Youth Curriculum

Our school's curriculum includes the three branches of Chinese internal martial arts as well as elements from other Chinese styles. It is designed to begin with styles that emphasize the basics, which are the core of all martial arts, while teaching application. As the students progress, they move deeper into more internal and advanced material with an emphasis on Martial Values. All of the material is we teach is very advanced and would all be considered black belt material at other schools. At the beginning it is taught on a basic level for ease of understanding. As students mature in their studies they learn more advanced levels. More information is available about each style by clicking on the links in the text below. We approach the concept of sparring very differently than most martial arts schools. Instead of giving students pads and having them just fight, we focus on building appropriate skills to develop a well rounded martial artist rather than just a fighter. Students must earn this right through demonstration of self control and self discipline. In this way students don’t develop the bad habits that typically come with standard sparring.

Students start with Praying Mantis, which teaches Kung-Fu fundamentals and includes movements from many traditional Shaolin animal styles. They first learn a Praying Mantis solo form, and then a two person form while learning additional skills and techniques along the way. By the time students graduate to Tai Chi, they have had to learn how to focus their mind.

After passing Praying Mantis, students who are twelve years and older are eligible to join the Weapons class with their parental approval. In this class we study the main four weapons; Staff, Double Edged Sword, Broadsword, and Spear. Weapons must be purchased by the parent. In this way it is known that the weapon can be taken away from the child by the parent at any time.

From there students learn Tai Chi's first form. This is where students learn to go deeper inside themselves and smooth their rough edges with and emphasis on whole body spiral power. Through the principles of Tai Chi movement, students learn how to move their bodies as a whole unit rather than disconnected parts. This is where their self awareness starts to develop. Students learn the Chen Tai Chi Old Frame form. Chen is the original Tai Chi style, which includes martial application and thus is a fighting style of Tai Chi. This Level 2 class is where students start to develop more of the “fighting skills” as they work to develop speed, accuracy, power, and sensitivity in their two person form.

Baguazhang next teaches students to move beyond the straight line to create more circular movements and emphasizes strong footwork. This Level 3 class is where students learn to develop speed and flow with their movements. The material taught is Dragon Qigong form, Dragon Baguazhang Form, and a Bagua 2 person form. By the time students have made it to this class they have demonstrated a good deal of self control and learn more advanced self defense skills such as how to read another person’s movements, build reflexes and reaction time so that they can successfully evade attacks and set themselves up to counter if necessary.

After Baguazhang students return to Tai Chi's second form called Pao Choi, which translates to "Cannon Fist". This is where the power from the earlier forms is condensed into tighter spirals and students learn to apply the power that comes from softness. This is Tai Chi's combat form and where students learn how to utilize their power effectively. This is where we bring together the fighting skills and work on ways to effectively counter attack to end a fight immediately if ever the necessity arose.

Instead of having a typical belt system, students earn patches for their pants showing what styles they have learned. After learning all four styles, they will then work to refine their forms and test for Black Sash.

After earning the level of Black Sash, students will be able to enter into the Advanced Class. In this class students will be learning a whole new set of empty hand and weapons forms as well as advanced training techniques.

Join our Kung Fu Family!

We teach that competition is best with oneself rather than with others. We work to help our Kung Fu brothers and sisters to be their best as well. When we work in harmony, everyone grows and flourishes.

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