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FIRST WORD - Healing |
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Squash Heals Lives
By Alan Thatcher
Contributing Editor
I am delighted to report that squash is one of the major activities in a new community sports club launched recently in Kent, UK.
The club is called TriSports and is aimed at helping disadvantaged young people in the community.
The organisation was certainly inspired by the urban squash programmes developing so successfully in the USA.
Our own version in the UK is aimed at young homeless and unemployed people. Our target is simple. We want them to get hooked on sport before they get hooked on any potentially harmful, unhealthy or anti-social habits.
The club was formed by several sports-loving individuals from different churches in Maidstone who shared a common vision of using sport to reach sections of the community who would probably run a a mile if you asked them to come to a Sunday morning service.
Now, running a mile is one of the disciplines used in our regular training programmes. The club has attracted a number of qualified coaches in a variety of different sports and our ultimate goal is to have our own clubhouse, sports field, indoor sports hall and, you've guessed it, some squash courts!
We have three football (soccer) teams which include young homeless people and others who are undergoing treatment for drug and alcohol dependency.
They love being part of a team, they attend training once or twice a week as well as playing matches at weekends, and the project is really taking off at an encouraging rate of knots.
The squash programme has seen some startling results in a number of young, unemployed, homeless people. What started as fun sessions have resulted in them using sport to deal with a number of health issues, including obesity. With nothing to fill in their long, empty days, it was not surprising that some of them ate vast quantities of unhealthy food and piled on the weight.
Many of them had not been exposed to squash before. Without exception, they fell in love with the game during the fun introductory sessions.
Then it was time to ratchet things up a gear or two and introduce some serious training routines, including the dreaded delights of court sprints,
Despite some initial grumbles, our young students knuckled down, built up the reps and suddenly found themselves fitter and healthier individuals who were making some serious lifestyle decisions about their food and drink intake. Many have lost enormous amounts of weight in the process, providing an enrichment of self-esteem and a hunger for more sport.
We are now planning an event schedule which includes league soccer (our teams play in the Kent Churches Football League), five-a-side competitions, and a week of full-time training in a variety of sports, including boxing and self defence.
We are also launching an annual Maidstone Mile as part of the massive Red Nose Day charity programme in March 2009. As well as running, the Mile will be open to BMX bikers, and kids on skateboards and inline blades.
We have already been approached to launch TriSports clubs in other towns in the region, and one of our immediate ambitions is to team up with some of the brave, unsung heroes in church organisations who are tackling drugs, knife and gun crime on the roughest estates in London.
Most of these kids who get into trouble come from broken homes and repeat abusive behaviour patterns internalised from childhood. Many of them simply need a Dad, or a significant male role model who can lead them out of a one-way street that often ends in a prison cell.
We like to think that the TriSports coaches fulfil those roles.
As one of the founding partners, I am delighted at the response and success of the project so far. We certainly know how to fill empty squash courts during off-peak hours, so if you would like more details, please get in touch.
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