Living with Cerebral Palsy

A month ago, a seven year old with CP came into our martial arts school as recommended by his nerologist. His family wanted to know if we could train him. Charles would barely use his left arm and leg and could not stand. Being trained in several different styles of martial arts from Tae kwon Do to Grappling we formed a training program of 30 minutes a day, three times a week, emphazing him using his left side more.

We train him the same as the other children with the exception of using a screama stick that he holds on to while doing stances. We keep him up right as much as possible either holding onto the stick or wall mounted side bar. Each week I notice that he uses his left leg and arm more to point of being able to break the 2nd level of re-usable breaking boards with both hands and feet.

My fellow instructor and I look forward to each class as Charles never quits, never complains (except when his parents take him home), and never fails to do his best. He is a joy to teach as he puts everything he has into his training. His parents informed us he cannot wait to get to class, but then why not, what other school actually lets its students yell, kick, punch and break things?