Teen

Our Teen Karate Fundamentals course is designed to meet the needs of your teen as a beginning karate student. Our adolescent karate students are actively seeking their own independent identity as martial artists – and can chafe at some of the restrictions appropriate for a child. Karate allows your teen to try out a more adult role, and encourages them to accept increasing personal responsibilities without being overwhelmed by too much too fast. We’re working together to forge a new partnership in karate for you and your teen – where they can take greater personal responsibility and establish more personal independence, while being confident that they will get the support and guidance they need in finding their way. As a result, your teen will receive instruction in classes alongside more mature adults, who can set a strong positive example for them, and provide firm, caring guidance as needed.

Our Teen Fundamentals course is structured so that your teen will grow and develop in 6 critical areas as they study karate: Physical, Cognitive, Self-Defense, Social, Character, and Self-Confidence. Our instructors are personally committed to your teen and family in every class session as they learn and grow. Your teen’s karate instruction will help them thrive as they continue to create and consolidate their adult identity, building on their own unique personal potential.

Physical I: Grow physically stronger and more adept. During adolescence, your teen experiences sudden, dramatic “growth spurts” that leave them feeling awkward and clumsy as they struggle to adapt to having longer legs or broader shoulders. Our karate classes give your teen a dynamic way to recover and then increase their agility, strength, and flexibility following these growth spurts. Smoothing over these “rough spots” in the road as they build their karate skills, your teen will increase their physical self-confidence.

Physical II: Be fulfilled by an active, healthy lifestyle. At this age, your teen may find themselves “frozen out” of the increasingly competitive “sports scene” at school. Our karate classes will put your teen in an environment where they can be physically active, and participate to the full, without being told “you didn’t make the cut.” Your teen’s achievements in karate will flow from their own effort and commitment – not from their ability to score points in a game.

Cognitive: Your teen is on the brink of their final major developmental advance in this area – a leap from a child’s understanding to that of a full adult. At this level – called “Formal Operational” – your teen could develop the ability to reason abstractly. More specifically, your teen could learn to anticipate and develop strategies for overcoming challenges, and to understand that they can shape their future well-being by actions taken here and now. I say could – because fully half of all people never make this leap. A lack of a broad-based education – meaningful real-life experiences, constructive personal engagement, and motivating mental challenges –leaves them permanently behind. Our karate classes engage your teen directly and personally with a wider world of experience and understanding, stimulating them to make this final leap forward. In the process, we’ll also be learning about the history and customs of Korea specifically, and East Asia generally – an area of the world that is growing more important for all of us to understand.

Self-Defense: Develop “street-smart” self-defense skills. Your teen’s self-defense challenges are potentially very serious indeed – and we take them that way. In our Fundamentals course, your teen will begin to build simple, functional, real-world self-defense skills. Practical, real-world self-defense begins with proper preparation – your teen will begin learning techniques of defensive awareness and threat recognition. Your teen’s best self-defense is to recognize and stay out of dangerous situations whenever possible. We’ll also work with your teen on responding effectively to an attack: use whatever force you need to protect yourself, with the object of getting yourself out of harm’s way as undamaged as possible.

Character: Enrich your teen’s experience of life with the study and practice of important qualities of personal character. In our karate classes, your teen will be actively engaged in interactive discussions of important character values such as Respect, Integrity, and Self-Discipline. We’ll use a format of definition, example, and discussion questions to reinforce and internalize your teen’s understanding of personal character values. As we apply these directly in class, your teen experiences karate as character in action.

Social: Build a sturdy, stable adult identity based on your teen’s own positive accomplishments, and strong personal values. While your teen is strongly influenced by their peers, this influence can be powerfully positive – if you and your teen are pro-active about whom you choose as your peers. Don’t rely on the “luck of the draw” – be selective. In our karate classes, your teen will share the bond of the martial arts with peers who set a strong positive example of commitment, character, and achievement.

Self-Confidence: Empower your teen with a positive self-image and emotional self-confidence. Adolescence is a time when your teen becomes much more self-conscious, and often highly self-critical – as though they imagine an audience is watching their every move. Our karate school will give your teen a positive, balanced context for self-assessments – to recognize and appreciate their inherent strengths and special talents, and to grow and develop these to higher levels. Your teen’s faith and trust in their own worth and abilities – their self-confidence – will grow stronger and put down deeper roots through their positive experiences in karate.

Our Teen Karate Fundamentals course is a 9 month program of instruction for your teen in the basics of karate. During this course of study, your teen will have the opportunity to earn their first belt rank promotions in karate. Upon completion of this course, your teen will earn our Certificate of Merit. While participating in this course of instruction, your teen may also be considered for admission into the Teen Division of our Honors Program in Martial Arts Studies.

Call us today at 865-688-0120 to get started with your 3 Lesson Introductory Course.  Check out our Costs of Instruction.