Little Ninjas
Little Ninjas in Arbroath, Montrose & Dundee
Our special Martial Arts programme for 4 - 8's
Little Ninjas is a specially designed Martial Arts programme for 4 - 8 year olds. It emphasises teaching life skills, rather than just teaching the physical skills of the Martial Arts. We use special games that emphasise particular life skills, along with different drills that use some of the movements of the Martial Arts to build their physical motor skills. Little Ninjas is great fun, but at the same time we impart very powerful positive attributes that will help them throughout their lives.
Our special Martial Arts Classes for 4 - 8 year olds
Little Ninjas was created by American Martial Arts Instructor Melody Schumann. Melody had realised that young children weren't getting the most from normal martial arts training. She sought out advice from childrens education specialists, child psychologist's, & behavioral specialists. Using their knowledge & advice she put together a totally new concept; a Martial Arts system specially created for young children.
Mark Davies had long noticed that young children didn't get the best from normal Traditional Martial Arts. Most of the time you would find kids below 8 years old would drop out of classes, very few would climb up through the grades. Some TaeKwon-Do classes get around this by dropping the grading standards so that the children manage to attain their belts regardless of their ability or standard, but Mark was not prepared (& still isn't) to drop his standards. As soon as Mark heard of 'Little Ninjas' in 2002 he decided it was something he had to adopt. Mark is one of the few Instructors in the country to have been trained by Melody to teach the Ninjas system. Over the years Mark & Jacqui have developed the programme & improved it, so that it is now an even more powerful tool for building happy, respectful & disciplined children.
Marks Little Ninjas programme has been operating in Angus for several years now, & is VERY well known. Teachers love our programme, & we regularly get children enrolled in our Little Ninjas classes after teachers recommend the programme to parents.
Whats different about our Martial Arts Classes for young children?
If you take a look at almost all the other Martial Arts classes around you'll see they're just the normal adults syllabus taught with some games tossed in for a bit of fun. Our Little Ninjas programme is a system created FOR young children! Young children very often cannot perform many of the techniques found in Traditional Martial Arts, especially very technical & precise arts like TaeKwon-Do (at least when it's taught properly). Their nervous system hasn't developed completely, & they can't physiologically or neurologically perform some of the movements; so either they drop out because they get frustrated, or they spend ages at the same grade because they're not able to perform the required techniques (in which case they usually drop out also). The techniques we teach in Little Ninjas have been specially selected for their stage of development, so with some work & effort they can manage to perform them- & perform them well.
The thing that separates Little Ninjas from all the other classes is that rather than just teaching the physical techniques & exercises of the Martial Arts, Little Ninjas emphasises LIFE SKILLS! We use various games & drills to teach the children about important concepts & life skills in a way that is fun, & that they can understand. Each week we work on one particular skill or concept, & they are all things that the children use every single day. The idea is to enhance their lives so we help the children to make the most of their education, behave better at home, & excel in the future. We use the physical movements of the Martial Arts to develop their physical motor skills in a way that they enjoy & find exciting.
Little Ninjas in Arbroath, & Little Ninjas in Montrose
One of our pet hates are when we see classes with 4 year olds to 40 year olds in the same class. You can't teach adults & kids together effectively, & it is terrible child protection- although the instructor should have an enhanced disclosure, the adult training next to your child doesn't, & they could be anyone! We don't think that you can even really effectively teach different age groups of children together, lets face it your children are separated into different age groups at school aren't they? Mark has watched many local classes where very young children are in classes where they are far too young, & you can see that they're daydreaming or out of their depths. In Little Ninjas they're in a group of children of around their own age, working on techniques they can perform well, & learning about Life Skills that will benefit them for the rest of their lives! It's great fun, but at the same time as having great fun they're learning things that will enhance their lives. Their first two lessons are totally FREE OF CHARGE, so if you would like to get your child involved contact us to book their space in our classes.
Little Ninjas in Arbroath: Monday & Friday- 4pm-4.45pm or 4.45pm-5.30pm. Tuesday & Thursday- 5pm-5.45pm or 5.45pm-6.30pm.
Little Ninjas in Montrose: Weds & Sunday: 5.30pm-6.15pm .