Llandrindod Lakers: An Invitation to Play.

by guest author Jimi

I would like to invite you to play basketball with us. You’re probably thinking “don’t you need to be 7ft tall?” and the truth is no, you really don’t.

My name is Jimi and I run a social basketball group in Llandrindod Wells. As an adult on the autism spectrum, access to sports, especially competitive sports, has always been challenging. After what was a dark, difficult and strayed 24 years of my life, I was eventually diagnosed with autism less than a year ago and I remember how unhelpful and overwhelming the post-diagnosis support thrown at me was. I was also in a pit of depression and constant anxiety at the time and my bipolar was running free and naked in the boggy marsh of my mind.

Through many other coarse experiences with mental health services, I have found that they can be congested with inflexible bureaucratic principles, galactic waiting times, a lack of resources as well as education and empathy, mountainous referrals and far too clinical to make a real and natural connection with an individual. There is also an addict-like reliance on prescribing pharmaceuticals: the irony.

The signposting on signposting on signposting played out like Dr Seuss’ Green Eggs & Ham, except my ending left Sam-I-Am to his rare refreshment and I decided to go it alone to start writing a new book to break the cycle (neither literary nor literally, just to make that clear).

I’d been in this state too many times for too long, repeating the same patterns that I knew could lead to a fifth suicide attempt. I’d had enough and it was up to me to do something about it or rot. I set off with my figurative notepad and pen to discover what positivity and wellbeing meant to me. Now I must mention here that I didn’t start playing basketball again and my mental health problems disappeared overnight, I don’t want to say it would be impossible but (reluctantly) this would be impossible.

“Know thyself.”

After a men’s process work retreat facilitated by a very dear friend of mine, Scott McGregor, and his counterpart, Laurence Johns, I decided to completely unmask. Simply put ‘masking’ is a strategy many neurodivergent, especially autistic, people do to appear neurotypical in front of others and, in terms of energy and wellbeing, it is decimating.

For me, unmasking has been arduous yet rewarding and I’m still working through it. The retreat itself was at the height of last year’s summer set in the gorgeous hills of Llanafan Fawr, disconnected from the noise of modern life and totally wholesome. This part of my life was a major turning point and with the support of other vulnerable and beautiful men, it showed me that the answers and contentment I’ve been desperately trying to latch on to were actually within myself, not out to the exterior world or with material objects or romantic relationships. I’d been unwittingly running away from that truth my entire adult life.

Enter basketball.

I’ve always enjoyed playing since my friend introduced it to me in primary school. It was different to the other mainstream sports on the playground; the play was faster, more intense, more tactile and we didn’t need to face rejection, we could just pick up our ball and play. It was at the height of the Michael Jordan/Chicago Bulls fever that was gripping the globe and a popular interest in basketball was gaining traction here in the UK. Other kids soon took notice and, of course, we let them all join us.

Fast forward to 2023. I mentioned in passing to a then work colleague, now teammate, how I wished to play again: serendipity rides shotgun. He invited me to come along to play with a group down the road, the Builth Bulls, and after that first session back my fire was reignited.

Once a week could not sate my appetite for hitting those sweet buckets so a few of us ‘Llandodites’ decided to set something up closer to home and more regular throughout the week. Within a month I was finding a direct correlation between the progress I was making during practice and the progress in the rest of my life.

As more players were stepping onto our court, I kept thinking about all the other people in similar situations to me who perhaps felt that the system was letting them down, especially in a rural area such as ours. I feel obligated to do more to let them know that all their eccentricities, fears and insecurities are so welcome on our court. Basketball can take you through a lot of emotions and feelings; frustration and elation, fatigue and determination, inflation and deflation, anger and humour. It’s good to recognise them and work through them in a safe way. You work a lot with action and reaction which are very valuable tools you can then use out in the world beyond the court.

So this is what I’m offering my fellow neurodivergent peers; the opportunity to play in a space where it doesn’t matter who you are or what’s going on off the court, for an hour only basketball matters. A supportive environment to compliment whatever care or health journey you find yourself on. If you don’t relate to any of the issues I’ve spoken about, that truly is wonderful and of course you are welcome to play with us.

Psychologists and teachers say that children learn through play, but I find that to only be a half-truth: people best learn through play. I’ve learnt more about myself through sharing experiences where my sense of humour and curiosity can move freely and being inspired through connecting with others, Llandrindod Lakers has been a huge part of that and I hope anyone reading this will find their power within to do something new. Play.

