Children's Beginner Karate

We offer Children`s Beginner classes classes two times per week. Typically children are ages 5 and up. We do consider younger children on an individual basis. Each class runs 45 minutes and begins and ends with a short period of quiet time. As with all our Karate classes, the emphasis is on traditional Karate skills, including blocks, punches and kicks performed while standing and moving in various Karate stances.

We use Japanese terminology throughout and the children have fun learning the terms for the physical movements they are doing. Our students wear the traditional white dogi (uniform), and their level of personal advancement is indicated by the colour belt they wear during class. However, our focus is on students' self-development rather than ranking, and children are encouraged to advance at their own pace.

Our style of Karate, Matsubayashi-Ryu Shorin-Ryu Karate-Do, does not believe that competition or tournaments are a productive or long term method of training individuals. It is our belief that sport karate does not truly build self-confidence and self-esteem the way traditional Karate training methods do. Our emphasis is on each child's individual improvement, rather than being based on how well your child performs in comparison to another child. We do however occasionally participate in round-robin style get togethers with other dojo for the purpose of fun in allowing each student, both children and adults, to demonstrate their kata and practice free style kumite(fighting) with other like minded students of the martial arts.

In a typical class, children do warm-up exercises, basic Karate blocks, punches and kicks along with the associated stances. As they become more proficient with the basics students will learn kata (a prearranged series of movements), prearranged sparring with a partner and self-defense techniques. The actual requirements for each rank (belt level) is provided in the Renseikan Student Manual along with the Japanese terminology used in the classes.

Advanced Children's and Youth Karate Classes

Youth classes at Renseikan are 90 minutes long, and are offered three times a week. Youth clasess are for the older children, ages 10 and up, as well as higher ranked younger children. Classes are structured in a way similar to the children's Karate class, and the requirements for the older students are also outlined in the Renseikan Student Manual. As with the children's Karate classes, our emphasis is on individual self-development rather than achieving the next rank.