Hey SKILLZ Parents!
Did you know our classes here at On The Mat include the internationally acclaimed SKILLZ curriculums? SKILLZ provides our staff with the knowledge gained from many hours of childhood research and development in the martial arts.
With this knowledge, we are able to gauge our expectations for our students more precisely than ever before! This means we are constantly able to help them improve physically, intellectually, emotionally, and socially by targeting their particular stages of development during the skill-building sections of our classes.
As a quick example of what I mean, let’s take a look at how our instructors handle the physical challenges our students may come across:
We start by using specially designed drills that will challenge them appropriately without being demotivating or seeming impossible. Since every student is different, what may be hard for one student during the drill may be different than what challenges another.
In the case of physical challenges, our aim is to give them a little “one-on-one” during the drill to help them better understand or be able to perform the technique correctly. This is done in a variety of ways through hands-on coaching, verbal correction, a healthy dose of praise and encouragement and celebrating progress.
If a student is still very challenged we will then spend a few moments with them on the side to help them accomplish the task. We may even be able to dial the difficulty back to better target their specific stage of development. Our goal is to make sure that by the end of the drill we can motivate them to persevere and be the best they can be! Small steps forward are better than no steps at all.
We will also aim to communicate with our parents to offer any tips or tricks that the students can practice at home. Don’t be shy! If you ever have any questions on how your ninja can improve at a particular skill please ask an instructor for advice. Our instructors have a wealth of technical knowledge to share! We love to see our ninjas overcome obstacles because a win for them also feels like a win for us!
Sincerely,
Andrew Arquines