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The Family Taking Rivalry To A New Level In Tokyo

31st August 2021

bbc.co.uk/ouch/podcast

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Presented by Beth Rose

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jingle-

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Sounds: music, radio, podcasts.

jamie-

If you lost that day that affected your mood for an entire week. There’s not a worst person to lose to than your brother.

scott-

My first experience with the ramp was a piece of guttering from B&Q.

beth-

Be honest: how frustrated did you get with your friends and family during lockdown? Well, the McCowan family in Scotland took it to a whole new level. Brothers Scott and Jamie, who both have Duchenne muscular dystrophy, play boccia for ParaGB, a game not too dissimilar from petanque, requiring tactics and focus. Their parents, Linda and Gary, just so happen to be their ramp assistants, splitting the family exactly in half.

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You’re listening to ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Ouch with me, Beth Rose, and this episode is all about boccia as the brothers go head to head for gold in Tokyo. But even getting to the games was a headache, from shielding due to coronavirus to turning their lounge upside down so they had somewhere to practise, and the inevitable arguments and sulks when games were won and lost. There’s quite a cast of characters in this episode so I’ll let them introduce themselves.

SCOTT-

I’m Scott McCowan. I’m a BC3 and I’ll be competing in the individuals and the pairs.

GARY-

Hi there, I’m Gary McCowan, Scott’s dad and ramp assistant.

JAMIE-

I’m Jamie McCowan. I’m BC3 and I’ll be competing in the individuals and pairs in Tokyo.

LINDA-

Hi, I’m Linda McCowan. I’m Jamie’s ramp assistant and his mum.

BETH-

Got that? Great, let’s begin. And I started off by asking Scott to explain what exactly boccia is.

SCOTT-

Essentially boccia is similar to bowls in some ways, except it’s an indoor sport with leather balls that are quite soft, so it’s maybe a bit more like French boules or petanque in that sense. But it’s a target ball sport so you have to get your ball closest to the white ball or the jack. That’s the simple gist of it.

BETH-

I was going to say is it quite tactical?

SCOTT-

Yeah, it gets really complicated because obviously, depending on your opponent, we all have different depths of balls and different types of equipment, so there’s quite a variation in styles of play as well. You have to be thinking a few shots ahead sometimes.

BETH-

And I know you mentioned you are in the BC3 category, but Jamie, what does that even mean?

JAMIE-

BC3 basically means we use a ramp to propel the ball. So, anybody that can’t physically throw the ball they would go into the BC3 category. And that’s a mix of disabilities, so it could be cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy like ours, so it’s quite a wide range and spectrum of disabilities. Essentially the main distinction is the ramp, so we have other throwing categories. I was fortunate enough to have done both, BC4 and BC3. Although it’s the same sport each category is very different in terms of style of play and obviously different shots available and the way people play the game.

BETH-

I did see in a video that you did that I think when you first tries a ramp someone literally went to B&Q and got some guttering, cut it in half and there was your ramp. I’m imagining the Paralympics is a bit fancier with that?

SCOTT-

Yeah, my first experience with a ramp was a piece of guttering from B&Q. And nowadays obviously there’s a lot more money involved and we have our special carbon fibre ramps that are designed with much more precision now.

BETH-

Are there particular specifications for a ramp? Does it have to be a certain length or a certain width?

SCOTT-

Yeah, basically it has to fit inside a boccia box. There are some more slightly unforgiving rules, but basically it has to be a certain size. So, you couldn’t have a really tall one that could play a shot at a ridiculous amount of power.

BETH-

And I know you have your glamorous ramp assistants.

JAMIE-

Yes.

BETH-

Who happen to be your parents. What’s it like for you, Linda and Gary, to be elite athletes now?

LINDA-

I don’t think we think we’re elite athletes actually, but I guess we are!

GARY-

I think because we’ve done it for so long you get to the stage where it just becomes the norm because if he goes to training you need to go training with them, so you just get used to it. You don’t think it’s any different now because you’ve become an elite athlete. You know you’re going to these things but it just becomes a norm.

