Welsh Bockers Get Off the Ground

Setting up a sports club is challenging enough, but imagine trying to set up a club for a sport that not many people have heard of, doesn’t have many participants and isn’t even officially recognised as a sport.

That is exactly what Matthew Lock, Jonathan Davies and Iwan Lewis are doing, having founded Welsh Bockers in 2006 – currently the only bocking club in the UK. Bocking, or powerbocking, named after the man who invented it, is a truly 21st century sport having only been around since 2003, and involves running, jumping and performing acrobatics while wearing spring-loaded ‘stilts’. Using only their weight, and a few movements, bockers are generally able to jump 3–5 ft high and run at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour.

The club, based in Cardiff, started with 16 members and has grown to 35 over the last three years with a base in Swansea as well. Around 85% of the members are aged between 14 and 16, with many of them not having tried bocking prior to joining the club. Matthew explains that, “Most of these young people don’t enjoy the more traditional sports such as football, rugby and hockey, and so were attracted by the fact that bocking is so different. Welsh Bockers gives them the opportunity to try something new, without having to buy expensive equipment. And the sport doesn’t require costly facilities either.”

As you might expect, having worked so hard on something close to his heart, Matthew struggled with delegating tasks and responsibilities to other people. He explains, “From day one it had mostly been the chairman and me taking on all the roles and responsibilities. We were keen to ensure that the club was set up and run how we had envisaged and found it hard to delegate tasks, deciding that it would be easier to do it ourselves. Whilst we could cope in the early stages, as the club has grown it has become impossible!”

They realised that they couldn’t continue being so self reliant, so they decided to set the club up properly and started to research club committees and constitutions. Matthew continues, “We had no idea of the roles we needed or the legal requirements for clubs. The majority of the resources we found seemed to be aimed at helping clubs who were far more established; www.runningsports.org was the only website we found that actually helped with setting a club up.”

Upon discovering the runningsports website, Matthew signed up free of charge as a Network Member to access the wealth of runningsports resources. “The single biggest help we’ve gained from runningsports so far is the Role Outlines. They have been invaluable to us for explaining what the responsibilities are of the various volunteer roles. The runningsports resources are easy to use and understand - we were able to take the Role Outline Word templates and adapt them to suit our club’s requirements.”

runningsports’ Role Outlines are the most popular free downloads on the website, with over 10,000 downloaded in the last two years. They help volunteers and volunteer co-ordinators to understand what’s expected of them and what roles are required for a club to run successfully. They are a great resource for all clubs, providing a template suggesting who the volunteer should be responsible to, the skills required to fill the role, and the main duties of the role. With concise role outlines agreed by all, the way ahead can be clearer for everyone in a club.

In fact, Matthew took it one step further, “Not only did we use the role outlines to establish responsibilities for committee members and existing volunteers, but they also helped us to see what roles we were missing. We had dismissed some roles as being irrelevant to us, but actually, after reading the Role Outlines, we realised that there were some additional roles we required. We are now in the process of introducing a Welfare Officer as a result of learning of the importance of the position from the runningsports Role Outlines.”

Nowadays, the club now has a more established structure and sufficient volunteers, each with a clear role outline, to take care of the day-to-day running of the club, freeing up some of Matthew’s and Iwan’s time to further develop the club, as Matthew explains, “As members turn 16, we now encourage them to help out at the club as well as participate. We work hard to keep them involved and help them to understand what has to be done in order for the club to function. We guide them through new roles, so no one is ever daunted by a new task and we also offer training, not only in areas such as first aid, but also relevant gymnastics or trampolining courses which will develop their bocking skills.”

Matthew realises that the volunteers have had a huge impact on the club, as well as the sport, “We now rely more and more on our volunteers, without whom the sport wouldn’t develop and the club wouldn’t survive - because the sport is new, it needs to constantly be pushed and we need the passion and support of our volunteers behind the club in order to keep it moving forward.”

“The runningsports resources have helped us to establish a solid base from which to continue to grow not only the club, but the sport as well. Our vision is that there will one day be a National Bocking Association, nationwide competitions and a bocking club in every county.”

And although achieving this vision might still be some years away, Matthew appreciates the fact that there are other runningsports resources to help him increase membership, apply for grants and maximise the club’s funds, many of which can be accessed free of charge from this website.