Shaping The Next Generation
I have taught children’s classes for the last 32 years and they are still some of the best classes to teach in my week, don’t get me wrong they are always challenging but are so rewarding. We take children from the age of 4 and teach them small bite size pieces of martial arts in a half hour class, so that they can take it in easier and retain it so they can show us at grading times. This 4-6 years of age class are called the Terrapins (or tiny terra’s if you forgive the play on words). I love to see them develop from children that won’t pay attention and twirl around when they should be doing a stance, to watch them sit at the head of the class and start and finish the class with perfect Geordie Japanese. As they are taught how to interact with others and in our anti-bullying term what to do if people are not nice to you. They also are taught basic Ninjutsu and groundwork, even breaking down armbars into easy to remember titles such as backpack, horsey and surfer. Then they move in