Helping Mental Health With A Ball - a member's testimony

Becoming a resident to Powys in 2021 I had reached out to several sports and social clubs. Dishearteningly, most of which never got back to me. I re-attempted late 2023, predominantly from a physical health viewpoint and came across a post on a local group solution page regarding basketball. I’ve always been an admirer of the sport from afar but was typically pushed towards either football or individual workouts, for which I had no affinity.

Since joining, I’ve been taken aback of how much the group has helped mentally, from the initial welcome and the encouragement thereafter. I’ve found myself eager and excited for not only the session but week ahead. Which has translated to each aspect of my life. I’m proud to have found great friends here and an outlet for stress, anxiety and healthy competition.

Combining a welcoming group of local people with a sport that has a rich, diverse and inclusive history has surely been a winning experience for me.

Llandrindod Lakers have open basketball sessions on Mondays 6 – 7pm and 

Fridays 6.30 – 7.30pm at Llandrindod Wells Sports Centre.

Find out more on the Llandrindod Lakers' Facebook page.

The value of play to children's emotional wellbeing

by Rachel Maflin, Manager, Play Radnor

“Children need the freedom and the time to play;

play is not a luxury, play is a necessity.”

Kay Redfield Jamison

We know that allowing children time to play brings enormous benefits to children’s development. Play helps children to make sense of the world, through exploration, imagination and experience. It helps children to express themselves, regulate their emotions and cope with their feelings. Playing with others enables them to learn how their behaviour affects others and develop empathy.

Play is vital for a child’s emotional development in so many ways….

• Emotional resilience.
• Self-esteem.
• Self-confidence.
• Reduced anxiety.
• Self-worth.
• Understanding winning and losing.
• Exploring feelings.
• Self-expression.
• Empathy.
• Understanding the world they live in.
• Dealing with fear in a safe environment.
• Problem solving.

The benefits of play can be found in a wide range of play opportunities, such as:

• Playing outside e.g. swinging, climbing trees, running, jumping.
• Pretend play e.g. dressing up or den building.
• Adventurous play e.g. climbing, balancing, rope swinging.
• Group activities - playing with other people helps children express and control their emotions with others e.g. creating their own play ideas.

Activities don’t need to be expensive, the simplest stuff is often the best. We have a low cost / no cost approach using wherever possible loose parts – a variety of objects both natural and man made which can be used in a variety of ways. Loose parts play uses a range of resources that can be found both in nature and around the house, such as ….

• Cardboard boxes, paper, shredded paper.
• Materials – old sheets, duvet covers, shower curtain, wool, ribbons, old clothes for dressing up, bandages for role play.
• Buckets, tubs, tubes, pipes, containers of all shapes and sizes, funnels, plastic bottles, guttering.
• Kitchen equipment – mashers, whisks, pots, pans, sieves – mud kitchens.
• Sand, water, mud.
• Old phones, computer keyboards for role play.
• Crates, tarps, rope / string.
• Great outdoors for sticks, leaves, seeds, moss, shells, stones, pine cones, conkers, flowers, herbs e.g. potion making.
• Chalk, pens, pencils, etc.

‘When children interact with loose parts, they enter a world of “what if” that promotes the type of thinking that leads to problem solving and theoretical reasoning. Loose parts enhance children’s ability to think imaginatively and see solutions, and they bring a sense of adventure and excitement to children’s play.’    (Daly and Beloglovsky, 2015)

Loose parts create richer environments for children to play. As they are flexible, they can be used in a variety of ways, providing limitless opportunities. These play experiences promote imagination and curiosity, problem solving and independence, with children being able to choose their own direction of play.

With Christmas just around the corner, make a little space for play. Like your grandma used to say, they’ll leave the present and play with the cardboard box. It’s often the cardboard box that has the greatest amount of play value.

Play Radnor/Chwarae Maesyfed is a rural children’s charity that provides play, leisure and recreational opportunities for children and young people in Powys. We run a number of projects for children, young people and families both at our dedicated centre in Llandrindod Wells and through our outreach work. These include:

Play Rangers project: Delivering open access outreach play sessions on green spaces within local communities during school holidays.

Thumbs UP! Club: A project for families who have a child with a disability or additional need and their siblings. We run weekly sessions for children aged 5-11 and 12+.

Mud and Sticks: A Children in Need funded outdoor parent and toddler group (0-5) that meets in the woods for regular play sessions. Our aim is to inspire greater confidence in getting outdoors more as a family and develop strong relationships.

Toy Library: a low cost service enabling families to borrow toys and resources that encourage children's educational and social development. These include a wide range of physical, imaginative and multisensory resources.

