 Aspergers in Society is a Manchester-based documentary about the relationship between autism and mental health. Over the course of the filming process, I was introduced to a number of interesting autistic individuals, and struck by the quality of these experiences and opinions, I decided to create a behind-the-scenes video series to showcase these marvellous people. This is one of them. So question one, can you tell us a little bit about your role at the club and some of the important stuff you've done? So I'm the lead coach here at Horizon Tech one though, so I guess being older and more experienced, my role here is to lead the other coaches, to make sure that they are compliant with our ethos and all the various regulations that we need to do as a club. I also teach classes as well, so I coach on a class level and an individual level within the organisation. I teach the beginners, I teach the intermediates and I also teach the elite team as well, again which you developed from the intermediate team through to the elite team. Do you think being in the sport or martial arts environment could improve aspects of social and mental well-being in autistic? Definitely it does actually because it brings more of an environment and normality to people with disabilities and learning difficulties because normally they would be within social care groups where it's disability only or learning difficulties only, whereas it's more of an environment that's inclusive so everyone's there, so everyone learns from each other. So people like myself would learn what people with learning difficulties are all about and not sort of stigmatise those people, you know, according to one box. And then I guess the people with learning difficulties, challenging behaviour and various disabilities, they'd be around people like myself and sort of learn a different rate, I guess, because you're around people that are different to what you would normally be putting, I guess, through the various education groups and work groups and social groups. I think that it helps improve confidence and helps teach a lot of social skills as well. Really? Okay, question three, have you encountered any difficulties teaching or coaching or autistics? Oh yes, definitely. And that's through a lack of understanding from myself and it only became a problem because of my lack of awareness, and I think that's due to lack of experience. So through time you learn what people need. So for example, some of the learning difficulties joins our club, you know, the immediate assumption may be they're all the same, you know, all people with autism, for example, are the same, well actually not. Everyone's an individual regardless of whether they have learning difficulties or not, and everyone with learning difficulties is different. So those are the types of issues to start with by just assuming, oh, I'll tell you what, I've had some learning difficulties before, this is what I did, therefore this one-size-fits-all, well it doesn't, everyone's very, very different. I think that because of the lack of understanding from a coaching perspective, that then feeds down to the people in the classroom because there's less awareness of what's going on. The various things that sort of cause conflict within the club is lack of awareness of the actual disability from the rest of the participants. So if they're not aware that that person has learned difficulties, they may just think that that person's causing problems, that he has caused trouble, that why isn't that person picking it up, blah, blah, blah. I don't think it's more of a lack of tolerance because I think people in the UK, especially that are very tolerant and adaptive, I think it's just lack of awareness because it isn't that someone with learning difficulties walks in and they always put a special bib on them to where so everyone's aware. It's not like that, that's not how we want to run, what everyone to be treated to say. But then again, if people aren't aware that that person's got learned difficulties, then they can't understand and therefore have more tolerance and understanding around what's going on. Two more questions. Do you think someone having autism could benefit the many way sport? I think so, yeah, because normally people go through an education system, which is a one size fits all, whereas sports such as Tick-One-Do and I guess every sports individual in different, but it's just a different type of learning. So in the Tick-One-Do that we have, obviously there's the physical aspects, which you won't get in any other sport, you won't get it through the standard education system. There's also the coordination skills that we teach through all the techniques and everything. Again, you're not going to get that anywhere else. And there's also the self independent side. So in the Tick-One-Do sport, you've got to be independent. You've got to learn for yourself. You've got to act more mature. You've got to be a self starter. And I think that there's all those things that people have to learn as they're going through the system. And there's also the social side as well. So yeah, while you might be fighting in the ring on your own, you're on your own, but you're supported by a coach and you're supported by a big parties and atmosphere crowd. And when you train, you've got a team of people around you. So it does teach social skills as well. And then people with learning difficulties who come into the club and not have well-versed, well-exercised, well-seasoned social skills, but being in the team environment, they've got no choice but to adapt. And I think that really helps as well. And then the benefits from that includes things like much improved self-esteem, self-confidence, better social skills. People go from being reactive in social situations to being more proactive in starting the conversations themselves and deliberately doing something that they know will spark a conversation and have something for people to talk about. That's brilliant. So it's a little bit different. The answer is a little bit different to the question, but that was good. And I might just let that in as another one. But like, do you think someone having autism can benefit them in the sport? So like, any benefits that ought to be given, they would help them in the sport. So having autism, so autism being a benefit to people, oh yeah, okay, yeah, I can answer that. Okay, yeah, that's fine. So having autism, I don't think is a disability in life in general. I think everyone is born and you have what you have, whether you have autism, whether you have learned difficulties, whether you have super intelligent or not. It doesn't really matter to me. I find that people with autism are very, very driven. I think that they're provided we can get the right environment around people. You can get the best out of people. And I find people with autism do try much, much harder, the more focused and they stick to schedules much better. So if we have a schedule, therefore a routine that these people will do that particular schedule and learn faster and get physically better, physically stronger and mentally stronger because of the schedule and their ideals of that schedule. I don't think learning difficulties, particularly if a tic-wondo holds people back. I think that it is a benefit as part of them. It gives them incredible focus, concentration and strength and determination to do well for themselves. So last question. How is teaching autistic individuals enlighten you to any perspectives in life that you otherwise wouldn't have had? So when I was growing up, I was brought up around people with learning difficulties and various disabilities. When I came into teaching tic-wondo, I had that life experience. But at the time I felt, yeah, I know everything. I know everything about people with disabilities because I've been brought up around it. But no, there's a lot more to it. Everyone is different. So something particular for me that I learned was that everyone is different. And while I might have made reasonable adjustments for one person joining that club, you need something different for someone else that may join who has learned difficulties because not everyone's the same. I feel a lot of enrichment really from teaching people, particularly with disabilities and learning difficulties because of the massive challenges ahead. I do feel that people get stigmatized, especially in this country, around you're not able to do this, you're not able to do that, you're not able to fit into the education system, you have to go to a special school, you have to have care works and things, but actually bring them into our tic-wondo club, which is an inclusive club. We put some adjustments in place, we'll do what we can to support people, spend maybe a little bit more time with various people and then lead them to it and maybe spend less time with them, depending on what's best for them. But actually I get a lot of self pride really in developing people and letting them to get to their best. And everyone's best is different. For some people their best might be just passing them on grading and that's it or doing a kick really well for other people, it might be going through all the rounds, doing all the kicks, doing all the competitions and competing for the national team like you did. It's definitely something that makes me proud is not just the actual outcomes of the teaching but being able to say I welcome anyone into my club. We will teach anyone, we'll do our best, even if we fail we're still going to try and going to do our best to help people get the best that they can out of this sport. Me personally, I've had objectives for every person that walks through the door into our club. Once I feel that they're committed enough to the sport I'll spend more time with them. But what does make me proud is people with disabilities have had over the years. We've got to Black Belt, Second Dan, we've got them to international competing level. We've got them to do local competitions if that's their level and it makes me really proud that we're able to provide that environment for them because it's inclusive. Why should it be that this person walks through the door and they've got everything available to them but this is for the person who walks through the door and yet they've got a disability of some sort or learn difficulties. No, the staff was in the door so that just doesn't seem right to me. I think everyone should have the same access to everything based on what their availability is and what their level is.