Impact of the new school in Arroyomolinos

The Arroyomolinos City Council has highlighted on its website the initiative of the Las Matillas and ASPADO club, with the opening of the first adapted paddle tennis school in the town that will operate every Tuesday.
Sport can become one of the factors and tools that most facilitate the integration of all people who live every day with a situation of functional diversity, physical disability or other aspects such as mental health problems. Sport is an integrating element for this fundamental part of society, which fosters relationships with other people, helps to promote independence and, therefore, equal opportunities.
The Las Matillas Paddle Center had been trying for a long time to find and start a project that would unite sport, integration and development and improvement in the day-to-day life of people with intellectual disabilities. In that search for synergies, he found the Paddle for All Association (ASPADO) on the way. This association has been working since 2004 for the social integration of people with disabilities through Paddle tennis. Currently ASPADO has 21 schools in which it serves more than 250 people with different types of intellectual disabilities each year, in addition to organizing different tournaments and all kinds of conferences. Both Las Matillas and ASPADO joined hands to organize an open house last November with the aim of knowing the possible scope of a longer action in time.
In this open day, a group of patients from the Benito Menni Assistance Complex had their first contact with paddle tennis and the day worked so well that both Las Matillas and ASPADO decided that it was appropriate to create an Adapted Paddle School at the Center for Paddle Las Matillas for people with intellectual disabilities. It is a new school for adults that will develop its activity on the 11 courts, 10 of them covered, that the Las Matillas Paddle Center has.
The activity will take place on Tuesdays from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and will cost 35 euros per month. The Adapted Paddle School starts with 8 students from the Arroyomolinos Hospital Sisters Center. These students will be divided into two groups of 4 students each. ASPADO usually divides its students into categories based on age: child, adolescent and adult; and depending on the knowledge of paddle tennis by the students themselves.
The school activities begin on Tuesday, January 9, on the slopes of the Las Matillas Paddle Center. The monitors are part of the group of ASPADO professionals and are teachers specialized in attending to the specific needs of the disability.
This initiative will promote the physical, cognitive and personal development of the students. All those families interested and who want to inform or register can do so on the phone number of Montse Guillén, coordinator of ASPADO monitors, 630 600 982. On the ASPADO website, www.padeladaptado.com and on the phones of the Paddle Center Las Matillas, 916 687 962 | 916 688 349.
Montse Guillen, coordinator of monitors of ASPADO, highlighted the response of the students to the activities “We have been working since 2004 and we never cease to be surprised by our students and their evolution. Paddle tennis is a simple and fun sport for everyone and perfect for people who struggle every day with an intellectual disability. They improve their self-esteem, psychomotor development, physical appearance and cognitive appearance. It serves as an integrating element, but also to improve in small aspects of the day to day and related to their personal autonomy and that represent great achievements. And above all they have a good time and make friends. We appreciate the facilities and collaboration of the Las Matillas Paddle Center. We hope that this school has a present and a great future in Arroyomolinos. "
Javier Mellado, CEO of EMUGESA, valued the “social aspect of this type of initiative. We all have the right to enjoy sports. That For you, for all that serves as the town hall motto is evident in actions like this one. Sport is an unparalleled integrating element and both Roberto Galán, director of the Las Matillas Paddle Center, and the rest of the center's staff had been wanting to organize a school and an action of these characteristics for some time. It is a project that we are very excited about and starting it is the best way to start 2018. "