A Cardiff trampoline club is helping disabled people find their bounce

A trampoline club in Cardiff are helping people with disabilities regain their bounce.

Rebounders, a trampoline club situated near Cardiff bay, is not your average club. They help people with physical and learning disabilities through fun, therapeutic trampoline classes, enabling members to learn new skills and have fun at the same time.

Cardiff centre manager Lorna Fuller, 25, explained what makes them different from typical trampoline parks; they provide specialist trampolining, and all their coaches are qualified in rebound therapy and disabled trampolining. Whereas at a trampoline park you would be left to run around, at Rebounders they do one to one specialised sessions with their members. Lorna says, “They are learning skills that they need and are also having fun whilst doing it.”

The members can pass the time in the soft-play area

Chris Sargent, 53, is a parent who brings his son Tom to Rebounders every week. He explained that Tom has cerebral palsy, so a lot of his muscles don’t work in the right way and he is unable to coordinate them properly. Rebound therapy, Chris said, helps Tom with his balance, coordination and core stability. When talking about what Tom thinks of the sessions, he says, “Tom gets quite a lot from coming along to Rebounders because it’s like a physio session that’s enjoyable and fun. And he doesn’t realise that he’s actually getting benefit out of it as well!”

See how Tom enjoys himself during his rebound session:

Rebounders also do group sessions; Beechwood College, a college for adults on the autistic spectrum, use Rebounders for educational purposes. Rhuanedd Deroy-Jones, 38, a teacher from Beechwood, said that going to Rebounders not only benefits her students for obvious health reasons, but also for essential skills, such as communication, listening and confidence building. She says, “The staff are so good at understanding each student’s needs, but most importantly it’s fun, and everyone learns when something is fun!”