ways in these challenging times, from supporting their local communities to inspiring us to stay active in our own homes. I’d also like to reassure the public that whilst the games are postponed, we strongly believe the power of sport will inspire the nation again.”

Mike Sharrock, CEO of the BPA, added: “The British Paralympic Association fully supports the decision to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Stemming this global public health crisis and doing everything possible to safeguard the health and wellbeing of people should clearly take priority in these unprecedented times.

“We welcome the clarity this now gives Paralympic athletes throughout the world who have had their training and qualification plans severely disrupted but also recognise it will still be a deeply unsettling time for athletes who have worked for years focussed on delivering their best possible performance in Tokyo this summer.

“The British Paralympic Association is already implementing contingency plans to ensure ParalympicGB athletes have everything in place to be best prepared for the Games when they are staged in 2021.

“We recognise that there are a huge range of factors to be considered when looking to postpone an event at this scale and we acknowledge the scale of the challenge for our friends at the Tokyo organising committee, the IOC and IPC in addressing these.

“Now is the time for us all to work together to overcome this global threat. Sport has a unique power to inspire and bring people together and we are certain that the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games can be that beacon of hope for the whole world to focus on to show what the human spirit can achieve.”

We wish to state that this decision – to postpone the Games – should in no way be a reflection on the excellent organisation of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games by the IOC, the Tokyo Organising Committee and the Government of Japan.

Our thoughts remain with the families and individuals affected by COVID-19, as well as the front-line workers – including many health care professionals from the UK sports’ network – who are working to keep our communities safe and well.

We also sympathise with the many hundreds of athletes, both in the UK and globally, whose careers and personal ambitions are being impacted after many years of hard work and training.

We remain committed to taking our Olympic and Paralympic athletes to Tokyo for the next edition of the summer Games, at the appropriate time, in the hope that it will be a celebration of the world re-emerging from this unprecedented time.

SportsAid Scotland support for Scottish Para Athletes

Scottish Disability Sport is pleased to announce that 20 of Scotland’s leading para athletes have been financially supported by SportsAid Scotland. The Robertson Trust and SportsAid London are the main sponsors and have allocated funds based on performance levels and sports specific commitments this year. SDS would like to thank SportsAid Scotland for their ongoing support of our para athletes.

The following athletes will be supported in 2020:

Cameron Radigan (Archery)

Steven Bryce (Athletics)

Gavin Drysdale (Athletics: RaceRunning)

Kayleigh Haggo (Athletics: RaceRunning)

Owen Miller (Athletics)

Alexander Thomson (Athletics)

David Beattie (Wheelchair Basketball)

Josh Manson (Wheelchair Basketball)

Ross Munro (Boccia)

Kieran Steer (Boccia)

Reegan Stevenson (Boccia)

Laura Cluxton (Cycling)

Hannah Dines (Cycling)

Gemma Lumsdaine (Wheelchair Rugby)

Mike Drever (Shooting)

Allan Ritchie (Shooting)

Lesley Stewart (Shooting)

Keith White (Shooting)

Michael Kear (Skiing)

Ryan Henry (Table Tennis)