Wildcraft: A twice weekly group for children aged 5-7 and 8-11 that offers opportunities for a variety of outdoor play. This could include campfire cooking, nature crafts, simple wood working, den making etc. We also run a monthly weekend session for parents and children to attend which offers low cost / no cost ideas for outdoor play.

Cooking Club: Sessions delivered in our community kitchen for a range of ages. Learning important life skills, cooking healthy and tasty food.

Stay and Play / Fun Fridays: Two hour play sessions for children aged 0-5 yrs and their parent/carer to have fun, play and socialise with others. Facilitated by volunteers.

Messy Play – Occasional sessions for parents and children aged 0-5 during school holidays and term time.

Play and mental health: mucky is good!

My colleague, Yvonne Owen-Newns, is the Children & Young People’s Facilitator at PAVO.  As part of her role she focuses on play, lucky person! I am seriously envious! Is she out playing Please Mr Crocodile, Freeze Tag or What’s the time Mr Wolf? while I’m busy emailing everyone the June issue of our mental health ebulletin….? I’m going to ask Laura if we can have play breaks in our team!

Anyway, Yvonne actually takes her work with play very seriously. She looks at the importance of play to children’s health and wellbeing, and works closely with a myriad of other organisations to ensure that the children of Powys have genuine opportunities to play. She recently went to Wrexham to check out some of the amazing children’s playgrounds they have developed there… they are more like the wild dens out in the woods that I recall playing in with such freedom and enthusiasm as a child… Lucky children of Wrexham!

Yvonne is helping to organise a conference on play on 25 June in Llanelwedd at the Royal Welsh Showground, and reading about the content of the day made me think more about the importance of play to children’s emotional wellbeing.

In 2012 Play Wales produced a report outlining the relevance of play to both physical and emotional wellbeing, with recommendations for the role of public health professionals in promoting play opportunities.

How playing contributes to children’s emotional well-being:

• Creating and encountering risky or uncertain play opportunities develops children’s resilience and adaptability – and can contribute to their confidence and self-esteem.
• Socialising with their friends on their own terms gives children opportunities to build emotional resilience, to have fun and to relax.
• Fantasy play allows for imagination and creativity, but it can also be a way of children making sense of and ‘working through’ difficult and distressing aspects of their lives. 

There is an increasing realisation of the importance of outdoor and what we might now think of as “risky” play…. How many parents would allow their youngsters to do as I did as a child – head off on my bike with my mates into a nearby wild woodland area with a large lake and build tree dens unsupervised? Instead young people sit in front of their electronic devices for hours on end… In the recently promoted Children’s Outdoor Charter of Rights there is a section on risk-taking which states: "Children have the right to learn from challenge, to experience failure as learning and to become confident and adventurous explorers of the environment. Safety concerns therefore need to be balanced with the child’s need to experiment and grow."

Journalist Rob Parr asked why fun is not taken more seriously in The importance of play in a recent Times Educational Supplement article. His piece outlines studies around play which “found that play-deprived children manifest responses on a scale ranging from unhappiness to aggression.” Several studies show clear links to criminality and reduced creativity, and Research Professor Peter Gray from Boston in the United States states: “what I think is the most dramatic effect of the play deficit: the increase in childhood depression and anxiety, and decrease in self-control…over the past half-century.”

And it seems play is, indeed, not just about having fun… it is a serious business, it’s about learning the skills for life, as outlined, again by Peter Gray, on Psychology Today in 2009. “A lively outdoor group game may be physical play, language play, exploratory play, constructive play, social play, and fantasy play all at once. Play, in all its forms combined, works to build us into fully functioning, effective human beings.” And children “playing strive to perform well, because performing well is an intrinsic goal of play, but they know that if they fail there will be no serious, real-world consequences, so they feel free to experiment, to take risks in ways that are crucial to learning."

                                                                                                                               

So… what plans are afoot in Powys to further develop play opportunities? Powys County Council has a statutory duty to “provide sufficient play opportunities” and to promote them. There is already a Powys Play Partnership which “aims to become a wide network of organisations and agencies (from statutory and voluntary sectors) who work with the communities in Powys and have an interest in developing more child led play for more families.” The partnership developed the Powys Play Pledge in 2013.

This latest conference will look at how agencies and groups can incorporate play into their services “using simple techniques and methods which will benefit the residents and visitors of Powys”. It will also address the subject of ‘Risk in Play’ – the myths, the issues, the barriers and the solutions.

Can you contribute and make a difference to play opportunities in Powys? And what do you think about the importance of play to children and young people’s emotional wellbeing?

Wednesday 25 June Play Conference: Managing Risk Playing More