Before the pandemic Ian who is supported in the Scottish Borders used to go to the local horse farm and to the radio station once a week but these hobbies stopped because of COVID restrictions. Ian also used to have a part-time job but with COVID was made redundant.

Losing these activities was challenging for Ian but recently he has added a new string to his bow of exciting hobbies—archery.

Ian’s neighbour has set up an archery club to teach others how to shoot a bow and arrow. So far Ian has been supported to go to the club three times now and is loving it.
Support Practitioner Carole commented;

“He is thoroughly enjoying it. Ian’s got good upper body strength and he’s not missed a target yet! He’s doing really well, I’m really impressed. I stand back and let him do as much as possible by himself—he gets a lot from it.”

In addition to firing arrows, he is also learning about the health and safety of archery. Ian sits behind the line to shoot and learns all about different aspects of the bow and how to string it correctly. He has learnt that he is “left eyed’ which means even though he is right-handed he shoots the bow best with his left arm.

Ian has been making such good progress with archery he is now able to shoot the target at a similar range to people who have been doing archery for a while. Carole explained;

“When he first started archery the target was ten feet away and now it’s at the other end of the room!”

Aside from it being a lot of fun and a great way of exercising his muscles, the social aspect of archery is another great benefit for Ian.

“He is engaging with others in the community and getting to know and interact with people he wouldn’t normally get to interact with. They are all pretty friendly and always help each other out.”

Ian explained what he enjoys the most about going to archery;

“I think the whole thing. Meeting new people and learning a new skill.”

If you would like to read more stories from the people we support you can click here.

You can read more about what the people we support, our colleagues and teams across Scotland have been up to in our Autumn Newsletter.