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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 child 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 them 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. But we will hold back for the sake of self-confidence and discipline. If you are not ready to test, you must practice and wait until you are ready. Anything less than this, cheats you 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 kids to be confident, fit and totally aware of the value of effort in all of their endeavors.
Sincerely, Master Joe Schaefer and Sifu Sheryl Schaefer, Austin Texas
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