Martial Arts for ToTs (ages 3-6)

Life Skills Taught in ToT Kwon Do – Impact America’s ToT’s Program
1.       Courtesy (Be Nice)
2.       Honesty (tell what actually happened)
3.       Self-Control (Keep your Hands to Yourself)
4.       Responsibility (Do What You Are Supposed to do Without Being told)
5.       Discipline (a way of doing something)

Most martial arts schools don’t ‘specialize’ in working with this age group.  The instructors of Impact America actually learn to communicate with the younger boys and girls ON THEIR LEVEL.  We have even designed a curriculum and system of rank specifically for this age group in order to help us train them in ‘Life-Skills’.  We use martial arts as a tool.

Here is how it works:

Kids that age like to yell and scream and run and kick and punch.  So, we let them, provided they do the ‘work’ portion of class and behave well when we expect them to.  They want to have fun and learn at the same time.  That’s what we focus on (balance). 

The classes are 30 minutes long which matches the length of their attention span.

In a typical class we will work on material, talk about the life skills and play a game (if their behavior earns it).  Everything at Impact America is earned.  We don’t ‘give’ the students anything.  We believe strongly in ‘work and reward’…and the ‘work’ part always happens first.

We observe their behavior based on several factors.  First, we watch to see if they follow the directions of the teacher.  Secondly, we watch to see if they participate in all of the exercises and activities during the class.  Finally, we make sure that everyone keeps their hands to themselves and stays on their assigned spot. 

Observed behavior is even based on the life skills.  Every parent wants their kids to follow instructions, participate in activities and be nice to the people around them. So, that’s how we designed the class to flow.

Goal Setting-

We set goals at the beginning of almost every class.  Goals like ‘everyone has to earn one stripe in order to play a game at the end of class’.  We have found that this focuses the students on a ‘like’ goal and everyone works to get it done.  When someone isn’t focused and they don’t achieve the goal, we don’t play a game.

When a student earns a certain number of stripes, we reward them with a new belt.  When they earn a certain number of belts, they get to move to the ‘kids’ class’.  When they move to the ‘kids’ class’, they get to work towards earning a black belt.

Impact America’s ToT program (ToT Kwon Do) is unique, in that, it’s based on a ‘thought string’.  A ‘thought string’ is a line of thoughts that leads to an upgrade in thinking.  You can look at it more clearly like this:

Stripes leads to belts, belts lead to kids’ class, kids class leads to black belt, black belt leads to leadership

Work     --    Stripes   --   Belts   --    Kids’ class    --     Black Belt  --     Leadership   --     A desire to help others.

This concept is significant in building character through goal setting.  The coolest thing is that the students’ mind grows into this model which, in turn, affects everything they participate in.  They eventually get to a point where they want to do their best, NOT because someone is telling them to, but because they choose to.  It reflects their character.

Impact America Martial Arts accomplishes this over time and THAT is how instructors get it to ‘stick’.

Confidence –

Our definition of confidence is based on an established history of achievement over time.  An example would be overcoming the obstacles of a single class (behavior, achieving the class goal, etc.)

 IAMA’s ToT’s program breaks down regular martial arts training into smaller more easily understood ‘chunks’ for this age group.  We provide ‘obstacles’ based on what we have observed the class behavior to be.  (‘Obstacles based on behavior’ means things like-we may have noticed someone getting off their dot or not participating in the exercises) When the students overcome those obstacles, we reward them and make a ‘big deal’ about it.  They feel good about their performance and the recognition they get and WANT to experience it again.  Repeating this over and over again and presenting the students with bigger more challenging obstacles results in confidence.  Duplicating this over time proves to the students that they can handle anything.

Our definition of confidence is based on the meaning of the black belt’s color.  Black means ‘no fear of the dark’.  The dark represents the unknown.  So, in other words ‘I don’t know what will happen next, but I know I can handle it’.

Note:  You read that right…we customize each class based on who shows up that day, their behavior and we adjust the goals of the class based on those factors.  We don’t do ‘cookie-cutter’ classes.  Everything we do in our ToT Kwon Do classes is designed to improve the character of the students that show up THAT DAY.

If you would like to try Impact America's ToT Kwon Do Program you can do so by clicking the following link:

http://www.groupon.com/deals/impact-america-martial-arts

See you soon!
Scott Wilkinson
 
ToT Kwon Do and Impact America Martial Arts is owned and operated by Mr. Scott Wilkinson, Ms. Robin Wilkinson, Mr. Justin Wilkinson and Mr. Cameron Wilkinson. 
©2013