Little P.U.M.A.s
Our Little P.U.M.A.s martial arts program is for children aged 4 to 6 years old and has been designed specifically to help your child find greater self-confidence and self-esteem while improving their physical development. They will also learn child friendly discipline, stranger awareness and emergency drills as well as improving their fitness level.
The children wear a blue and white training suit unique to P.U.M.A. with the Master Puma embroidered on the back. They love to wear the suit and it helps each child feel they are part of a team.
The training program is designed to encourage the development of motor skills, balance, endurance, flexibility, strength and the coordination of eye, hand and foot. It is a mixture of simple training exercises and games designed to assist in the physical development, improved health and increased fitness of each child.
The children attend a 45-minute weekly session, which combines fun, excitement and exercise in a safe and caring environment.
Our program is based on martial arts but it also involves a range of skills including focus and concentration.
Each lesson attended at our Little P.U.M.A.s class earns a signature in their record book and once a page is complete, we award the bronze Master Puma Badge, followed by the Silver and Gold once enough signatures are gathered.
We also love to reward hard work and believe that if a child can develop a great work ethic they will be able to transfer this skill to many other aspects of their later life. Because of this we award a range of colourful start badges to students who bring in certificates or projects they have attained outside of Little P.U.M.As and we spend the last 5 minutes of each class celebrating their achievements.
Gradings
Every 3 months your child can take part in a grading and be awarded a new belt and certificate. This is a small test in front of their normal instructor where they can show what they have learned. This is not a pass/fail, but an celebration of achievement. Both the syllabus and the gradings can be adapted to suit children with additional needs and are about developing self esteem and courage.
8 KEY THEMES COVERED IN THE LITTLE P.U.M.A.S PROGRAM
Balance, coordination, stranger awareness, emergency drills, memory, teamwork/leadership, discipline, fitness and focus/concentration.
Each theme is covered during classes and a badge is awarded at gradings once that section is complete.
Tournaments
Little P.U.M.A.s have their own section at the start of every P.U.M.A. tournament where they can perform high kick and their own easy competition drill. There get to meet Master Puma himself at tournaments - he always attends as he loves a good tournament. There are usually between 4 and 6 tournaments per year and the Little P.U.M.A.s can attend them all.
Juniors and Cadets
Inspiring the Black Belts of the future.
We aim to make our junior classes fun and engaging. There is an element of physical exercise and an element of technical teaching during every lesson. Each student is encouraged to go at their own pace and not to compare themselves to anyone else as each journey to Black Belt is unique. Classes are 45 minutes with at least one water break. The class will include some time spent as a large group followed by smaller age or grade specific teams. Gradings are available every 3 months but are not obligatory and normally a student would only grade 2 or 3 times a year. Younger students will aim to achieve their PURPLE STRIPE and ORANGE STRIPE grades before then continuing onto YELLOW STRIPE and the same syllabus as the Cadets and Adults taught in a more child friendly manner.
Children with additional needs are very welcome. We are happy to make allowances for sensory issues and the syllabus and gradings can be modified to accommodate students with disabilities. More details can be found in OUR VISION from the site header.
The BELT system for juniors is as follows.
White, Purple Stripe, Orange Stripe, Yellow Stripe, Yellow Belt, Green Stripe, Green Belt, Blue Stripe and Blue Belt.
Once reaching the Blue Belt grade students of any age are recognised as senior grades. This carries more expectations and the gradings become harder to start the preparation towards Black Belt. Juniors do not get a separate Junior version of the Black Belt and will be expected to train and grade with the adults after Blue Belt although some younger juniors opt to stay in the junior class until they can graduate as a group with their friends.
CADETS
Cadets are young adults. Junior students who would like to take their training a little more seriously. Cadets, Adults and Seniors train in the same slightly longer class, normally 90 minutes. Cadets are either teenagers or have trained to senior grade Blue Belt, whichever comes first.
Cadets are then encouraged to start taking on some gentle responsibility within the school. This helps to develop a sense of community, responsibility and social awareness. It also raises self esteem and allows the students to give something back to their school.
TKD can be used towards the volunteering and physical section of the Duke of Edinburgh Award. Ms Reeve has been an assessor for a number of years and many students have been able to take advantage of our membership to accomplish their goals.
The Sport side of TaeKwonDo
Classroom sparring is for those just starting out. It might include wearing protective gear but will always be safe with VERY limited contact. This level is about building confidence and knowledge.
Grading Sparring is performed at belt tests from Green Stripe and above. Rather than being competitive it is a way to show the examiner your skills and control as you will be facing a partner of similar grade.
Tournament Sparring is the true sport side of the art. C&H TKD can offer competitive training both at domestic level and with the British P.U.M.A. squad. At this level the contact will be higher but still safe as is practicable. We are fortunate to have a number of British and International Champions in our school in both Patterns and Sparring.
Seniors
At C&H TKD we have cadets and adults training together and learning from each other. This multi generational approach encourages a sense of community and mutual respect. It also allows many generations of the same family to train together and to be able to support each other through their journey to Black Belt and beyond. You are never too old to start training and P.U.M.A. recognises the extra challenges that come with starting as a more mature student.
We are always happy to meet established ITF style practitioners looking for a place to train in Bristol either permanently or as part of the University student community. We will happily honour the grade of any students transferring from an established ITF organisation.
“Happy kids engage more, learn faster and retain more information. That’s why we try to make our junior students laugh and the classes fun, it’s a winning formula”
Ms L Reeve, Senior Instructor