Ian reignites his passion for sports thanks to ECL Sensory Service
Ian Alden has always loved sports. Despite being visually impaired from birth, Ian’s childhood was an active one. His parents were very sporty and raised him to be confident that he could do everything a sighted person could do. If his (sighted) siblings undertook an activity or sport, so did Ian, this resulted in him being athletic his whole life.
Now in his sixties, Ian is registered blind but is still sporty. He loves archery, golf, football, walking and bowling. He lives in an assisted living residence which offers many options for keeping active including a gym, and nice gardens to enjoy. But in addition to this, he wanted to do more out in the community. His assisted living team recommended ECL and put in a referral via Adult Social Care for support from ECL’s Sensory Service.
Initially Ian’s ECL support was three hours a week to support with practical things around the home and attending medical appointments. But Ian wanted to be more active, get out and do more.
His support was increased to 12 hours a week, six hours on a Monday and six hours on a Wednesday. It’s been a game changer for Ian and has enabled him to return to some of the sports he enjoyed in his younger years.
Ian couldn’t be happier; he now has the perfect balance of support. With the help of two ECL Sensory Communicator Guides who each provide a different specialism.
On a Monday he has support from Theresa Whiting who takes care of practical things such as teaching Ian to cook, shop and do household tasks as well as taking him on long walks and out to lunch which he loves.
On a Wednesday Ian has Steven Warren who, as a sports lover himself has made it his personal mission to enable Ian to realise his ambition of getting back into golf.
As a young man, Ian reached a very high standard in both archery and golf. Not only did he attend a specialist school where he’d play football and cricket, he was also a member of a disabled sports club where he participated in javelin, shotput, discus, and archery. While he has been able to continue participating in archery at a local club for the visually impaired with a friend, he hasn’t been able to keep playing golf and longed to get back into it. ECL has been able to make this dream a reality thanks to Steve.
Ian is an amazing sportsman. And his skills can transfer across a range of sports. When I realised Ian did archery, it opened the door to golf as the skills he needs for archery transfer. The skills needed to line up the shots are similar. Having seen Ian participate in archery I knew that he’d be good at golf.
To start off with we just tried putting and he was getting five out of six balls down the hole from 10 foot which is as good as a sighted golfer, so we went on from there to doing golf training in a sand bunker (a harder challenge) using a sand wedge. Within one hour he was matching the skills of a good, sighted golfer, certainly mine!
Ian’s other senses are so strong that he can hear the sand he’s picking up on the club as he hits the edge of the bunker and from that he can judge how hard to hit the ball. It was amazing how well he was doing so from there we went to the golf driving shack, which is a computerised driving range, and he hits 88 yard dead straight shots which is fantastic!
Now he’s learnt all the elements of golf, and the weather is nicer, we’ve done a full golf day which was absolutely brilliant. I’d like our next challenge to be a competition! One of my ECL colleagues runs a golf club for people with Parkinson’s and I am hoping to arrange for Ian to play with them and perhaps have a mini competition!
Speaking of the support he receives from ECL Ian said: “I am really impressed with ECL, they’re so good. Everything that Theresa and Steve do with me is great. Steve’s been helping me get back into sport which I’ve loved.
“When I first contacted ECL, I couldn’t believe it really as when I was a young man there was no such thing as specialist support for blind people. You were just shoved in with sighted disabled people really and had to get along with it. It’s great now that people and organisations are more sensory aware and that they cater for the blind more. It makes everything more accessible to me.
“Having ECL come in on a Monday and Wednesday is just fantastic – I’d love to have them for another day too, as they’re so brilliant!”
In addition to golf, Ian and Steve do a range of activities together. At the start of the year, the pair created a list of all the things that interest Ian and planned the activities they could explore together. The spring and summer section had 40 items on it, and they’ve already completed nearly 30 of them!
A lover of football, one of the items on his wish list was to go to a Colchester United game. Steve made this happen with the added bonus of a stadium tour which Ian loved.
Ian is also a lover of birds and nature - he likes flower gardens because he can touch and smell all of the flowers. Recently Steve took him to Bury St Edmunds Abbey Gardens.
If you have a chance to have their support give it a go. When you have a guide, you haven’t got to worry about anything because they are looking out for you.
Being independent and doing things on your own is great with your cane, but when you go into places on your own, sometimes people don’t see your cane whereas with a guide makes sure you are seen.
They are getting you a table (at restaurants), making sure the menu is read to you, asking what adjustments places can make to accommodate you etc. Plus, you have transport as well. You’re not limited, you can go to more places, and you are thereby more independent.
Ian and Steve are currently practicing their golf in preparation for the forthcoming competition and are excitedly planning what other items they can tick off their wish list for the remainder of the summer.
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