Youth Martial Arts
How does it work?
We have one membership for our youth team.
This means that your child can do different Martial Arts with us. We offer Karate (up to early teen), Kickboxing, Judo, MMA (age 10+) and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Most children settle into something they love but we have many that cross train.
We recommend they train at least twice a week in order to grow in their sport.
Classes for our youth members start with a warm up then some learning, then a short break for play. This resets their attention for more learning. Even our games are related to the Martial Art they’re learning and are very popular.
We encourage you to let us coach your child and deal with any issues that come up. This might be bumps, or a discipline matter, or managing boisterous behaviour. Doing this fosters independence and the idea that when they are in class they look to their coaches for direction, not their parents. This includes not calling out to your child while they’re in class. This helps children with their confidence. In each class there is a Coach and several assistant coaches. These are members of the adult team who have children of their own in the class or are members who are pursuing their own coaching career.
Why Choose martial arts?
Our youth Martial Arts offering is second to none. Our highly qualified and DBS checked coaches love teaching children and it shows on their (and the children’s) smiling faces. Our youth members learn important life skills at Blue Wave. Not just the Martial Art they practice but also respect for others, discipline, community, how to follow the rules, listening and how to look after each other.
They’re encouraged to be independent and work with adults other than their parents. Parents feedback to us that their children grow in confidence after joining Blue Wave.
Blue Wave coaches encourage grace in their wins but also in their defeats. Learning how to win is as important as learning how to lose and when two people spar only one will win! We encourage tenacity, responsiblity and perseverance.
We take great care to teach ‘care of others’ in our classes. This means children are encouraged to look after each other and many of our more experienced youth members become young assistant coaches. This is something special about Blue Wave and as well as being encouraged to take care with each other they learn how to hold their boundaries and work together even though they’re competing.
You will often see more experienced youth members nurturing less experienced or younger members by allowing them to ‘roll’ and get positions in order to learn.
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How young can they start?
We have no hard and fast age. Whether they’re ‘ready’ depends on your child. Some of our youngest members are our most confident! But we will try age 3 and up. They aren’t always ready that young but some are. The only way to tell is to try!
We have youth members as young as three join our classes all the way up to their teens when they begin to transition into the adult classes.
We offer a free trial to allow your child to settle in and become familiar with their teammates and coaches before we ask you to join.
Pictured here is our Age 7 & Under Team.
additional needs
Our coaching team are experienced in working with children who have different needs. When you sign up for your trial you’ll be asked about your child’s needs. Do give us as much information as possible so we are able to adapt our teaching and help your child get the best out of their training. We encourage them to have fun, make friends and learn important life skills such as self control, team work, looking after themselves and others.
If your child has a need that we haven’t encountered before we’ll ask you how best to support them.
We are not experts on special needs and we do everything we can to adapt training and learning to all.
You can always be assured we’ll be honest as to whether we can support your child safely and to the inclusion of all. In consultation with you we can decide if Blue Wave are a good fit for you and your child.