JAMIE-

Mum and dad are being a bit modest. Having a ramp assistant’s job is crucial. You can’t be a top BC3 athlete if the relationship and the partnership isn’t right with the assistant, because you only get in singles six minutes to play six balls, so we’re at the stage where I’ll say a word to my mum and she’ll know exactly where the ramp’s to go. Because sometimes you have to move your ramp at different angles, and so if the communication is not right a lot of violations can happen, and so the speech is really important.

Ìý

I think what’s quite interesting about the relationship as a four I kind of think sometimes there’s a time and a place for the mother and son relationship comes in, and then there’s another bit where it’s a switch and it’s like ramp assistant and the athlete. It’s quite funny, a lot of the time you say mum and dad second after saying ramp assistant.

LINDA-

That’s just the way it is: you’re a mum and you’re a ramp assistant.

SCOTT-

You really have to know the athletes inside out because conditions like ours, I can operate my chair, I can move my head, but short of that I can’t do much with my limbs. So, essentially everything that has to be done to get that ball into the ramp and get it propelled has to be done by my assistant. So, if you don’t know each other inside and out you’re going to lose valuable time, so it really is something that you have to work on for years I guess.

BETH-

I was thinking that because lots of people have great relationships with their parents, but at times you rub each other up the wrong way, don’t you? So, are you quite good in your head that if something horrible happens on court you’re not taking it back to dinner that night?

SCOTT-

Yeah, obviously you work with your teams and sport psychology and all these kinds of things to try and make sure that you’re speaking with people in the right way and dealing with setbacks. But obviously at the same time I think the four of us know we can maybe be more honest with each other than we would be with other team mates. But yeah, you have to make sure that when something happens you can park it and move on. But I think one of the benefits is the fact that the ramp assistants aren’t allowed to communicate on the court.

JAMIE-

That’s always quite an interesting dynamic in the training because that’s the time where assistants will ask about certain shots. But I think when you’re in the competition there’s nothing more reassuring than when you have the whole family out there. When you come back after a setback, you’ve had a tough game, we’ve all lost matches that we’ve felt we should have won, and I think when you go back to the apartment and your mum, dad and your brother’s there it’s actually a really good thing to have someone that knows you that well. As Scott said, it’s that honesty that’s the key bit; and nobody knows you better than family. Like any great sports partnership you have to work at it, and I think that involves a bit of my mum saying to me, you could have done this better, or I could say, we could have done this more efficient. But then when it all comes down to it you’ve got that switch and it becomes family again and we support each other. So, I think it’s a really interesting dynamic.

BETH-

Jamie, obviously you’re both in the BC3 classification and you both have muscular dystrophy, but how does that impact you?

JAMIE-

There have certainly been challenges over the years with obviously having Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It’s that idea of it being a muscle wasting condition; you have to work very hard to stay as fit and able as you currently are because the idea is that if you don’t use the muscles they weaken and you lose the ability. I exercise pretty much every day to try and keep in the best shape I can. Boccia is probably one of the only sports we could play at a very high level. It just goes to show how accessible a sport it is. It is a challenge but I think we show on a daily basis, myself and Scott and us as a family amazing things can be achieved with it. Sometimes with disability maybe you look at a medical description, it always seems quite negative to me, but actually the thing about it is you need to look at what you can actually do with the condition.

BETH-

You obviously do quite intense exercise very frequently; has that helped do you think with your condition?

JAMIE-

Absolutely. With my limited medical knowledge I’m just going on my life experience, and I know I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in now if I wasn’t using a hand bike, a neck harness that we use, different types of exercise bands. All these small percentages all make a difference. When you’re in a competition they all give you that extra energy. The life benefits are incredible. I was told a lot as a child a lot of things you couldn’t do. I think we’re just kind of proving that wrong to be honest.

BETH-

And how much training do you do in an average day? I know it’s probably ramped up quite a lot because of the games, but how often are you playing the game or in the gym or with your teams?

JAMIE-

Overall with psychology, exercise, training we’re doing something every day. We had a successful preparation camp where we trained Monday to Friday, so I was playing every day for a lot of hours, a lot of matches. Whereas maybe a local training you might do less the next week. So, it does vary. But certainly we’re involved in some sort of boccia preparation every day.

BETH-

And obviously last year it went a bit awry for everyone. Scott, tell me a bit about what happened when coronavirus came into our lives?

