Hi, my name is Corey Paternoster, owner of Dynamic Martial Arts in Greenwich, CT. I want to take a moment to welcome you to our website and to say THANK YOU for considering Martial Arts for your child. I’ve taught kids martial arts classes for years and as you can imagine, I’ve seen every kind of personality you can think of in a child. Rambunctious, shy, defiant, complacent…every child is different, with special gifts to give and challenges to overcome, and I’ve seen Martial Arts classes help every single one of them find their inner strength, peace, and focus.
KARATE FOR KIDS TRAINING IS DESIGNED TO BE FUN AND FULFILLING FOR EACH STUDENT
Our classes are specifically designed for kids. How children are treated and taught makes a huge difference in their experience, and therefore their ability. When they’re engaged and excited, children learn really well. It seems obvious, but so often kids are “forced” to learn. At our school, they LOVE learning!
Martial arts is a “group sport” with an individual focus. Your child will interact with others, work with partners and listen to the instructor as a member of the group; but they’ll never “ride the bench”. They’ll be held to their own standard; no one else’s. Every child is unique and our Martial Arts classes offer a fantastic opportunity to capitalize on their natural strengths to bolster their Self Esteem so that they have the emotional and mental capability to tackle areas that need work.
Fitness
Fitness is a crucial element to all martial arts classes, especially where children are involved. Warmups with jumping jacks, pushups and stretches are common, and the movements of the martial art itself often challenge your muscles and cardiovascular system. Martial artists are known for being toned, flexible and physically fit, and your child will be no different.
Self-Confidence
A child who is involved in martial arts is generally a child who is confident in herself. The sense of accomplishment a child feels by mastering a new technique or graduating to a new belt follows him everywhere he goes.
Self-Discipline
Martial arts help instill mental focus in your child, giving her the ability to concentrate on a task and see it through to its conclusion. The discipline that is taught in the dojo in regard to uniforms, customs and techniques often translates into other areas of life, including school and household chores.
Self-Defense
The ability to defend yourself against an assailant is an empowering feeling. You can be certain that with regular practice, your child will learn to defend himself in a variety of different ways. We also teach street-smart techniques to kids to help avoid problems altogether.
Respect
Martial arts are all about respect. Punching, kicking, throwing and locking are all secondary to the respect that is shown form the moment you walk into a dojo. Children learn to bow to the masters who came before them, and to their current instructors. They also learn to treat other students as they wish to be treated.
My Child Needs Help Controlling His Actions. Will learning Martial Arts make it worse?
Actually, no. I know it seems counterintuitive, but the reality is that because our Martial Arts students like the physical portion of our classes (the kicking, punching, blocking, pushups and everything else) SO much, they’re willing to listen and apply the Character Development portions (patience, control, thinking before acting, etc). It really does work. Our students don’t WANT to use their Martial Arts moves outside of the class, because they don’t want to disappoint us as instructors. You really have to see it to believe it.
How often do we need to come to class and when are your classes?
Our programs fit into almost any schedule (remember, ALL of the families that already take classes with us are super busy too!). We have students who are successful in our program at only one day a week, and we have students who love classes so much that they beg their parents to bring them every time we’re open. If you enter your email we’ll send you to the next page where we will show you our schedule and trial offer. If you have questions about the schedule (it may not be obvious which class is appropriate for your child), there’s a contact for you on that page to ask questions.
Can we try it before we sign up?
We always start with a Trial Program. It’s really important not only for you to be able to make sure our program will be beneficial, but for us to be sure we can appropriately meet your goals as parents. We’ll be teaching life lessons, challenging limiting beliefs, and setting short & long terms goals, so it’s important that our values are congruent before we begin that life changing journey. However, because this introductory time is so important, we limit the number of new students during each trial period. So if you want a space, please be sure to sign up for one! If there are no spaces, we’ll put you on the waiting list.
My Child is PAINFULLY Shy, I feel like there's no way she'll start something new like this.
We see that day in and day out, and honestly, it can certainly be a challenge for all parties involved, but like I said, we see it day in and day out, and *It’s our job* to help your child learn to overcome their fears. In other activities, shyness and hesitation is a real crutch; the coach or teacher is often frustrated, and the shy child holds the class back. But because of our focus on the individual, it doesn’t hurt our class at all. When your child starts to trust that we’re going to help her regardless of whether she’s shy or brave, she’ll open up and it’ll start a chain reaction of confidence building that’ll drop your jaw. We know because….we do it everyday!
You talk about Character Development and Life Skills; How do you teach that in class?
Just like our physical curriculum works to improve your child’s fitness, flexibility and strength, our Character Development curriculum improves your child’s Life Skills. We have a curriculum that rotates through really important subjects like Respect, Discipline, Focus, Patience, Acceptance, Kindess, Compassion and more. It’s really cool, and all of our instructors feel lucky everyday to be able to pass these skills on to a younger generation.
Will my child get hurt? Is it safe?
Safety is always our number one priority. Although you risk injury anytime you choose to get out of bed, in our experience, we see far fewer injuries in our classes than in other kids activities (baseball, softball, football, etc). It’s actually frustrating, because we occasionally get calls from parents that their child can’t come to class because they hurt themselves in a different activity.
MARTIAL ARTS PUTS KIDS ON AN EARLY PATH TO GROW AND SUCCEED.
Our Kids Martial Arts program will help your child develop self-confidence, discipline, and respect for others at a young age.
