KidZone
KidZone Children’s Martial Arts
KidZone is our specialist martial arts programme for children aged 8-12. Martial Arts is a fantastic sport for any child who wants to develop their confidence, self defence and learn to stand up to bullies!
KidZone Class Times
Wednesday 6:15pm – 7:00pm KidZone Children’s Martial Arts / All Abilities / ages 8-12
LIMITED PLACES AVAILABLE - CONTACT US TO PRE BOOK
Saturday 9:55am – 10:40am KidZone Children’s Martial Arts / All Abilities / ages 8 -12
LIMITED PLACES AVAILABLE - CONTACT US TO PRE BOOK
To give new children at their trial class the best experience and allow our instructors the time to help with your questions, please contact us to ensure spaces are available.
"My son has been with Holistic Fitness for over a year now. Its been great for his fitness and strength and its been great seeing him achieve his first belts. The personal development element of the classes has helped him learn respect for others as well as helping with his self esteem."
R Jackson, KidZone Pupil, Parent
About Our Children’s Martial Arts Classes
KidZone takes all the best bits of Martial Arts, from Kung Fu, Karate and Kickboxing and presents martial arts as a sport and not an excuse for fighting. Grounded in the traditional elements of combat sports, KidZone promotes respect for others, discipline in oneself and that exercise can be fun.
The great thing about Martial Arts is that although you train and spar with others, Martial Arts is a great leveller, with children of all fitness levels and body shapes and sizes being able to take part without any prior knowledge or experience. This makes our KidZone classes perfect for those children who may struggle in team sports of are at that ‘awkward gangly stage’ helping them to improve their coordination and help retain their focus at an age where outside influences begin to have more pull beyond a parents control.
A Typical KidZone Class
KidZone class starts at home, with expectations that pupils will arrive on time and with a clean, pressed uniform (older children should be encouraged to take responsibility of this themselves!)
One entering the Dojo, KidZone pupils remove their shoes and leave them at the side and then prepare for class if not already in uniform. Quite often pupils will play tag or warm up while waiting for the class to begin when the instructor will call everyone to attention and pupils must stand in line according to their grade (skill level).
Attention stance is called and respects, when the class pay their respects to the dojo and the instructor. Creed is then called and all KidZone pupils are required to know this by rote. It emphasises using ones common sense, doing ones best and having respect for others.
Warm up exercises are done to prepare the pupils and will incorporate stretching along with traditional exercises such as press-ups and sit-ups and often games and techniques to be done with a partner and working together.
Martial Arts techniques are then taught in the form of drills and pad-work, which the instructor and assistant will demonstrate before each pupil either having a go at the technique with the instructor or with pupils pairing off and taking turns to be ‘the pad man’ i.e. the person holding the pads that the exercise is done against. This is an important part of training and pupils are encouraged to practice at home with a well-cushioned sibling or parent! Taking turns at holding the pads is equally important as this helps to strengthen the muscles to get used to holding a particular position and also helps in getting used to knowing how to block a kick or a punch for real. Drills and Pad-work exercises will be given different emphasis usually, speed, power or technique. The Instructor will advise the pupils of this and all pupils will be supervised to make sure everyone is matched suitably according to skill level.
Pupils will then normally be asked to ‘pad up’ ie put on their full sparring kits as they then begin to put into practice what they have learnt during the drills. Sparring is an important part of our KidZone programme and we encourage all children to take part, However no child is ever forced to do so but in all of our years of experience we have found that even the most timid of children get too excited at the prospect of being able to legitimately fight and soon get involved!
All sparring is done on a safety fist basis and although our classes are very mixed sparring will always be done at a level suitable for the weaker opponent and in fact it is often the case that more experienced pupils know how to temper their power better than new beginners who often try to hit as hard as they can. All newcomers are first invited to spar with the instructor so that the instructor can get an idea of the power and speed of the student and match them with an appropriate sparring partner.
A large part of the KidZone programme is built around Kickboxing as a sport and like most martial arts KidZone has a belt grading system. Therefore many of the drills and techniques will incorporate elements of the syllabus as well as having regular formal syllabus training within the class. With each belt the techniques and sequences become more complex so that upon reaching black belt children will have a full repertoire of martial arts techniques.
Class ends with a few cool down exercises and badges may also be given out at this point if anyone has done anything exceptional such as trained extra hard or perfected a particular kick. These badges are awarded purely at the instructor’s discretion.
Respects are paid once more the creed is said and class ends with a general mad rush of misplaced shoes and odd socks so we recommend all items of clothing, uniform and equipment being labelled!
KidZone Classes: Pricing
Children’s Martial Arts Trial Classes are FREE
We encourage everyone to have a go and so all trail classes of our KidZone classes are free! Your child may even give it a second go before we ask that you commit to being a full member of the KidZone programme which is a requirement for all KidZone students.
Membership costs £60 for the 1st year of membership (£50 thereafter provided renewed before expiry) and includes club membership, mandatory insurance and martial arts licence fee.
All KidZone pupils are expected to wear the uniform which costs £40 and is available from the instructor.
Grading, badge tests and belts are all included in our lesson fees! there are no extra cost for grading.
Sparring Kit which is personal to each child can also be bought from the instructor. Protective equipment is required for KidZone pupils to fully engage in class and to be able to grade for a belt. Kit can be bought with membership and uniform at a discount or bought over a number of weeks.
The monthly standing order is then as follows: (based on one person training) *Sibling & Family discounts are available.
1 x KidZone Class per week: £50 a month
2 x KidZone Classes per week: £75 a month
Discounts are available for Siblings and Family Memberships are also available.
Please note if you join mid-month and have already taken advantage of our free trial class offer then classes will be charged at £15 per class.