The BLAST’s Warrior Kids program is a very unique martial arts curriculum. We use martial arts to teach focus and self-discipline to our students as well as helping them build self-confidence and learn respect. These are all very common goals for most martial art academies, so what is special about our program? What sets THE BLAST apart from the rest is our teaching style and functional curriculum. Our Warrior programs do not teach your child just a single martial art, such as Tae Kwon Do or Karate, but instead combines multiple arts together to help make your child a well-rounded martial artist right from the start. By combining arts, we not only offer new and unique class designs every day, but we give each child a functional skill set that can be applied to martial arts in the future, and, if necessary, for self defense purposes.Another unique part of our Warrior Kids is the focus on life skills, skills that can be applied to martial and everyday life. These life skills, in addition to the martial arts techniques, help build the foundation for martial arts and introduce important character traits that will help kids be successful in life. Our goal is not only to help your child become a skilled martial artist, but to help them be a respected, goal-driven teenager and adult.

Functional Curriculum

Many martial art academies only teach your child stand up techniques, likely setting limitations on what your child will learn throughout their martial arts career and possibly preventing them from becoming an all around martial artist. At THE BLAST your child will learn how to perform martial arts in THREE main areas: stand-up (punching and kicking), clinch (grabs, standing grappling and self defense), and ground grappling (self defense, positions, submissions and rolling). To cover the three areas mentioned above, our Warriors curriculum covers Muay Thai Kickboxing/Jun Fan Kickboxing (stand up), Muay Thai Clinch, Greco Roman Wrestling, American Wrestling and Judo (clinch), and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Wrestling (ground grappling). These arts have been proven through the years to be extremely functional and versatile, and the combination of them allows for very fun and interactive classes.

Learning Must Be Fun

When your child is having fun, they learn more, and learning is imperative to their success in martial arts. A martial arts class that consists of tedious routines, forms or long memorized techniques will most likely cause your child to become bored and easily distracted. To ensure this does not happen at THE BLAST, we structure our classes in a circuit training format keeping students active for all of the class period. This design keeps your child excited throughout the class, moving from station to station, repeating techniques over and over without appearing that way. Repetition is necessary for your child to learn, but is taught in a way to help keep your child motivated and excited to come back to class. It is our goal to keep the kids smiling and having fun while teaching them martial arts and life skills.

Functional Life Skills

“Respect, Control, Confidence, Perseverance I am a Little/Junior/Senior Warrior,” is what each child recites at the beginning of their class. We feel that these four Life Skills are very important in a child’s day-to-day life. It is critical children learn to respect themselves and others, to control themselves, both mentally and physically, to be confident in who they are, and to persevere through tough times. A child who learns to do these things can be a role model for their peers, as well younger children. These life skills, while critical for focus and behavior in class, are successfully used out of martial arts classes, at home and in school. Many parents have used the phrase, “First time listener,” to get their child to do what they are told the first time they are told, not the second or third. Other parents have informed us of the confidence boost they have seen in their child, in social settings or at school, since participating in our Warrior programs. We feel that learning martial arts is an important tool in teaching respect and hard work in children, but more important than the techniques are the life skills we incorporate into the classes, as these traits will influence the children on multiple levels.

Functional Self Defense

It is not practical to teach a child to punch or kick another child for self-defense; teaching your child to punch or kick is saying, “It is okay to fight” and will in turn make them the bully. Schools systems have very strict rules when it comes to fighting, so teaching your child the wrong skills for self defense could put them in big trouble.

Question: Does your child know what self-defense is?

Most kids don’t. When we first ask our students this question, many cannot give a reasonable answer which is why it is our job to teach your child verbal and physical self-defense. We have a developed a system that begins with using your voice first and making smart decisions then, if necessary, using non-striking martial arts techniques to stop the bully. Our curriculum will ensure your child does not misuse their martial art skills.

Fit Kid

An overwhelming problem in the USA today is obesity, with adolescent obesity rapidly on the rise. Changing this health problem starts with our children. At THE BLAST we encourage fitness at young age, incorporating cardiovascular and callisthenic workouts into each Warrior class, trying to show our students that fitness can be fun. We want to show children that physical fitness activities can be just as fun as video games, movies, and television. At every belt testing there are physical fitness requirements each student needs to fulfill, requirements that increase in difficulty as the students get older. We educate the kids on nutrition, physical fitness and pushing themselves to encourage a healthy lifestyle.

Student/Parent/Martial Arts Instructor/School Teacher Relationship

The most important people in your child’s life are you as the parent, their teacher in school and us as their martial arts instructor. We want to know about your child’s progress outside of martial arts, progress at home and in the classroom. To do this, we encourage our parents to talk with us whenever there seems to be a problem with their child’s behavior outside the martial arts school. We want to encourage good behavior in school and reward good grades by giving ‘Academic Achiever’ patches at testing times. Recognizing good behavior is just as important, if not more important, than acknowledging bad behavior. We appreciate parents providing us with a copy of the student’s report cards and talking to us about how their child is doing at home. Martial arts is a tool not just for fitness and fun, but for teaching life-long lessons of hard work, determination, and striving for goals.