The goal in the younger class is to train the student in a friendly environment with skills that will last a lifetime. The main focus is the correct attitude, body movement, good judgment, and safety. This is the foundation for a young person regardless of rank or future ambitions.
* Now accepting new students of all ages, just attend the next regularly scheduled training time. See our schedule for class dates and times.
Correct Body Movement
This is a broad category. Children are learning and perfecting hand-eye coordination. We strive to teach students to accomplish various physical tasks and techniques.
Rolling and Tumbling
Learning how to fall safely. This skill is used in everyday life. Generally, when a Ninjutsu student stumbles or falls they will do so without getting hurt. They make falling look like fun! Instead of falling and injuring themselves; a mere roll, stand back up and keep running as if nothing happened. The more advanced gymnastics will aid in their total body control, coordination, and technique escapes.
Stretching
It is important for the student to learn how to stretch properly. Not only will this help reduce the risk of injury; it will teach them additional stretches that they will know and can do before any other type of sports activity.
Techniques
We teach how to correctly punch, kick, escape, defend, and avoid. When trying to ascertain if a student understands the technique or not, one must look at the big picture. Depending on age, size, and coordination, exact techniques may look slightly different when performed by different people. At a younger age, this is not unusual. Building the student’s confidence level is the most important thing at this stage of development. It is very difficult for a student to learn when there is an apprehension level of even trying something new in the first place. Students need incremental victories. We don’t expect a yellow belt to perform a front kick as well as a Black Belt. In Ninjutsu, the students train on a wide variety of tasks and perfect them as they progress through the ranks
Safety
Personally, coming from the law enforcement-police background, we teach “stranger awareness & safety”. We teach them that no one should ever touch them inappropriately and that secrets can be a bad thing. Most importantly, TRUST IS EARNED!
Good judgment and focus
Young people are learning how to handle everyday life situations. Granted, we only see a student a short amount of time a week, we hope to demonstrate good behavior, respect, and attentiveness. We teach that violence is not the solution to a problem. We teach that whenever possible, the best defense is to use your feet and walk away from someone that wants to start a fight. Students should never feel like they have to “prove themselves” in front of others. On the other hand, we do wish to instill the idea that he or she is capable of protecting himself or herself if needed. Another area of interest is focus. We want to teach a student good concentration skills. Finally, we would like to instill the concept of having a goal and learning how to achieve it.