Cory: I'm different because I have no legs.
I like karate because it's self-defence.
I can keep up with other kids.
I believe I can do anything.
I'm about to go and get something.
Christy: What are you going to get?
Cory: My skateboard.
So I'll ride it right here.
I like to play-fight, jump on a trampoline,
go outside to skateboard and ride a hover-board and play video games.
My name is Cory
and I'm 10 years old.
I'm different because I have no legs.
Christy: Cory was born with Tibia Hemimelia - it's where the tibia bone
is either small or absent.
The doctors, they knew the whole time I was pregnant.
And so once I delivered, they rushed him off to do x-rays.
They sent us to a specialist because he was missing knee joints.
He was missing ankle joints
and his legs were like bent.
The specialist determined that the best route will be double amputations between the knees.
When they first told me that he was missing a bone, I was scared because
I didn't know how he will be treated.
I knew that, his family will love him.
But I didn't know how the world
would accept him.
And so I was scared for him.
Day to day Cory just deals with it
by just making his own adaptions.
As soon as he sees something he wants to do,
he do it and he just do it his way.
I think when people don't know him, or don't know his story and they just like stare at him,
he feels like an outcast.
Instead of just talking to him and asking him and I think that's what frustrates him.
Cory feels different ways different days about his prosthetics.
I have prosthetics but I don’t like them.
Because, they make it harder for me to move around.
Christy: Some days he might wake up and be like, "where my legs at?"
"I want to put my legs on."
And so I
give them to him
and some days he'll be like,
"They slow me down."
"I want to go without them."
"I want to be fast."
He's a daredevil.
He's so active.
Like he loves to do flips, climb up on stuff, jump off of stuff, handstands.
Turn upside down, like anything that requires moving a lot, he love it.
He does not find it difficult
to keep up with nobody.
Cory: Tonight I'm going to do Karate.
This is only my second time doing karate.
I get all my moves,
with my legs and without them.
Christy: He likes to have options.
So he's tried baseball
wheelchair basketball,
he's tried
wrestling
but he said that
karate stick out to him
because it's more of a challenge.
Cory: I like Karate because
it’s self-defense.
Christy: Watching Cory do karate, I see the passion in his eyes and I see how excited he is to do it.
Jacob: All right.
Now we got it, now we got it.
And it's one two.
So I've never had a double amputee,
but everything is really experimental
in our approach to it.
I paid attention to the fact
that one,
he's got his prosthetics on.
So I modified the course to cover the areas in which he'll be using his prosthetics.
And well, he's obviously got a disadvantage
when it comes to balance and things like that,
so we want to try to teach him how to own his personal space.
Give him a couple very common strikes,
and some very easy defences to work from.
Cory: I can keep up with other kids.
Jacob: I think it went pretty good,
it's definitely teaching me a lot as an instructor.
Jacob: Round of applause for this man,
well done!
Christy: Cory looks like he had,
learned a lot of new things,
a lot of challenging things,
that looked like he is able to overcome
and work on and get better.
Cory is very confident,
he's taught me to,
be who I am, unapologetically.
Cory: I believe I can do anything.