Laser shooting at the Deaf Academy in Exmouth

Last Wednesday Dan and I travelled to the Deaf Academy in Exmouth to deliver an introductory session on laser rifles and pistols. The opportunity came our way through British Shooting, because Pinhoe TSC is a British Shooting Disability Hub Club.

A day of firsts

We had twelve youngsters, all either profoundly deaf or with partial hearing, drawn from across the South West — some of them resident students at the academy. If I may use the term, it was a serious eye-opener.

Neither of us knows sign language, but we had a Deaf Olympic shooter as our interpreter, and signing was everywhere — between the young shooters, the interpreter and their parents. Lip reading was in use too, though it's not much help when you're stood side-on to a shooter on the firing point!

We took along a large colourful ball to roll onto the range as a "stop" command. We never needed it.

Quick learners

The session was full of learning and shooting — though in truth, us coaches did most of the learning while the participants did the shooting. None of them had any experience of target shooting, yet some were remarkably quick to pick up the skills, and one of them could be joining the South West Rifle Development Group here at Pinhoe.

Their concentration was really good — partly, I suspect, because they had few or no sounds to distract them. As a group they "listened" intently to instructions and carried them out as best they could. Everybody came off the range with a smile on their face.

It was a great experience for Dan and me, and there are plans afoot for another session sometime down the line.