Paul Jenkins thought he was coming to the end of his coaching career when he received the ultimate boost. After coaching for nearly 10 years, numbers were dwindling at his team, the South Wales Pirates wheelchair rugby club, and Paul was losing some heart. “I love coaching but my morale was down when I was asked to coach the Invictus Games wheelchair rugby team. They won gold and it was the pinnacle of my coaching career.”
Dad of one Paul says it was also the new challenge that reinvigorated his enthusiasm. “It offered me a different side to coaching; the players had had different traumas and some had limbs missing. Others hadn’t used a wheelchair before. We had them for just 10 sessions over three months,” says 58 year-old Paul, who lives near Bridgend. The team’s spectacular win is certainly testament to Paul’s expertise and not just luck.
After a career as an instructor in the Welsh Guards, Paul left the army and suffered a motorbike crash which rendered him tetraplegic. In 1990 he took up wheelchair rugby to keep active and was hooked. “It meant I could learn how much I could do without assistance. It helped me with the pent up tension and frustration you can get when you are in a wheelchair.” Paul then forged a successful sports career, competing in the 1996 Paralympic Games before deteriorating shoulder function forced his retirement in 2000.
Luckily coaching suited Paul and his players very well. He’s since coached the South Wales Pirates to national success, and several players to the Paralympics. “I really enjoy the sport and will go anywhere to coach it. You have to have an element of fun and earn the respect of those you’re coaching. It’s also important to be able to take criticism – dictators don’t last very long!”
Paul adds that different disabilities require expertise in integrating players successfully. “It’s easy to motivate someone who is interested in sport. If they aren’t then I’ll make sure the session is less physical and aggressive to encourage them, so they’ll think, ‘I can do that’.”
Despite his inspiring career, Paul couldn’t believe his nomination as Coach to Disabled People and took some convincing. “I thought it was a wind up at first. I read the letter through and through, and even the signature, thinking that someone could have put it on there, until my wife told me it was true.”