DSF Annual Sports Festival – football and unihoc

DSF FOOTBALL 5s
The 2020 Indoor Fife Football 5s supported by Fife Sports and Leisure Trust started with a bang. The venue was the Michael Woods Sports & Leisure Centre. The open section involved DSF United, DSF City and DSF Athletic. Teams were selected on ability and on paper all three teams appeared evenly matched. This was confirmed when the opening game involving City and United ended in a 1-1 draw. Match two between City and Athletic resulted in a 3-1 win for City and great delight in the Callander family from west Fife. The final match pitched United against Athletic and by the narrowest of margins 1-0, United earned the right to play City in the final. The match was very close but United held on to take the title.
DSF United – Briony Clark (gk) Steven Anderson, Adam Faulds, Dale Lynch and Graham Law
DSF City – Fraser Wilson, Ross Russell, Phillip Callander Andrew Callander and Allan Robertson
DSF Athletic – Robert Anderson. Ryan Melville, Maurice Paterson, David Mair and Stephen Russell
The B section was similarly very close with Albion and Rovers progressing to the final undefeated with three points each. In the round robin their match ended 2-2 but in the final DSF Rovers won convincingly by 4-2.
DSF Rovers – John Sapsed, Paul Arthur, Vicky Walker gk, Chris Cook and Robbie Clark
DSF Albion – James Murphy, Francis Peters, John Wright, Rickie Ballingal and Robert Morrison
DSF Wanderers – Jamie Thomas, Wayne Moreland, Steven Thackray, Ryan Peterson and Kevin Mustard
In the C section DSF colts played the DSF stallions over three games and lost one match 2-0 but won two others by 3-0 and 2-0 to lift the title.
DSF Colts – George Goodsir, Tristine Rankine, Mark Walker, Leroy Brown, Lee Wilson
DSF Stallions – Kenny Richards, Neil Carstairs, Neil McEwan, Kevin Rowe and Daniel Page
Two excellent teams from Balwearie HS contested the junior 5s with one drawn game and two wins for the Balwearie Hares, 2-0 and 2-1 over the Balwearie Hounds
Balwearie Hares – (red) Leo Cord (capt), Neil Simpson (gk,) Shaun Carter, Daniel Waszkowiak and Greig Nicol
Balwearie Hounds – (black) Acaymo Llanos (capt), Dawoud Murtuza (gk), Aidan Stewart, Liam Martin and Callum Stephen
DSF UNIHOC
The DSF gazelles completed the open unihoc section undefeated with three wins 1-0, 3-1 and 2-1 over the DSF leopards. The matches were considerably closer than the 6 points to zero outcome would suggest.
DSF Gazelles – Michelle Wallace, Kearney Horne Christine Burns and Andrea Spry
DSF Leopards – Pauline Bryson, Susan Barrett, Shona Murrie and Julie Allan
In the ladies B section unihoc, the DSF swallows lost both their matches and did not progress to the final. The final went to extra time with the DSF swifts defeating the DSF bluebirds by 4-3 and the golden goal determining the outcome.
DSF Swifts – Nicola Eccles, Kim Paddon, Michelle Somerville and Beverly Raitt
DSF Bluebirds – Nicola Bell, Tonia Coe and Roberta Buchan
DSF Swallows – Lynda Stewart, Avril McIntyre, Dawn Rogerson and Toni Duffin
The Balwearie jets were the dominant team in the junior unihoc competition with three convincing wins against the Balwearie diamonds.
Balwearie Jets – Billie Lowe, Zoe McNulty, Samantha Christie and Mary Nutman
Balwearie Diamonds -Shelby Spence, Kara Jeffrey, Keri MacNicol and Alexandra/Jane Nutman
Many thanks to Scottish FA referee Neil Martin who handled all the football games. Neil is a duty manager at the Michael Woods Sports and Leisure Centre. Thank you also to unihoc umpires Pamela Robson and Lucy Walkup who are both DSF coaches. DSF peer mentor volunteers Colleen Melville and Marie Wilson were inspired by GOGA in Fife, supported by Spirit of 2012, to take up volunteering. The girls did an excellent job backing up the organising team.
Richard Brickley OBE MBE Chairman DSF (SCIO) Board of Charity Trustees

Special Recognition at Fife Sports Festival

Events three and four of the Annual Fife Sports Festival supported by Fife Sports and Leisure Trust were held on Thursday 12th March at the Michael Woods Sports & Leisure Centre.
The indoor football 5s and unihoc competitions for participants with additional support needs were as always enthusiastically supported and thanks to the influence of GOGA in Fife supported by Spirit of 2012 there was a much higher than normal entry from players with severe and complex needs.
Disability Sport Fife identified 8 coaches/support staff to observe all 17 participating teams and single out those whom they considered demonstrated all that is special about disability sport in Fife. Enthusiasm, patience, team player, consideration, fun were just some of the qualities considered.
Eight participants were presented with special trophies donated to DSF by FSLT staff member Michael Penny from Carnegie Leisure Centre. Michael is one of the FSLT inclusive gym team staff and always has been a great supporter of DSF members of all levels of ability. Thank you Michael and well done to the eight excellent DSF ambassadors.
Congratulations to Steven and Robert Anderson, Shelby Spence, Leo Cord, Samantha Christie, Neil McEwan, Julie Allan and Chris Cook. Missing from the photo Acaymo Llanos.
Richard Brickley OBE MBE Chairman DSF (SCIO) Board of Charity Trustees

Scottish Disability Sport Statement on Covid-19 (Coronavirus)

Suspension of all squads, programmes, events, courses and competitions from Saturday 14th March 2020.

Following the increase in Covid-19 (Coronavirus) cases in Scotland in recent days, Scottish Disability Sport has taken the decision to suspend all squads, programmes, events, courses and competitions with effect from Saturday 14th March until further notice.

We have taken this decision in the best interests of the athletes and participants with a disability, many of whom may have underlying health conditions.

Scottish Disability Sport will continue to monitor and review the situation on an ongoing basis and will communicate any changes in circumstances as they arise, through social media or our website www.scottishdisabilitysport.com.

If you have any questions please contact Scottish Disability Sport at admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com.