This Volunteers Week, we are celebrating those in the cycling community who are continuing to do incredible things. Today, we speak to Special Olympics Cycling Head Coach Tom A'hara about he is adapting his volunteer coaching during lockdown.

Have you been continuing to volunteer during lockdown and COVID? 

Yes, but not quite in the same way. Direct coaching has had to stop for the moment but other work has continued with Zoom meetings and phone calls replacing the typical Special Olympics Scotland West (Vice Chair) and SOS (Treasurer) committee meetings. As the SOGB Technical Delegate I would typically be attending venue meetings in Liverpool for the scheduled August 2021 National Games and now these have been general fact-finding phone calls. Likewise, the scheduled 2020 National Cycle event in Tameside scheduled for later this month was cancelled in April as it fell into the suspension in line with British Cycling guidelines. My time allocated to organising that has not been utilised but work on a potential 2021 event is already underway.

Work on the 2021 Liverpool Games has now also come to a halt as this event has had to postponed until more information is known on the longer-term impact of any future COVID requirements on events, travel and social gatherings for such a large event (3500 athletes and coaches).  

The Virtus (INAS) games were due to be in Portugal in July and these have been postponed and alternatives are being reviewed including virtual competitions for later this year. So yes, I am still volunteering but in different less hands on way and currently with a much lower intensity. 

There are a few personal benefits to the reduced hands on volunteering. Since Athens in 2011, I have volunteered at an international event every year and more recently 2 events a year (Virtus and SO Olympics) so the downtime will allow my bank balance to recover enough that I should be able to continue volunteering for a while longer within SO. 

Have you had to adapt the work you do (volunteering) to fit around lockdown and restrictions? 

Coaching for the SOSW team has been most directly impacted. I have been coaching some of the athletes weekly since 1996 for the 1997 Portsmouth Games with many of these years with the only coaching break being while we are at events, so personally a break from the routine was welcome. After a few weeks that attitude changed as reality sort of “set in”. We have an active WhatsApp coaching group for passing on information to team members and their family and this has allowed me to continue to keep in contact in an informal way with many of the SOSW team members, but not all have access to technology and we may lose contact with some. 

The WhatsApp group has allowed us to initially ensure everyone was maintaining some basic level of activity and me only inputting some basic guidance where we could see athletes going in a direction that in longer term may not be benefitial.  

YouTube videos have been used to help focus athletes’ efforts with great resources from Bright Cycling and Global Cycling Network to provide some direction and athletes feeding back their video efforts via WhatsApp.  

As a Special Olympics club we can support the athletes who have the skills to ride on open roads but we can’t direct riders to venture out into live roads. With family support many will be using the quieter roads and cycle path network and I can use local knowledge to help direct families to the relevant facilities for that athlete.   

What has been the most challenging aspect? 

The biggest personal challenge for me is being aware of how some of our athletes will perceive the social distancing aspect of lockdown. With no external social interaction may feel as they are being punished or have done something wrong. This will be a challenge for the families and the carers to resolve. I can just make myself available to support the families, but that isn’t much in practicable terms.   

As time progresses, I have become aware that we need to re-establish a routine and set goals for the team to help support athletes and maintain our virtual social interaction between athletes and families. My current challenge is to restart a “virtual” club each week and find a social medium that the majority of our athletes will have some level of access to while being aware of vulnerable adult issues.  I am about to schedule a time slot for our first club meeting and will be using a GCN YouTube video to remind athletes how to carry out basic pre-ride bike checks. I will be setting the whole team a virtual collective challenge that they can do with family members and will include the athletes who don’t have access to cycling or turbo trainers etc.  

What has been the most rewarding or inspiring volunteering you have seen recently? 

As a direct outcome of the lockdown some of the athletes have been given the opportunity to get out into the road network and enjoy the low traffic levels. This has helped their personal development and confidence. The lockdown has opened up an opportunity for one of our young female athletes development. She has used lockdown to develope her fitness through turbo sessions, conditioning exercises and on road cycling to a level that when things get back to “normal” we are hoping that we get her involved in some mainstream TT events. This would be a great boost to her personal development and confidence.  

My challenge now is to try end ensure this athlete is rewarded for her efforts and get her included in the 2023 World Games team, not an easy task as its not all about her ability.  

Do you have any advice for the new people who have started riding bikes recently? 

My advice to any new rider hasn’t changed and that is just to enjoy whatever level of cycling you’re doing and keep challenging yourself  to improve your cycling skills and over all enjoyment. One benefit of the lockdown is the quieter roads offering opportunities for some riders to venture out into the extensive road and cycle network where previously traffic levels may have impacted on their journey.  

As a Chartered Civil Engineer help to develop cycle infrastructure working from within Cycling Scotland its great to see cycling opportunities’ grow through soft and infrastructure measures.