MARTIAL ARTS
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Secret #3: progress is slow In my school, over the last twelve to fifteen years, we have used TWO different advancement formats before settling on the one that has worked best for us. At first, there was PLAN #1: advance them every three months. This approach worked rather well because they spent THREE FULL […]
Secret #2: TIGER class is not about punching and kicking “But we are teaching Taekwondo!” You shout! Yes, indeed we are. Our Taekwondo program, however, is a vehicle through which we teach discipline and character. In fact, I believe that the development of physical skill in Taekwondo parallels a child’s physical growth pattern. In other […]
A Scary Situation! You’re standing in front of FIFTEEN 3, 4, and 5-year olds about to teach some “kids karate.” These are the youngest, newest, and lowest ranks in your school: the TINY TIGER BASIC class. Some are lying down; some are asking for a drink of water; one is crying to go see […]
Valeria Tapia’s story begins like so many others. By age six, she had tried dance and other activities. Nothing seemed to spark her interest until she learned that one of her school friends, Leah Millman, was coming to KARATE FOR KIDS. Mom, Maria, and dad, Albert, brought her in and, from that day on it’s […]
“If you don’t like something, change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.” – Mary Engelbreit I discovered an amazing video on YouTube you just have to see. It shows an animal behavior expert named Kevin Richardson roughhousing and rolling around with full-grown, adult male lions. This man possesses […]
“Men are respectable only as they respect.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson All of our life skills, like discipline, honor, integrity, courtesy and respect, form the bedrock of traditional martial arts. These values set us apart from any other sport or activity and define what it means to be a martial artist. We teach these life […]
Okay, time for a goal-check. Back in January, I passed along 37 goal-setting tips to help you set goals for 2011. One of those tips was “checking your progress along the way”. This is a great time to do that. Checking Your Progress How is your progress? Are you visualizing what it will be like […]
It’s Tiny Tiger testing, or whatever you call it–advancement, graduation, rank promotion. This one little 4-year-old boy is slightly distracted by all the activity, and just stands there, still. He’s been an average student, never really disruptive, but also never super enthusiastic either. But he’s been in class twice a week and has been doing […]
Can you believe spring break is right around the corner? It seems like just yesterday we mapped out our goals for the year. (How are you doing on your goals, by the way? Are you still on track?). Anyway, now that spring break is fast approaching, I want to pass along five key tips to […]
What about all the rest? Weapons, sparring, self-defense, breaking, leadership? Although the Songahm forms help us to organize most of the Taekwondo curriculum, what about weapons, sparring, self-defense, and leadership? (In the interest of brevity, I will only discuss WEAPONS in this issue.) Every instructor faces the challenge of ORGANIZING all this additional material so […]