The Tiger class is a special class here at the Minneapolis dojang. We have always accepted younger children here at our school, and even have a specialized program that is solely dedicated to the specific needs of younger children – in fact, this class is only for 4-6 year olds our Tigers (or Hodori in Korean Language).
Starting martial arts at an early age is a tremendous way to build life skills for younger children. Not only will they learn coordination of their growing bodies, but training in our Tiger program will help build mental and social skills that are crucial in a child’s total development. This is a great way to better prepare children for school, learn more about responsibility and respect, as well as build self-confidence to deal with any new task that awaits them.
As this class is limited to 4-6 year olds (with 7-12 year olds participating in our regular junior class), the structure of the class really focuses on and pays attention to the needs that younger children have in a FUN and positive atmosphere. Most other martial art schools mix younger kids with older kids which becomes distracting and unproductive for both age groups. Younger children cannot fully take in the subject matter covered at an older kid’s pace, leading to boredom/frustration followed by attention problems and distracting actions – and the older children also get bored/frustrated when they cannot push themselves to higher limits and pursue advanced subjects at their own pace as they have to “hang out with the little kids.”
Any parent knows the difference in development that takes place as children grow day by day let alone year by year, and our staff is very sensitive to each of our student’s developmental journey, as well as the benefits that a specialized and structured program can impart on the children that participate at their specific age. In fact, we also have multiple classes for beginners and advanced students in all of our different age groups, allowing even more attention to be focused on the specific needs that each student has in each of our specific class levels. This approach leads to a tremendous amount of learning and development to take place within our class structure for all ages and levels.
Tigers (4 to 6 year olds)
Beginner Class meets 4:30 – 5:10pm Tuesday & Thursday
Advanced Class meets 4:30 – 5:10pm Monday & Wednesday
(Once the Little Tiger student develops a good understanding of the class and learning process, and is “comfortable” with the program, they can then join the Friday Acrobatics and Saturday Kids Class)
Please go through the information in our “Enrollment” section for more information about setting up a tour of our wonderful facility and other details for beginning the martial art journey.
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No more “TINY TIGERS” …..
While our school used to offer a class for the younger, toddler aged, 2.5 & 3 year olds, the group of kids who were participating are now older and moved up to regular Tiger class. Also, our class schedule has filled up so significantly we can simply no longer fit that time slot in anymore. If you have a child that is “around” 4 years old, we can always arrange a trial meet & greet for our instructors to see how your child would respond to training and our class environment. We don’t want to the kids to feel overwhelmed, but if they have enough maturity and development then can join the Tiger Crew.