Skills Coach Award in Shetland
Recently, basketballscotland’s Inclusion Manager, Tina Gordon, travelled to deliver our Skills Coach Award to Ability Shetland. However, the group started their Skills Coach journey long before Tina stepped foot in Shetlands. Prior to Tina’s arrival, everyone attended a zoom call with basketballscotland’s Club Support and Development, Jake Sirrell. Here they received an introduction to the basics of coaching basketball. Covering topics such as how to best manage and organise their time within a session, how to make their sessions fully inclusive for everyone involved and a basic introduction to officiating.
From here, Tina took over and travelled to Shetland to get everyone on court for a practical session. Once on court, everyone put their new knowledge from the virtual course into practice in a fun and inclusive way while picking up some new tips from Tina along the way.
Making the most of her time in Shetland’s, Tina joined Ability Shetland at their Parasport Festival. The festival gave participants the opportunity to partake in many sports such as fencing, kayaking table tennis, and of course basketball, as well as many other sports! Tina delivered two sessions to more than 30 budding athletes giving them the opportunity to experience both running and wheelchair basketball.
Speaking on Tina’s time with the group, Charis Scott at Ability Shetland commented: “Ability Shetland were delighted to have Tina Gordon, from basketballscotland, travel to Shetland for their Parasport Festival and to deliver the Skills Coach Award. On Saturday the 4th of March, Tina delivered two basketball sessions which more than 30 people attended. There were so many happy faces and many people had the opportunity to try running and wheelchair basketball for the first time ever.
On the 5th of March, ten people attended the Skills Coach Award to develop their coaching skills. Following this training, Shetland now has people who are confident to deliver within schools and also work together to create regular basketball sessions on the island”.
When asked about her time with Ability Shetland, Tina commented: “I was absolutely delighted to be able to travel to Shetland to get involved with Ability Shetland. From the Skills Coach Award to their Parasport Festival, it was a pleasure to be around so many people excited to grow their knowledge. It was a real pleasure getting to be involved in many people’s first experience with basketball, both wheelchair and running, and hopefully see them on the court again soon.”