SCOTT-

It was interesting because when it all kind of first happened when the first lockdown started that was when we came back from a competition down at Stoke Mandeville. So, we were playing against the Portuguese. And even when we went to that one we were a little bit worried about it because we’d had the first cases in the country, so it was a bit of a scary time. And then we got home and because Jamie and I are on the vulnerable list we were really concerned, so we didn’t do any training. That all stopped; it was all done in the house. So, we were basically training twice a week in the living room playing each other, on a smaller court because it was only half the size, we had to play, be careful about the television or bump into things. It was a strange time. It was obviously very difficult because we were all together and mum and dad had to basically care for us on their own because we just didn’t want to take the risks and things. But I think the fact that we had our sport and we had regular video calls with the squad and we were always doing things that kept us going and gave us something to aim for.

BETH-

Yes, Linda tell me about the decision to turn your living room into a boccia court.

LINDA-

That was all we could do. At first we didn’t manage to get us all in the living room court, but after about six weeks we eventually worked out that if we moved some more furniture we could play together and play each other. And that was easier because then we could train at the one time. We were very busy. It was probably Gary and I’s busiest time because we had to do everything. So, I think that made that a bit easier; so we played twice a week in the living room. That also had its advantages because you could to see to things like your dinner or prepare the tea in between games. So, that did help because I think we had so much to do. It was hard, but once we sorted that out it was just second nature.

Ìý

It was obviously a worry because we couldn’t go anywhere either. And as we’re a team of four if one of us got it we’re likely all going to get it, so that affected the whole squad as well. We just had to do without anyone coming in and couldn’t go out. But I’m quite happy with the end result.

BETH-

Gary, how was it with the family relations? Because I feel like most families coronavirus was a bit of a tinderbox at times, and if you’re adding in the daily strife of coronavirus and then practising for a huge competition what did that do?

GARY-

Well, you have your [inaudible 11:59]. You’re just living in a bubble the four of you, just doing the same thing week in week out, which is hard. We are quite fortunate where the weather was nice and we had a back garden, so you could get out in the back garden which was a bonus. And of course the boys, because there are two of them and they’re playing the same sport, the competition, which again was massive, to get games and proper games and proper games was a big advantage to us.

BETH-

I’m imagining you are quite competitive brothers.

JAMIE-

We’ve been told that a few times!

SCOTT-

I think that would be an understatement.

BETH-

Jamie, what’s it like to live with one of your biggest rivals? And do you share tactics?

JAMIE-

It’s kind of strange. On the one hand we’re team mates and we play in pairs with our team mate, Beth, that’s a trio; but in singles you’re competing against each other. We share a court every day so I can’t really hide any new tactics from him. If we play each other at the British championships or something I know what he’s going to do and he knows what I’m going to do. We love it to be honest. It’s like any brothers: I want to come out on top every time I play Scott and he’s the same with me. And to be honest even though we were just playing matches in the living room if you lost that day that affected your mood for the entire week. There’s not a worse person to lose to than your brother. And I think we came out of lockdown because we had that competitiveness actually feeling quite sharp. Sometimes when you play in a confined space like your living room where you’re playing very close to your opponent there’s not really anywhere to hide, so you’ve always got that pressure. So, when you have that when you come out the other side it just gives you that advantage.

Ìý

Whilst we were both in the singles competition I want to be first. If ever there was a time where I go out and then want Scott to win it. But whilst we’re both in the competition you know obviously I’d rather he was below me and vice versa. But as soon as I go out or he goes out we support each other and want the other one to be as successful as they can be.

BETH-

Do you think you’ve learnt the art of good winning and losing?

JAMIE-

I definitely need to improve the art of good losing a bit more, especially against Scott. We always say well done and then we move on. But there were a couple of moments where I was absolutely devastated to have lost. It doesn’t get any easier.

SCOTT-

He’s definitely lying somewhat. We don’t just say well done and move on; we revel in it for days on end, especially during lockdown when there was nothing else to get excited about. That’s how we started. The first few games I won, but then Jamie won 12 in a row, and I’d never lost anywhere near 12 in a row in my life and I was a mess. By the end of it I couldn’t put one ball in front of the other. But eventually when we finished the lockdown matches I came out top overall. It was not good when you were losing.

