"Let’s Kick the Disease”: Karate and Rehabilitation. A pilot Study

Problem statement: Specific movement patterns are often deeply limited in disability but naturally understood and acquired as specific basic skills in normal athletes. Delayed learning of motor gestures is one the main causes of execution difficulty that is observed in athletes with disability. Approach: A group of patients suffering from mild-moderate cognitive-intellectual-relational disability was recruited in order to be treated with karate exercises as a method of training, education, inclusive-integrated teaching and rehabilitation. The content of the exercises was organized, over seven months of observation, on working protocols concerning certain natural and specific positions of Karate based on equilibrium, use of lower limbs, agility, praxis and postural patterns. A specific stabilometric platform (SP) was used in the study (Balance System SD, Biodex Medical Systems Inc., Shirley - New York) to measure and improve balance, load displacement, ROM of specific movements and proprioception. The Illinois agility test and the Florida Apraxia Screening Test – (FAST) were used to increase speed and improving apraxic and attention components respectively. Purpose: In order to increase the physical performance of individuals, optimising coordination and motor patterns that are impaired in disability, project objectives and strategies were proposed. Inclusive teaching and specific rehabilitation were incorporated. The protocol allowed participants to practice positions with a dynamic method rather than a static one. The aim was to transfer postural mechanical load and motor activation to the left half of the body, to compensate excess of body permanence in the right area at the SP test in order to facilitate learning abilities that are usually lacking in this type of disability. Results: For each one of the eight subjects, after administration of the exercise protocol on specific positions of the discipline, a balance inclination from right quadrants towards left quadrants respect to initial average was observed. The results confirmed an improvement in all components of the exercises proposed, with consequent neuroplasticity phenomena, even where multiple intellectual deficits coexisted. Conclusions: The observed improvements were of motor and sensory-cognitive nature. Karate can be considered a means of maintaining specific skills and a rehabilitation tool in disability cases