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Dear Parents, Children
stand to learn so much more than self-defense from studying Shaolin-Do.
You may have enrolled your child for the purpose of introducing a fun
activity, improving their discipline or teaching them self-defense, and
Shaolin-Do does provide all of
these and so much more! However, we need your help to provide your kung
fu kids with the most powerful tool he or she will ever learn, and will
ever need for that matter. That tool is effort. Many parents and
grandparents talk of the hardships they experienced in their youth and
how those hardships helped to make them the resourceful, strong, ethical
and hard-working people they are today. But the hardships were not
enjoyable and, understandably, no parent wants their children to endure
them. But how do we instill the values those hardships teach without the
trauma? Martial
Arts provide a controlled and measurable series of "hardships" in the
form of healthy, challenging exercises and forms that they must
step-by-step master before moving to the next level. The exercises make
them stronger and more flexible, the material broadens their ideas and
sharpens their focus, and the goals (the different belt levels) are
attainable within reasonable periods of time. However, to get the most
from the experience, the children need to learn the value of effort. The
more effort they put into their classes and practice at home, the
bigger the pay off. We emphasize this continually in class and try to
point out to them that the more they put into ANYTHING the more they get
out of it and of life, in general. We are trying to help teach our kung
fu kids to go after what they want in a methodical and positive way.
You can help by reminding them to practice between classes, call out the
description of a sparring technique or short kata when they get stuck
(see material section) and encourage them to stretch and practice fast
or powerful kicks too. If they can come to their next class having still
retained the material they learned at the last class, they will be
ready to move on and they will begin to develop the tools of practice
and effort that will benefit them at school and life. Having the
material solidly in their memory from all that practicing will reinforce
their self-confidence and a wonderful positive feedback loop will
develop. We
want you to trust us with your child's training. Don't ask us to move
your child along any faster than we are or pressure us to test your
child before we deem him or her ready. Rushing your child through the
system for the purpose of changing belt colors or keeping up with the
others will only hurt them. Making them wait until they are ready for
their new belt, even if another child passes them briefly in that goal,
can be the one most valuable lesson your child will take from class, the
lesson that patience is rewarded and effort brings value to the reward.
We are not like some schools that move students along at a snail's pace
because they want to extort tuition from you for as long as possible or
because they don't have enough material to keep your interest for long.
Ask any adult taking our classes and they'll tell you that we don't
hold back on material. And at first, kung fu kids test and get new belts
rather often as the material is simpler and in smaller blocks for the
younger (preK) set and beginners. But we will hold back for the sake of
self-confidence and discipline. If one is not ready to test, one must
practice and wait until ready. Anything less than this, cheats the child
of the valuable lessons sandwiched between the material, lessons of
focus, will power, and effort. If you have any questions, please feel
free to ask and thanks for helping us with our job as we hope we are
helping with yours. In the end, we want all of the kung fu kids to be
confident, fit and totally aware of the value of effort in all of their
endeavors. Sincerely, Master Joe Schaefer and Master Sheryl Schaefer, Austin Texas
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