Time to get off the couch!

The Western Isles team has returned home after competing in the Natwest International Island Games in Guernsey last month. We had medal success with three silvers and two bronze, Kerry MacPhee taking two silvers along with Kyla MacKinnon and Catriona O’Carrol as part of the silver-winning women’s football team. Everyone I have spoken to so far thoroughly enjoyed the experience; the competition, the camaraderie and meeting people from such a range of islands made for a hugely rewarding trip.

Cancelled due to Covid in 2021, these Guernsey games now took place four years on from the previous outing in Gibraltar. Sports teams tend to move in cycles and this gap meant that the natural process of squad replacement and regeneration was interrupted. Consequently, ours was overall a very young team, with the vast majority making their Games debut. They delivered a raft of excellent performances, with a high rate of personal bests across a wide range of sports. Athletics, swimming and football were notably youthful in composition, and the levels of individual improvement in these sports was significant and hugely encouraging. The team management and WIIGA committee were fully aware that this was a developmental group, and their outstanding performances demonstrated great potential for ongoing progress and success.

The whole concept of the International Island Games is an admirable one: to foster links and friendship between small island groups across the world, encouraging sport participation and offering our best athletes the opportunity to compete in top class international sport. Having travelled to previous Games in Jersey and Gotland as a spectator, I really enjoyed the huge sense of occasion and atmosphere at the games, demanding and nerve-wracking for the team, but also a great social event, with around 3000 participants. Also, it’s a rare chance to visit places we’d maybe never otherwise see.

Our often criticised Comhairle must be commended for their vision and ambition in pursuing membership of the Island Games Federation, which they accomplished in time for the Western Isles’ first foray to Shetland in 2005. Local Authority support is ongoing, administrative and financial, without which our participation would not be possible. Iain GG Campbell does a superb job managing the whole operation, with all the logistical headaches involved. The individual team managers (all voluntary) also do a power of work, dealing with selection, training, performance and communication. As you’d imagine, the cost of sending a 100+ squad to Guernsey is fairly eye-watering, and we are hugely grateful to main sponsors Bakkafrost, and the many local businesses and community organisations throughout the Western Isles who make the whole thing possible – not forgetting the star turn from Peat & Diesel!
I’d say that sport is very well served in Uist and, for a small rural community, facilities are excellent. A running track, games hall, swimming pool, fitness suites, all weather parks and football pitches are all available. (…maintenance of Liniclate’s pitches could be better though!) The “Slàinte Mhath” scheme helps make these as affordable and accessible as possible, comparing favourably with equivalent mainland rates. In addition, Uist & Barra Sports Council has 25 affiliated clubs plus one association member, offering a great range of sports to the community. There must be something for everybody?! Therefore, with strong infrastructure in place, it’s something of an anomaly that, across the community and country as a whole, general fitness levels have fallen in recent times (elite athletes not withstanding!)

There’s always been a solid sporting culture in Uist, but I’d say this has been undermined by social trends recently. With the rose-tinted goggles in place, I remember spending practically all our time outdoors as youngsters. Mainly football, of course, but we’d play badminton in church and village halls, golf in any old field, table tennis at youth club and when Wimbledon was on, naturally, tennis. We were even into cricket, and you’d have a whole squad donning the whites down behind Columba Place. Our grasp of etiquette wouldn’t cut the mustard at Lords though, especially Ali Grant, who’d smash the stumps with his bat when out. Gasps of horror from the pavilion! Kids and teenagers were much more active, and it was exactly the same in every village and township. Consequently, fitness levels were certainly higher than today’s norm. It’s not that people made conscious and sensible lifestyle choices, it was simply that there was no alternative, and we didn’t know any different.

Modern life offers a huge range of leisure options and lifestyle is becoming increasingly sedentary in nature. I guess TV has always been the leading driver of couch potato culture and this has been amplified by the arrival of internet and its spin-offs. Many are unable to function without constantly checking their phones and social media is an addiction for an awful lot of people. Watch a big sporting event on telly and, as the camera swings over the crowd, you see the blanket of mobiles busily filming, solely for the purpose of posting rather than getting on with enjoying the sport. Bonkers!

So, for all the good work that’s been done on sport development, the unfortunate situation is that a significant cohort have drifted away from sporting and physical activity. For many people exercise doesn’t appear on the radar and this isn’t good from any health perspective. Numerous social and cultural factors influence this trend. Education, lack of investment and poor infrastructure are cited nationally, but in the Western Isles at least, we have been pretty well catered for in those areas. Opportunities are here but personal lifestyle choices often lead elsewhere.

Several years ago, the Health & Sport Team at Liniclate launched a scheme promoting personal fitness programmes. Open to all, participants were individually assessed and monitored, and training programmes were drawn up tailored to their personal abilities and needs. All in all a great initiative, and 95 people signed up to the scheme. Two months down the line, the number keeping it going was in single figures. You can take a horse to water?

It’s often difficult to get a good lifestyle balance and sport is a great way to improve all round health. I’ve done a wee bit of running recently and sometimes it’s tough going. It’s rewarding though, with a lot of satisfaction when you perservere and get your run finished. I occasionally do the park run also, and the support and encouragement from fellow runners keeps you going. There’s a wide range of abilities taking part, and once Seonnaidh and the serious runners disappear over the horizon, most continue to slog their way round. You don’t have to be particularly good to enjoy your sport and a little perseverance brings rewards. You’ll find the exact same scenario playing out across the many Uist sports clubs referred to earlier. The quality athletes are there, and they raise the bar and inspire, but all abilities will be welcomed and encouraged.

The final word goes to all the volunteers, coaches and helpers supporting local sport. My involvement with Uist & Barra Sports Council has opened my eyes to the numbers contributing, giving up their free time, often with personal expense incurred, to keep their clubs running. They deserve everybody’s gratitude and support.