More to Martial Arts than just kicking and punching. The common thought is that Martial Art just teaches your child self defence, but the truth is there is so much more. The physical skills learnt in Martial Arts transfer to other sports and activities, while the life skills and values will stay with your child for a long time. Read below to see how our Children Taekwondo program can help the development of your child as we introduce them to physical exercise and movement, martial arts, and structured learning.
Children in this age bracket may fall into one of two categories – they’re brand new to Martial Arts with no experience, or they have been with us since Kicking Dragons and have established many of the foundation movements and skills. At this age group, children are building on their core skills. These begin to be more refined and children are capable of pushing themselves a little harder as they progress through the belt ranks. Martial Arts can help them harness that ability in a positive and constructive manner. Students also begin to set goals and work towards achieving them.
Children in this age bracket would be involved in our Children Taekwondo or Muay Thai programs and would be working on developing and improving the following developmental milestones:
- Concentration
- Technique and Skill
- Self Control
- Flexibility
- Intensity in Training
- Perseverance
- Speed
- Agility
- Discipline
- Confidence
In addition to these ‘action’ milestones, were working towards Physical, Intellectual, Emotional and Social developmental milestones. Some of these include:
Physical Developmental Milestones:
- Core development of movement in various directions with ease. Children will learn how to move in attack and defence in multiple directions.
- Core development of fine motor skills in their wrists, fingers and ankles. Children will learn techniques that require the use and control of small muscle movements.
- Core development in their range of motion in their legs and arms. Children will begin to kick higher, move faster, and perform movements more fluidly leading to the development of speed, accuracy and power.
- Core development in the intensity level of their training. Children will be challenged to perform movements for longer durations, and perform more complex techniques that may involve 3 – 8 different movements.
- Core development of their explosive, reactive and technical speed. Examples may include – EXPLOSIVE: Perform movements as fast as you can when the teacher commands. REACTIVE: Perform the correct movement based on how the kicking target is held and at which height and distance. TECHNICAL SPEED: Perform the movement continuously as fast as you can for duration of time.
Intellectual Developmental Milestones:
- Core development in understanding how to focus their attention to various motions of their body. Children will begin to be more aware of how their body moves – or needs to move – in order to perform various actions that require balance, coordination and accuracy.
- Core development in understanding how to focus in on fine motor skills and how it applies to the techniques. Children will become more aware of how they need to perform movements in order to achieve speed and power.
- Core development in understanding how to think critically about overcoming obstacles and challenges. One method is through pad sparring where a pad holder will give various commands and hold the pad in different angles. In doing so, the kicker needs to adjust their position and technique as quickly and effectively as possible.
- Core development in understanding how to see the benefit of hard work and dedication. Students will begin to understand why they are training hard, and why they need to follow direction and try their best. The end result is grading to their next level and learning more advanced techniques.
- Core development in how to pay attention during intellectual challenges. Children will need to watch and listen as instructors teach various combinations that may last anywhere from 3 – 8 movements.
Emotional Developmental Milestones:
- Core development of how to overcome fear of the unknown. In this case it is the fear of sparring and getting hit. As children progress to higher levels they participate in controlled and safe sparring. Children learn how to safely apply their skills in an encouraging environment. Although daunting at first, students overcome the fear and build confidence and resilience.
- Core development in understanding how to overcome the fear of hitting, such as board breaking. For some children the thought of hitting the hard items can be a milestone to overcome. Again students will overcome the fear and build confidence and resilience.
- Core development of trying their hardest and putting forth 100% effort. We constantly challenge the children to try their hardest and do their best through games and activities.
- Core development of believing in yourself through focus and concentration. Whether it be 10 second kicking challenges, 30 second sit up challenges, or the jumping side kick challenge, we constantly encourage the children to try their best.
- Core development of right and wrong. Creating discipline through action – standing still as we wait, practicing while the teacher is working with another student, sitting with your legs crossed.
Social Developmental Milestones:
- Core development in understanding the importance of standing up for what is right. We encourage children to use Martial Arts as a form of exercise and self defence, something not to be used to hurt others.
- Core development in building the ability to lead others. Leadership Roles are existent, whether it is leading the line through activities, demonstrating movements to the class, or being a Junior Team Leader who is helping students by holding pads or with their movements.
- Core development in the ability to motivate others. We encourage students to lead by example. Instructors spotlight students who are doing the right thing and performing the movements as best as they can. This motivates the student who is doing the right thing, and the other students who want to be praised.
- Core development in the ability to resolve conflict. If your partner isn’t holding the pad properly, children are encouraged to use their voice to fix the situation.
- Core development in the ability to maintain confidence and effort when challenged. This might be through games or sparring.
An example of how this all fits:
Skill: Perseverance
Drill: Jumping Side Kick Challenge – students correctly perform the jumping side kick while leaping over stacked shields. Students must hit the kicking targets that are being held, kick correctly with form, and clear the obstacles.
Benefit: Students learn how to perform the Jumping Side Kick (the kick that is featured on the back of the Taekwondo uniform). Once they know how to do it correctly we begin to challenge them by jumping for distance as they perform the kick, or by jumping for height. After much practice we begin to increase the difficulty of the exercise by increasing the distance needed to jump, or the height needed to clear. In both situations students still must painting correct form when hitting the target. Children must maintain their concentration, focus and technique.