The Traditional Martial Arts Academy Blog
Mat Chat–Making Mistakes
In last week’s mat chats, we discussed with students ideas and feelings around making mistakes. Mistakes are a natural, inevitable and important part of learning. They give feedback on whether or not you are moving in the right direction. If you try something, and do it perfectly every time, you are not learning anything—you are simply tapping …
Mat Chat–Goals
Now that we are back from our winter break, we have resumed our Mat Chats before class. These are an opportunity for us to discuss life skills with kids and, in keeping with the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, our topic last week has been goals. How do you pick a goal and what is needed to accomplish your goals? Key …
Mat Chat–Leadership
Last week, our mat chat topic was “Leadership”. In our discussions with students, we talked about leadership being a process of setting an example and standing up for others. We drew a distinction between leadership and bossiness. This tapped into the previous week’s topic of confidence. Kids quickly saw that leadership comes from confidence, while bossiness comes from arrogance. Students also …
Mat Chat–Confidence
Each week, the TMAA teaching staff engages students on a new topic in a pre-class discussion we call “Mat Chats”. We follow up on those chats with posts to the blog that help parents understand not only what we are discussing with their kids (it can be hard to hear in a martial arts school!), but …
Mat Chat–Practice
Each week, the TMAA teaching staff engages students on a new topic in a pre-class discussion we call “Mat Chats”. We follow up on those chats with posts to the blog that help parents understand not only what we are discussing with their kids (it can be hard to hear in a martial arts school!), …
Holiday Sale–November 18-21
It’s hard to believe, but it’s that time of year again! As many of you who have been with us for some time already know, every year we have a Holiday Sale. Our 2019 Holiday Sale will be held the week of November 18-21. During that week, the following items will be on sale (Please …
Mat Chat – School Stripe
At Traditional Martial Arts Academy, kids earn life skills stripes at every belt level. These stripes are for effort applied at home, school and towards community service. During our mat chats this past month, we discussed one of these stripes each week. Last week, we discussed the School Stripe. Kids earn a red stripe for their belts for effort they …
Mat Chat – Home Stripe
At Traditional Martial Arts Academy, kids earn life skills stripes at every belt level. These stripes are for effort applied at home, school and towards community service. During our mat chats this month, we will be discussing one of these stripes each week. Last week, we discussed the Home Stripe. Kids earn a yellow stripe for their belts for …
Mat Chat – Community Service Stripe
At Traditional Martial Arts Academy, kids earn life skills stripes at every belt level. These stripes are for effort applied at home, school and towards community service. During our mat chats this month, we will be discussing one of these stripes each week. Last week, we discussed community service. Kids earn a blue stripe for their belts for altruistic …
Mat Chat Topic: Solidarity
A few weeks ago, we made a change to the Dojang Code that kids recite before class. For decades, we have said “Brotherhood”. Over the past five years or so, the TMAA staff has been discussing replacing it with a more gender-neutral term, but we struggled to find something that captured the right spirit. Rick Abel (Sam’s dad) suggested “Solidarity” …
Mat Chat Topic—Discomfort
We have really been enjoying the interactions we have been having with TMAA kids during our mat chats before classes. These posts are meant to help you understand the topics we are discussing with your child and give you some insight into our approach so that you can support the lessons at home. This past week, we …
TMAA Student Assistance Fund (aka Scholarship Fund)
Traditional Martial Arts Academy was founded with the mission to offer life-transforming experiences for its students and their families. In this spirit, we have always striven to insure access to classes for those who are dedicated to attend, even when financial hardship interfered with a student being able to afford full tuition. For this reason, we …
TMAA Student Assistance Fund (aka Scholarship Fund)Read More
Mat Chat Topic – Honor
Last week, we discussed the concept of honor during our pre-class mat chats. We began by working with the kids to come up with a definition. There can be a bit of confusion at this point because there are two definitions of honor that are not related to our topic. The first is a verb that describes …
Mat Chat Topic–Honesty
We have gotten positive feedback on the mat chats before kids’ classes we have been doing before kids’ classes. One request we have received is to offer follow-up documentation of the chat topics so that parents can reinforce lessons at home. We think that is a great idea and will be posting that information here in the TMAA …
Change to Start Time of Tues/Thurs Late Beginner Class
Effective immediately, the Beginner Class on Tuesdays and Thursdays will start at 5:30 pm instead of 5:25 pm and run until 6:10 pm instead of 6:05 pm. We have made this change in an effort to provide more of a buffer between this class and the class that proceeds it, giving 10 minutes between the …
Change to Start Time of Tues/Thurs Late Beginner ClassRead More
Changes to Beginner Belt Levels
You may have noticed that there have been some recent updates for White and Yellow Belt. The most obvious is that Yellow Belts are now scheduled with White Belts instead of the intermediate class. This is to help them get more personal attention as they make the transition into more challenging material as well as to give …
Upcoming Seminars
We have some exciting kids’ seminars coming soon. On Saturday, October 5th we will be holding two Tonfa seminars. Tonfa (Cha Ru in Korean) is a side-handled baton (here is a video of Sabumnim Espy demonstrating a Tonfa form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bApgPl7OsSc). Kids will learn the fundamentals of striking and blocking, as well as some really fun, practical drills. The first …
Mat Chats
You may have noticed some changes in how we are transitioning kids between classes. We are working on helping kids settle into class with more focus and energy. An example of these changes is moving kids away from playing before class and instead using that time to work on their curriculum and ask instructors questions. Perhaps the …
Change to the Dojang Code for Pyon Moo Do Kids
The “Tradition” in Traditional Martial Arts has historically been about adapting to changes–in culture, geography, tactical needs. When things changed–and what once worked no longer did or was not as effective–adaptation of the art was necessary. This is in contrast to a more Classical Martial Arts in which things are done in the way they …
