Martial arts towards rehabilitation of cerebral palsy (CP) affected people

Martial arts have a rich history, dating back many thousands of years ago. The arts developed not only in the eastern, but also in all parts of the world, with references of these types of combats...

The project was proposing a range of innovative techniques to stimulate and facilitate the implementation of martial arts as a rehabilitation technique. Our project aimed to use centuries old wisdom with modern 21st century education techniques to train CP (Cerebral Palsy) affected people so that they can be in control of their bodies, thereby better controlling their pain and their emotional and physical difficulties. The project also wanted to contribute with its outcomes to further vocational training (aligned to EQF level 4) for professionals, trainers, teachers and experts in the field of rehabilitation, sport and disability. The project aimed to formalise this via a handbook and an ECVET compliant training course (PR1) towards martial arts and the different intervention modalities required to apply them in rehabilitation. It was envisaged that dedicated videos (PR2) would be able to capture such rehabilitation exercises through martial arts, and that these would be embedded in online and mobile applications (Android, iOS) to support learning anywhere anytime.