Finding strength, connection and belonging through wheelchair rugby 

For Toby, wheelchair rugby has changed what he thought sport could be.

“I’ve been coming here for about seven years,” he says. “I used to do swimming before this and I used to think it was kind of boring because it was just me. I’d never really experienced a sport where there was a team dynamic.”

At Solent Sharks, Toby has found much more than a weekly sporting activity. He has found a team, a community and a place where being disabled is not seen as a limitation.

Based in Southampton, Solent Sharks is a community wheelchair rugby club offering training and competition to people aged 12 and over with a permanent physical disability. The club has grown from its beginnings in 2012 to more than 30 members and now competes across several disciplines of wheelchair rugby.

Wheelchair rugby is a fast-paced, full-contact team sport played by two teams of four. Players use specially designed wheelchairs to manoeuvre around the court, pass and carry the ball and score by crossing the opposition’s try line. The sport is tactical and physically demanding – and, as Toby puts it, there is plenty of opportunity to “smash and bash people!”

For someone who has grown up with a disability, that can be surprisingly liberating.

“Being born disabled, you’re pretty much coddled and thought of as a bit fragile,” Toby explains. “But when you come here, it sort of throws that idea out the window.”

That sense of freedom and capability is at the heart of what Solent Sharks offers its members. Twice-weekly training sessions give players the opportunity to develop their physical skills and confidence, while also building friendships and a sense of belonging.

For many disabled people, opportunities to take part in sport alongside others who understand their experiences can be limited. Solent Sharks provides a space where members can meet people like themselves, challenge perceptions about disability and discover what they are capable of.

One member describes the experience as giving them a “feeling of empowerment, capability and normality in a world where disability is deemed as a weakness or flaw.”

That is why funding for inclusive sport matters. It is not simply about providing access to a sports session. It can create a doorway into friendship, confidence, community and a sense of possibility.

Through HIWCF’s Get Active, Get Involved grant programme, Solent Sharks has received £5,500 in funding since 2023, through two grants supporting its training and activity. The programme is HIWCF’s dedicated sports and wellbeing fund, helping people across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to access community sport and physical activity.

For Solent Sharks, that support helps make twice-weekly training possible at Solent Sports Complex at Solent University, led by coaches and volunteers.

And for members like Toby, it helps ensure there is somewhere to go, people to meet and a team to be part of.