LOWER SACKVILLE, N.S. – Before the warm-up started, Beckham Boutilier was already sprinting across the room, raising his legs high to stretch.
What are his favourite taekwondo moves?
“Doing the kicking, doing the punches,” the 12-year-old said.
He was one of eight students attending a class at Carr Taekwon-Do in Lower Sackville, N.S., for people with special needs Tuesday night.
“It’s been a hit,” said Robert Carr, the club’s master instructor. “It gives them an opportunity to do a program that they see many other people doing, and now they’re a part of it.”
The weekly class, which has been held twice already, was launched to meet a demand Carr said exists in Halifax Regional Municipality; the plan is to eventually expand the program.
Students, who are in their childhood and teenage years, are taught some of the basics of the martial art by instructors in a way that accommodates their disabilities and disorders.
Beckham’s parents said taekwondo is a good way for Beckham to socialize with kids his own age.
“With this, there’s no judging. It’s kind, everyone’s gentle and understanding on giving him a chance,” said his mom Crystal Boutilier.
She said his brothers have tried to get Beckham, who has learning and intellectual disabilities, to show off his moves outside of class, but he refuses to because he follows the rules.
“The streets are still safe,” she added with a laugh.
The required modesty doesn’t seem to be limiting Beckham’s ambition.
“I want to become a red belt because red’s my favourite colour,” he said.
Taekwondo is not an official Special Olympics sport. Annette Lynch, a senior manager at Special Olympics North America, wrote in an email to Global News that there has been a push for it to be added, and the organization is subsequently in process of piloting the sport in the United States.
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