Community Games (Barking and Dagenham)

On Thursday 16^th September Kaizen Ryu Karate were asked to be a part of the Barking and Dagenham Community Games – pioneered by social enterprise SportInspired. These festival-like, exciting, fun, and friendly competitions engaged a large number of participants in a range of locally provided sport; from netball, football, hockey, rugby, boccia, volleyball, gymnastics to bmx. The day encouraged fair play and team spirit, whilst keeping with games’ objectives; breaking down barriers between young people and adults, whilst building bridges to non-mainstream and less able-bodied sports. 

SportInspired is a social enterprise delivering community games to inspire community engagement and increase sports participation. They work with local clubs, youth groups, schools, governing bodies and local organisations, and since 2007 have worked with over 10,000 participants in East London alone. www.sportinspired.org

Kaizen Ryu Karate were there to represent the sport of karate and spent a morning with youngsters from all over London. Our representatives engaged the participants in a variety of sports techniques and got the teams going with quick rounds of competitions. Many of the teams really got into the spirit of the day and were screaming and shouting and encouraging their fellow team players on the field! All in all it was an exciting and inspirational day both for the volunteers, the coaches, organisers and the participants.

To get a sense of what a Community Games is like, take a look at the following YouTube short video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRndRdaI3UM&feature=player_embedded#