Experts confirm that martial arts are a fun way for both boys and girls to achieve fitness and focus. Some parents may think they also promote violence, but that’s a myth, according to experts. The martial arts actually help teach self-discipline and socialization skills. For example, many parents whose children have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) report great success with these programs because self-control and concentration are exactly the skills underdeveloped in ADHD kids.
Although many suggest that parents choose and hen enroll their child into "One" martial arts system for the sake of keeping them focused onto One system, we as the Wolf Band choose to believe that that is a limitation on the student's personal development as Nothing in this world today is so simple that it deserves 100% devoted focus. Furthermore, especially when talking about young children, aside from seeking to occupy the child's mind and time, those who enroll their children into martial arts usually are hoping for a degree of personal discipline to be instilled into their consciousness, and too, they ultimately hope that the child will better be able to defend themselves from any sort of threat or predator, especially if they or another honorable adult isn't around when something tries happening that is a danger to the child.
Now obviously we are not saying "Let's make the child into the big bad UFC guy on tv who smashes every opponent and glorifies it, but, we understand that as the times keep on a'changin' so too do the threats and they who present them and we personally are NOT in the business of making people victims, Especially our own students or else what kind of a school would we Be... damn sure Not a Beneficial one!
And so the curriculum for our youth students is a specialty-formulated system which again we assure you is Exclusively offered only here by the Wolf Band thanks to the sincere care and concern of Master Professor Minter, or "Wolf Brother" as he is called among our students. Keep in mind, he himself personally started training officially at the age of 6 and attained his own very first of many black belts by the age of 14, but whether or not a youth student chooses to make their martial arts training into a pertinent part of their life or not, honorably preserving their lives and the lives of their loved ones and others who find themselves in a potentially dangerous situation who find themselves counting on them to help protect them, is an area where personal confidence is going to prove a must, and the bottom line is, either they will have it in their training, or they won't, and quite frankly we know from our decades of personal life experience that not One martial art system alone can nor should make up 100% of a persons confidence, especially if they find themselves in a situation where they are literally fighting for their life of the life of someone else needing to be able to depend on their personal training skills an confidence to save them, that's just Our personal position on it, you're free to disagree if you wish but if you do we HOPE you don't prove us right in the end by becoming a statistic, the world has far too many of those already in our personal opinion.
A typical Youth Training Class runs an hour-long. Each class begins with and then ends with a bow to the teacher, or master as well as each student reciting the Wolf Band Moral Compass Code of ethical conduct, which we feel is very important to re-enforce as we develop their personal skills as martial arts is not Just about the physical being but aso if not more-so to do with heart and spirit as well.
After the official opening of the class, a brief warm-up and stretching is initiated and from their the class will proceed as the instructor leads meaning that the students then practice the art’s particular skills, which may include kicks, punches, and blocks. This is the core structure of All our classes and each phase of the class requires concentration and strict attention by each individual student for the class to properly operate collectively and benefit the whole of our purpose and intent.
The respect that is expected from ALL of our students, whether from bowing or standing still and waiting for the next command to the TEAMWORK aspect, time and again it can prove to be the most important benefits developed in children outside the immediate family and parental figure that proves to make a very beneficial example as well as standard of expectation in a person's life, and the earlier it's implimented, the better overall outcome according to the experts because it often carries over into school, helping to improve behavior and even grades, according to recent research as well as in the parent/child relationship growing up.
“Six is usually a good age to start classes,” says Mimi Johnson, M.D., a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Sports Medicine and Fitness. By that time a child should have enough understanding of "Right and Wrong" and too, have the muscle control to punch and turn properly and safely — essential to getting a real kick out of the martial and most importantly of all, their most eager to learn as well as eager to please, making it the optimum time to start instilling the moral ethics of respect and personal self control going literally hand and hand throughout the rest of their life, whatever coarse they may choose.
Progress is often marked by the belt system, which takes the beginner from a white belt through a variety of colors until black. Testing for each new level is generally offered every six months, but we also do "Evaluation" with our youth students at the three month mark as we find is a good exercise in setting and achieving goals in addition to helping the student gauge their individual progress before facing formal testing.
As a student is progressed to "the next level of rank" they receive an official "Rank Certificate" which is personally signed by Master Professor Minter and is suitable for framing. They also then have the ability of obtaining an actual belt of their official degree and the options of purchasing the patches and such to accompany it, should they choose to as all things other than the rank certificate are considered as "Extra's" because ultimately the bottom line is the rank certification that affirms the students degree of official training.