JAMIE-

If ever that happens, you’ll have had that before where we’ve put each other of the semi-final of the British championships where somebody’s missed out, and I think we’re always there to support that person that loses.

BETH-

Linda and Gary what’s it like for you as parents? You are in your pairs but you’re mum and dad to the other one as well.

LINDA-

Yeah, obviously you have to beat everybody to win the competition so if I can’t beat Gary and Scott you’re not going to go very far so I think you just know that’s what you’ve got to do. And I think because we’ve all been in I think that’s probably made it easier. I think we’ve known that from the start. It’s more exciting playing each other. But you’ve just got to stay focused and forget about the other side. Obviously if we win, which usually will be the case…

jamie-

[Laughter] Fighting talk!

LINDA-

If we won and they lost or vice versa as soon as that happens it changes, you spur them on a bit to the end and medals. It changes for Gary and I, I don’t think it changes for these two, but I think it comes down to yeah, I’m still their mum. Sometimes I’ mike, I’m still a Scottish mum.

BETH-

Gary, has it brought out a competitive side in your marriage?

GARY-

The dads are the worst.

LINDA-

Yes!

GARY-

Obviously you want to win. I’m probably worse than Scott. I detest losing. Even in training I just detest losing. But as Jamie said, we’ve been playing pretty well, and we’re pretty confident so I think we’ve got a great chance.

Ìý

But to go back to your question about if somebody wins gold and somebody finished fourth, I would settle for one gold. That’s the goal, that’s where we want to be: we just want a medal.

JAMIE-

What an amazing occasion your whole family is on the court. Who can say they get to do that? Obviously there have been a lot of brothers in sport over the years, but who can share the glory of winning or even the hard setbacks you get with your brother and your mum and dad? It’s just a unique situation for us. The whole family’s on the court in the British championship final. I think for us we’ve never really viewed it as a hard thing; it’s more an exciting thing and an achievement.

LINDA-

Yeah.

GARY-

I think the four of us are there is just massive, because the last time Jamie was playing over a major I can remember sitting in bed about four in the morning knowing he was playing, sitting and waiting on a WhatsApp message that came in about half four from the coach to find out how he got on. And that is the worst feeling ever. But the fact that we’re there and we’re experiencing it, we’re going through it with them, we’re living the dream.

BETH-

Have there been any different protocols you’ve had to go through because of COVID? I’m presuming you’re both double jabbed, and you probably go through quite a rigorous testing situation where you probably have to report back your results quite frequently. Is there anything else on top of that?

JAMIE-

Obviously the social distancing, testing every day. We’ve got an app that reports your health so that can maybe pick up on any symptoms, so that has to be completed every day. When you’re out there it’s a continuation of that. It’s quite good going into the games in the sense that we’ve had a lot of past experience of that anyway at our training camps. And actually there are things that we’ve got from that; the amount of video calls that we’ve done is far more than we’ve done in the past, and actually it’s probably more time effective at times.

Ìý

Where else it’s been different there are things we’ve probably learnt. Training in the living room; if you were to ask me what that would do to your training playing that many matches during the wintertime, which is normally the reverse, you’d be a bit like, well I don’t know if that will be a good thing. We were able to keep ourselves mentally sharp and the competition is still there. You’re actually ahead of the game when you return to proper full training.

BETH-

Do you think you’ll keep playing games in the living room or has that been packed away never to return?

JAMIE-

I think certainly nothing beats playing a game on a full court. But maybe before, during the winter when we wouldn’t have played many matches, it’s more technical stuff. But I do think there is probably something there in the sense of keeping the competition going, even the odd times during the technical phases, something to keep you sharp.

BETH-

And the big question for you, Scott, who’s the country to beat?

SCOTT-

I would always say that we’re the country to beat. A lot of the usual suspects, like Greece and Koreans, they’ve always been top rivals for us [inaudible 19:00] so there’s just a lot of strength and depth in our category. You could make a case for almost anybody.

Ìý

[Music]

BETH-

Fingers crossed to both pairings in their competitions. If you’ve liked this episode we’ve got a few others about the Paralympic Games, so make sure you subscribe to the podcast. And keep in touch with us on Twitter we’re @bbcouch, Facebook ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Ouch, and you can email us too, ouch@bbc.co.uk. Speak to you soon.

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