José Pina

Education through sport (ETS) and Non Formal Education (NFE) Experiences:

In our city there are some different communities and ethnicities (gypsies, Africans, Eastern European immigrants) and what I notice is that combat sports is very sought after not for the best of reasons, but for the thought of “I’m going to learn how to fight”.

When these children and young people come to my gym one of the first things is to make them understand that we are all equal in our differences and that before learning any combat technique we will learn the values that this gym identifies with which are: Respect, tolerance, friendship, mutual aid and acceptance.

A few years ago a young Asian athlete “enters” my gym to practice kickboxing and I notice that older athletes at some point have a racist attitude towards him:

When a new athlete arrives we have a convivial snack with gastronomy originary from that same athlete, also clothes and the athlete makes a small presentation of his country and/or city of his customs, gastronomy, cultural, etc.

Since then I have been noticing throughout these years a great improvement in the group spirit, in the acceptance of the other and in the happiness of all when a new athlete arrives because it is a sign of conviviality between them.