Blog: 'We're an inclusive sport - pretty much anyone can shoot'
The English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) website features a blog post every Friday through the year.
July's theme is EFDS's Charter for Change, which was launched by EFDS at an event in Parliament in February. This week, Liz Davidson, England Development Manager at British Shooting blogs for us. She discusses working with EFDS and backing the Charter to make an already inclusive sport even more accessible and popular.
Liz's blog
British Shooting is the umbrella organisation that brings together a range of difference types of target shooting - clay pigeon shooting to airguns - with the aim of both increasing participation and getting more medals at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Ours is a really inclusive sport, with over 15% of those involved in shooting having an impairment or long-term health condition. But, despite this, we know there is a lot more that we can and want to do.
When EFDS launched their Charter in February, one of our Paralympics GB shooters, Matt Skelhon, commented how vital it was, and is, to ensuring the progression of participation in sport. He thinks the positive effects that sport can have should not be underestimated.
On the launch day, Matt voiced British Shooting’s feelings when he explained:
"Sports, health and fitness have a positive impact on everyone. It's a social activity helping you interact with other people. Health benefits mean you will lead a more active life and because of the release of endorphins you feel much better in yourself.
“In the case of shooting for myself and every other shooter I know find shooting quite addictive and you are always striving to improve so constantly setting goals to work towards and achieve.
"This means you always have something to work towards in your life and you get satisfaction when achieving your goals.
"Shooting is also a very sociable sport so you always meet new people and there is always plenty of banter on the range. Physical fitness is also important in shooting although it is quite a static sport a low heart rate is very important so cardiovascular health is a big benefit. Also being conditioned to support the rifle means time in the gym working on specific muscle groups."
Over the past couple of years we’ve learnt a lot in terms of what we need to do to grow disabled participation in shooting. At the heart of it has been trying to better understand how current shooters got involved in the sport and what it is that they enjoy about it.
What we’ve learnt is that our disabled shooters are pretty much the same as any other shooter, both in terms of demographic profile and their route into the sport.
This finding was something that made us think about doing something specific and targeted to attract disabled people an interesting proposition.
And then we had an all-important lightbulb moment…
When we spoke to current shooters about what they like about the sport, one of the top responses was its inclusive nature and the fact that pretty much anyone can shoot.
In other words, disabled people in our sport wanted an equal opportunity to participate, and not a separate and bespoke pathway.
So we’ve moved away from creating a parallel track for disabled people towards a far more integrated approach. We still signpost disabled people to the most appropriate club or coach for them, but this isn’t based solely on disability. No, we take into consideration other factors, such as age, experience and what participants want out of the sport.
This isn’t to say though that we are just sitting around, hoping disabled people will come to us. We are proactively targeting disabled people, but our messaging is different and is increasingly focused on the inclusive and integrated nature of the sport.
We have lots of opportunities coming up for people to come and try shooting. If you are reading this and can think of anyone who might fancy giving the sport a shot, or if you fancy it yourself, we will be celebrating National Paralympic Day, 15 July, in style.
There are 17 inclusive have-a-go sessions across the country at which disabled people, their friends, family and carers will be more than welcome. For further information visit our website.
And, finally, a quick thank you to the EFDS, Dwarf Sports Association UK, WheelPower, LimbPower and all the other National Disability Sport Organisations, as well as County Sports Partnerships. All their work to help us to refresh our approach, run pilot programmes and promote events and opportunities across the countries has meant we are sharing much more of our sport with disabled people.
