A huge grin lights up Josh Huck's face when he shows off his ability to kick his leg into the air.
"Before we started the [taekwondo] class in January, Josh could maybe lift his foot two inches off the ground," says mom Cheryl. "He can now kick up to Sam's thigh, which is probably about 18 inches off the ground. That's huge."
For Cheryl Huck life is like a trip to the bowling alley.
"We just roll really slow," says Huck. "Sometimes we hit the gutter; sometimes we hit a pin."
The 33-year-old mother is raising two boys - Josh, 11, and Samuel, nine - with Joubert's Syndrome, a genetic brain condition caused by abnormal brain development.
It can result in decreased muscle tone, difficulties with co-ordination, abnormal eye movements, abnormal breathing patterns and cognitive impairment.
"It's normal," she said. "I can't imagine having a typical child at this point. We just adjusted."
The Huck family was living in San Diego when Cheryl first noticed Josh didn't seem to be developing like other babies his age.
"We all had children within a month of each other and their kids were reaching milestones and mine wasn't, he was just laying there," she said. "When Josh was six months old they told us he would never sit up, let alone walk.
"There's always been a confidence knowing he was more than what the doctors said."
Doctors in San Diego originally diagnosed Josh with cerebral palsy and it wasn't until the family moved to Calgary that the Huck family first heard the term Joubert's Syndrome.
"Upon further research [doctors] found that there was a malformation in the brain and it was Joubert's Syndrome," said Huck. "It was quite a journey."
Joubert's Syndrome develops when both parents carry a recessive genetic marker, passing it along to the child. When Huck became pregnant with Samuel, she says, people asked what she'd do if he developed the same problems as Josh.
"If he's [OK] Josh will forever have a protector, but if he isn't then Josh will forever have a best friend - someone he can keep up with, someone he can learn a game of softball with."
A CHILD BREAKS FREE
When her friend Kurt Ottesen, owner of Freedom Taekwondo in Prince George, recommended the club to Cheryl, she decided to enroll her boys, Josh, 11 and Samuel, nine.
"It's definitely given them confidence," she says. "They've increased their balance and co-ordination quite a bit."
Their feet are growing abnormally, making it difficult for the boys to walk without braces attached to their shoes - in taekwondo they go barefoot.
Even with the challenges, Cheryl says, her boys were welcomed into the class.
"Nobody doesn't want to be Josh and Sam's partner," says Cheryl. "They just adapt. If they need to hold the pads lower, they hold the pads lower. If they need to move slower, they move slower for them. It's very encouraging to see.
"There were a couple of kids that came up to me after class and told me how great the boys did," she adds. "It was pretty cool. It's a team sport for sure."
In his 24 years of teaching taekwondo in Prince George, Ottesen says he has come across many students with a disability. Taekwondo is a way to learn life lessons no matter what the physical skills.
"We look at it as a tool for social development," says Ottesen. "How can it help people?
"A lot of times we think that a martial art is something that [allows you to] fly through the air and kick and break boards and look like a ninja. The reality is, it's about helping people and giving people the tools to better their lives and feel confident."
Debbie Gordon signed her son James up for taekwondo, when he was 10 years old after his teachers at school recommended it as a way of learning to cope with being bullied by other students.
"They thought it would be a really good thing for him to have some sort of a plan he could use if he had to protect himself," says Debbie about her now 16-year-old son. "He's come a long way; he's a blue belt now."
James was born with a hole in his heart and needed surgery to correct it and was diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome.
His mom says since James began attending Prince George Secondary School he hasn't had any serious issues with being bullied.
"The first thing that they teach you in taekwondo is to be strong," says Debbie. "One of the things that they teach the kids is that nobody is allowed to touch them.
"One of the first things they learn is to say, 'Don't touch me. Leave me alone,'" she says. "It has to be really, really loud so everybody in the room will turn around and look at you."
Since 1999 Freedom Taekwondo has taught students the five tenets or core values of: courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self control and an indomitable spirit.
The 135 students currently enrolled in Ottesen's classes - he also partners with taekwondo schools in Burns Lake, Smithers and Fort Ware - learn things as simple as politeness and manners to more complex patterns and techniques used in competition.
"We try to teach and ask for a great deal of respect in the classroom, but we define with the children that it doesn't stop when they leave the class - they have to act this way at home, at school," says Ottesen. "We actually liaison with the school teachers and get reports back."
