A brand-new sports facility has opened its doors as the Island’s home of ‘tricking’ moves to bigger premises in Cowes.
The new space for WightTricks is 1 of the largest in the UK, boasting a 150 square metre floor sprung with over 4,000 springs.
The new centre triples the organisation’s capacity and includes a café and separate kids-only chill-out space. It officially opened on 13th January with a party attended by 60+ young members plus their parents and coaches.
Tricking is a training discipline that combines kicks with flips and twists from martial arts and gymnastics as well as many dance moves and styles from breakdancing.
It’s very different from gymnastics because in tricking you take off from 1 foot and incorporate kicks and twists. The relatively new sport has been around for about 20 years – but is gaining in popularity around the world – and has its own culture and global community.
Founders and Islanders Robbie Bates and Katharine Dancy – both coaches of the sport – passionately believe in the transformative power of tricking, particularly for neuro-diverse children who might be struggling in mainstream school.
The move to new premises will allow much-needed space and flexibility for WightTricks, which currently boasts a waiting list of almost 1,000 children.
It’s been an expensive process helped by crowdfunding via GoFundMe.
Katharine Dancy says:
“The move to the new place was a lot more than we expected it to be. A few surprises have come up, unexpected hurdles in the move between the old building and the new – so that’s hit us financially. The whole Island community has really rallied round, people have donated money and expertise in helping us get things ready in just under a fortnight.”
“Lots of the kids are neurodiverse, a lot of them have ADHD and autism, they struggle in school. They are like the ‘naughty kids’ in school but here they can just completely come out of their shell and it’s just incredible. At least here they can just be themselves… school is not a great environment for many of them, if you don’t fit into that box, then it can be really hard.”
One of the many WightTricks success stories is 12-year-old Josh Williams who won a gold medal last October, performing a triple full twist at an international competition in Oslo, Norway.
Josh Williams says:
“I really love the new floor at the gym. It’s really nice and soft so when I want to go for tricks, I can get the height and bounce right off it. I really like the cafe because I can get a nice hot chocolate and I like the chill-out space at the top where I can watch other people trick. It feels like the best place for me…’
WightTricks plan to host international competitions at the gym, and put the Isle of Wight firmly on the map as a home of tricking.
If you want to help WightTricks pay for the move you can donate at https://www.gofundme.com/f/wighttricks-new-home.
