By Dr Yvonne Waft - 29th August 2024
In case anyone hadn’t noticed, the Paralympics just started in Paris! Following on, as always, a couple of weeks after the Olympics finished, Paris was lit up to stunning effect as the sun went down on the Opening Ceremony last night. An eclectic mix of humans danced, sang, and spoke movingly about what sport and disability mean to them. Speeches were made, torches were carried, a spectacle ensued.
This morning, I’ve already caught a few minutes of the GB men’s wheelchair basketball team confidently defeating the German team in their opening match of the tournament. I’m looking forward to catching up with the GB Women’s opening game against Spain later this morning, although today is technically a work day, so we’ll see how that pans out. Wheelchair basketball is my sport and has a very special place in my heart. Those who have read my book, “Coping with Trauma” will know that after I lost both legs to meningitis and sepsis at 19 years of age, a chance conversation led to me taking up wheelchair basketball. The sport became a pivotal feature in my recovery and rehabilitation from such serious injury and trauma. I pursued wheelchair basketball all the way to the Paralympics in Atlanta in 1996, a proud achievement indeed (the adjacent photo shows me at the opening ceremony in Atlanta). My involvement did not end at the Paralympics. I continued playing for a few years, took a break to focus on career and family goals, then returned into playing and coaching in my 40s. Although now fully retired from both playing and coaching, I am still somewhat involved as my daughter continues to play for the team I coached up until the end of last season.
Sport did a number of different things for me.
Physically it helped me get fit and strong, which, as a wheelchair user, means it is easier to navigate the often inaccessible world around me. Even now that I am retired from playing, the strength and fitness I gained back then allows me to continue with other activities such as swimming to maintain my strength and mobility. Learning to use a wheelchair effectively through sport means that obstacles and hazards around town are less disabling than they would be otherwise. Sport gave me a confidence in my body and chair to get me where I wanted to go, most of the time.
Emotionally sport helped me regain confidence in myself as a disabled person. Regularly being pushed out of my comfort zone, competing at ever higher levels, travelling at home and abroad, often staying in less than ideal accommodation, meant I had to adapt and overcome obstacles. This gave me a love of travelling and a confidence to go for it despite the challenges. Basketball occupied me in a way that was fun and exciting and gave me things to look forward to. Without sport, I did not really know what I could do with my life and that could have become very depressing.
Socially sport was such a huge force for good in my life! I had really never met a wheelchair user before I became one. I didn’t know what was possible for me in the wake of my illness. When I found wheelchair basketball, I found my people! I met wheelchair users who had careers, qualifications, families, marriages. I discovered that there was a world of possibilities out there. I might have to work extra hard to reach some of those things (this was pre-Disability Discrimination Act 1995), but the possibilities were out there, university, work, career, relationships, children…who knew? Basketball people became my adopted family, I felt at home and made lifelong friends.
I was reminded of what sport did for me recently when watching a BBC documentary called Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams (available on iPlayer). Former cricket all-rounder Flintoff took a group of young lads from a deprived area of Preston, Lancashire, and attempted to teach them cricket. Cricket is a popular sport in the UK but is mainly played by more privileged sectors of society. It tends to be taught at private schools more so than state schools. Membership of a cricket club plus the equipment and clothing required is prohibitively expensive to many people. This, however, did not stop Flintoff trying to bring cricket to an unruly bunch of young lads from a deprived northern UK city. Having not been privately educated himself, Flintoff felt that cricket should not be the preserve of the wealthy and could bring benefits to these lads from his own home city.
At the beginning, things did not look promising. The boys who came along were struggling with many challenges, they were facing exclusion from mainstream society due to poverty, neurodiversity, homelessness, or lack of educational attainment. Some boys exhibited very challenging behaviour and a lack of respect for the coaches. After a few sessions, the group was joined by a young asylum seeker, who showed huge potential. This young man almost brought Flintoff to tears describing how he had to flee his home in Afghanistan at 15, leaving his mother and brother behind, as his life was in danger there. He described his journey across continents, facing regular beatings from border officials, and dependence on people smugglers to get him to safety. It was a harrowing story. All the boys had faced adversity and some had faced real trauma in their lives and simply did not have the foundations on which to build successful futures.
The second series of the show began with Flintoff offering the boys a chance to go on a cricket tour to India. They had built some cohesion as a team and developed some skills during the first series. They were starting to mature and had had some success in some friendly matches. As plans for the tour developed, Flintoff had a life changing accident whilst filming an episode of Top Gear. He was hospitalised, with fears he may not survive. Luckily, he did survive and regained his mobility and was able to return to the team and take up coaching again. Plans for the tour resumed, but Flintoff shared how his confidence had been severely impacted by the accident. He had developed anxiety and hardly left his home for many months. This is a common feature of post traumatic stress, and whilst it might not reach the formal diagnostic criteria for PTSD, it was clear he really struggled to regain his former confidence.
Having the goal of getting the boys to India, and having a successful tour seemed to help Flintoff to deal with his trauma response as much as it was helping the boys deal with their life challenges. Seeing the team on tour, bonding as a unit, sharing their struggles, supporting each other, and winning some matches, was truly heartwarming. Seeing Flintoff’s style as a coach, supporting the boys, sharing his own struggles, and being a man they could aspire to emulate was a great reminder to me of how transformational a good coach is, not just in creating a good player, but in developing young humans to be the best they can be in life more generally, despite whatever challenges they may be facing. These lads may not become international cricketers, although the young asylum seeker may yet play for England as a result of his involvement with this series, but sport has clearly changed all their lives for the better.
I have to acknowledge, sport is not something everyone wants to do or is able to do. Some people may have health conditions that mean they cannot engage in sport in any physical way. Sport is just one way to gain these benefits, others may gain similar benefits from creative pursuits, the arts, gaming, volunteering and many other activities. My experience is that sport gave me opportunities that I didn’t know existed, and relaunched me into a full and satisfying life after trauma. Everyone needs to find their own way. This is why it is so important as a society to invest in the arts, in sport, in social amenities, at a grass roots level, not just at the elite level. Interviews on the BBC website with the boys from Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams series articulate perfectly why this is so important. Their progress into work and education is inspiring and has come about thanks to the sporting opportunity they were given and the personal growth that came out of that.
For disabled people, in particular, it can be hard to find the right sport and find a club locally to join. One of the slogans from the 2024 ParalympicsGB is “Every Body Moves” and this is about encouraging and signposting disabled people towards sporting opportunities in their areas (www.everybodymoves.org.uk). I have seen so many people grow through sport myself included. I hope that in turn, I have helped other people grow through my coaching and commitment to sport over the years. I would not be where or who I am today had it not been for that chance conversation that connected me into the wheelchair basketball family. I am so grateful for the role sport has played in my life.
This is the power of sport.
YW
The EMDR Coach www.catalystclinpsy.co.uk
Bringing quality trauma therapy to the world through delivering therapy, clinical supervision, teaching and training.
Understand and overcome trauma with my self-help book Coping with Trauma. Drawing as much on my own personal as well as professional experience of trauma to help those struggling with trauma and those helping and guiding them.
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