Grassroots Games 2016: Archery
The Paralympics is under way in Brazil, and the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) is focusing on the sports that you will see, hear or read about over the next two weeks.
With 22 different sporting events on show in Rio 2016, EFDS takes a look at grassroots participation back here in Britain.
Today it’s Archery, with Leigh Walmsley telling us about finding a sport to fall in love with.
I was never one who was picked for sports teams at school.
I was the clumsy one, the one that wasn’t fast enough, was too uncoordinated. I was never picked for teams, and so pushed away from doing sport by people’s comments and attitudes. So I just accepted it wasn’t for me.
But I kept looking for a low-impact sport and also one that was social.
I wanted to meet new people. Then I remembered that when I was a young girl I was in Girl Scouts and I once tried archery and loved it. So I looked around for local archery clubs.
I first attended a taster event – I kept missing the target.
And the target wasn’t exactly far away! I thought the sport might not be for me, but one chap who was running the event told me to try it with my other hand. And even though I’m right handed I hadn’t thought to check my eye dominance, and my left eye was stronger. They then gave me a left-handed bow and it magically solved my problems.
I knew I’d found a sport that I could be good at.
I never thought about competitions or anything, just being good at a club level and knowing that if I could be one of the better ones at the club then my confidence would go up. It’s fun and there’s a lot to it, so it’s technical which is enjoyable. Most people who take up archery fall in love with it at some point.
Get active, just do it, because it’s so much fun and you will find the sport for you.
If you try one and you don’t like it then don’t quit, because everything can be adapted to suit your disability needs. Certainly, since the popularity of the Paralympic Games in 2012, more and more disability sport clubs are being created and more people understand disability.
