Thursday July 19th was the first session of the New Beginner Class at Kaizen Martial Arts Australia in Wyndham Vale. Fourteen very excited and highly energized children began their journey into the world of Shotokan Karate and Kodokan Judo. To put the kids at ease Sensei sat with the group and introduced himself then talked about the dojo, the history of Kodokan Judo, Shotokan Karate and the types of activities the students would be learning.
He also talked about the etiquette of bowing as they enter and exit the dojo as well as bowing on and off the mat. Sensei also explained the rules of the club. Now that everyone had relaxed it was time for warm ups and stretching.
All the children were now ready for some martial arts games, and a game of sumo went down really well with the new kids showing off their skills and abilities of dogging and weaving, moving and spinning to avoid being taken out of the sumo area.
A lot of fun and laughter was had by everyone that was involved not to mention the laughter and support from the parents in the room.
Sensei with the help of Sempei’s Kristopher, Briarna and Keanu demonstrated upper, middle and lower punching technique and then it was time for the class to let their energy loose to the count of one, two, three, four, and so on, in Japanese and English.
These guys were really putting everything they had into their punching and it was awesome to watch. Next it was time to impress the parents in the room with some traditional Shotokan Karate techniques, starting with kin geri (front snap kick) and mae geri (forward thrusting kick). Everyone watched eager and wide eyed as Sensei showed them how to do kin geri on the kick pad. “Now it’s your turn” he said.
All the children were jumping out of their skin with excitement each trying their very best to impress. Again the children picked up the mae gere and kin geri technique easily and every one of them were unleashing all the power and force from within to kick that pad as hard as they could.
All the parents in the room were very impressed by all this high energy power. “Ok, who would like to see some of the things you’ll be learning in Judo?” Instantly there were several excited squeals of “yeah”. With this approval Sensei Garry and Sempei Keanu proceeded to demonstrate a couple of the kids Judo beginner throws such as o-soto-gari and uke goshi with ne-waza or ground submission skills to finish off the techniques.
And then to the astonishment of parents and children alike Sempei Keanu threw Sensei Garry with a very impressive tomoe nage, everyone gasped and then followed with the oohs and arrrs to see such a little guy throw the much bigger and heavier Sensei with such ease.
This new kids beginner class is sure to produce a fantastic group of enthusiastic martial artists.
P.S. And as an addition to this all the students mentioned above have now finished their 4 free lessons and without a single exception have all joined as full members of the Kaizen Martial Arts Australia family, so welcome aboard kids…so much fun and learning to come before Christmas.
