Tuesday 16th October 2007
On the weekend of 13th and 14th October, the inaugural conference for adaptive rowing in the UK was held at Stoke Mandeville sports centre in Buckinghamshire. The conference was well attended by 40 people from a variety of different levels, including participants at grass roots level, international athletes, coaches, and members of the ARA community development team as well as two members of the IFI.
Project Coordinator Claire Robson and Regional Inclusive Activator for the South East Aimee Stokes were in attendance with the intention of promoting the IFI and its accredited sites and how adaptive rowing could be linked with the IFI.
Day one of the conference included sessions from Dennis Hodgkins, EFDS Regional Development Manager for the West Midlands, Loretta Williams, ARA Coach Educator and an interactive afternoon workshop on ‘Breaking down barriers’ in disability sport. The day was finished with a ‘meet the athlete’ session where GB Rowing adaptive athletes Naomi Riches and Alastair McKean were interviewed and told the audience of their experiences in adaptive rowing training and competitions.
On the second day of the conference the audience was given an opportunity to hear more about the initiative by Aimee and Claire through a background into how the IFI originated and has been developed, the current NSF scheme, the main principles of the IFI and how the IFI and its sites could help the development of adaptive rowing. Included in this was a case-study from a gym user at an IFI site as well as an interactive question and answer session. Many of the members at the conference were not aware of the IFI so were delighted to discover that Stoke Mandeville sports centre was an IFI accredited site from the main scheme. Being perfectly located as an example conference members were given a tour of the fitness suite where the IFI equipment was shown and other IFI standard requirements highlighted. There was a keen interest from members to find their local site and go to see what was on offer.
The second day also included a session from Simon Goodey on meeting individual needs through equipment and classifications for adaptive rowing. The conference concluded with a summary of what was achieved over the weekend and how all the enthusiasm in the room is maintained and channelled into further developing adaptive rowing in the UK.
It is hoped that the IFI can work in partnership with the ARA to help create links between IFI accredited sites and local rowing club. The creation of 10 ‘hubs’ is to be developed to act as centres of excellence.
