Aquila Karate Club Breaks Down the Barriers 

Aquila Karate Club has been working hard with CREST (A club for people for people with disabilities) to deliver karate sessions. Following a 16-week block of training sessions at CREST and additional sessions organised by junior leaders, some adults have joined the mainstream sessions at Aquila. Class instructor, Mark Symonds, is working towards Derbyshire Coachmark, an accreditation scheme for coaches in the county, which demonstrates they are following good practice. He has also attended a number of locally run coach education workshops including Sports Coach UK Coaching Disabled Performers, which have been provided through the money received from Sport England’s Community Investment Fund. Mark hopes that other coaches will see how easy it is to integrate people with disabilities into coaching sessions.

One of the participants at CREST, Mark Tiso, has done exceptionally well and is now a member of Aquila and competes in mainstream competition. Aquila Karate Club would like to say a big ‘well done’ to Mark Tiso for demonstrating that Karate truly is for open to all. South Derbyshire District Council are looking to build on the success of their recently published Sport Club Directory by producing a Disability Sport Directory in partnership with Derbyshire Sport. The directory will detail all the disability and inclusive sporting opportunities in the district and will be an invaluable tool for those with disabilities who want to get more physically active but don’t know what’s available.
 

If you are interested in finding out more about Aquila Karate Club please contact marksymonds@aquilamanager.com, 07961993322