Lil’Dolphins    The Shire Martial Arts Lil’Dolphin program is a 5-6 yr old age specific curriculum designed to teach children important life skills in a fun, exciting and fulfilling manner. The secret to teaching your child co-ordination, concentration, self control, focus, discipline and more is a unique method we call ‘Edu-fun’. This utilises the excitement and fun of the Lil' Dolphins Martial Arts skills as well as some especially adapted Yoga poses.   Your child will learn MORE than just how to kick and punch - They learn SKILLS for LIFE The Lil' Dolphins activities will keep your child physically fit. Also, many of the group activities show children the benefits of good behavior. Most importantly the class curriculum also helps young kids see the value of good manners and trying their best both in and outside of the class room. The Lil' Dolphins curriculumn helps to teach the key life lessons that every child should know.   Lil' Dolphins reinforces family values Many of the concepts and lessons you are teaching your child at home will be consistently reinforced through class room discussions in the Lil' Dolphin program. Topics such as: good manners (including keeping hands and feet to themselves), respect for one’s self and others, following directions the FIRST time - and more, are taught and reinforced.   Here’s how we help your child learn to set goals, build confidence and have a positive outlook in life. At the end of each class, students line up and receive a special sticker on their attendance booklet. When a Lil' Dolphin recives 4 stickers, they then receive a special stripe or 'tip' on their belt. The belt tips are an achievement award and work as an extra incentive. Once a Lil’Dolphin has earned the 3 tips needed for their belt they then move up to the next Lil' Dolphin coloured belt. This helps kids see the benefits in trying their best.   Lil' Dolphins helps prepare your child for life in the BIG world Lil' Dolphins improves kids basic motor skills, as well as their positive mental skills - the very things that will help your child enter society with a confident and enthusiastic outlook. Lil’ Dolphins become better school students, better listeners at home and they feel more ambitious about their future goals. Lil’ Dolphins graduate into Big Dolphins and then eventually they move into the Shire Martial Arts Junior Black Belt program.   Lil' Dolphin Class Times:  4.00 - 4.40 pm on Monday, Tuesday & Thursday

Big Dolphins The Shire Martial Arts Big Dolphin program is a 7-11 yr old age specific curriculum. Unlike the younger Lil' Dolphins, who have an attendance based curriculum with their own special belt system, the Shire Martial Arts Big Dolphins are actually beginning their journey to being a Black Belt.      Here's how we teach kids about responsibility, the ability to learn, setting goals, confidence, self esteem and achievement. At the end of class each student receives a black attendance stripe on one side of their belt. When they have accumulated a sufficient amount, they undergo a ‘Tip Test’ each month where they must demonstrate the skills covered in their syllabus. When they can do this they receive a coloured skill stripe on the other side of their belt. The skill stripes represent a level of skill and achievement and work as an incentive.   This process is repeated until the Big Dolphin has earned all of the skill stripes for their particular level. As well as this, Big Dolphins are required to demonstrate that they have good behavior and attitude at home and at school. Once all of this is checked out by our Shire Martial Arts systems, the student then moves up to the next coloured Big Dolphin belt. This helps kids see the benefits in trying their best.   After this, the process is repeated with the skills becoming slightly more challenging each time. Eventually, Big Dolphins will graduate into our junior black belt program.   Big Dolphin Class Times:  4.45 - 5.25 pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday

Junior Black Belt Program The Shire Martial Arts Junior Black Belt Program is for over 11 yr olds. This program is broken into 3 parts. The Yellow (beginners) program, the Blue (intermediate) program and Red (Advanced) program.   The 'SMA' Juniors start off slowly in the Yellow program so that they may develop a strong Martial Arts foundation. We teach them skills like how to develop, strength by giving them a rigorous work out that includes push ups, sit ups and other Martial Arts specific skills. Flexibility is also an integral part of Martial Arts so we ensure that Junior students learn about stretching and being loose. We also teach them how build their endurance by skipping and with lots of other martial arts drills. Everyone sweats at Shire Martial Arts!    We also teach juniors effective self defence and escape moves in a structured way so that they may be learned properly and be retained for life.   As Junior students progress into the Blue and subsequent Red programs we introduce them to Martial arts weapons such as the short stick (Dan Bong) and the staff (Bong Sul). Our Blue and Red curriculum is also designed so each and every student is able to escape and defend themselves against multiple assailants as well as knife and club attacks.   Junior Black Belt Program Class Times:  5.30 - 6.20 pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday  9.00-10.00 am on Saturday

Remember, you or any family member can try out Shire Martial Arts absolutely FREE by enrolling in our Introductory Program. There are limited spaces. 

To find out more call: (02) 9531 7648 or email: tkdinfo@shiremartialarts.com.au

© 1995/2010 Gary Simmons