Sutherland Shire Kids Karate

‘Little Dolphins’ Sutherland Shire Kids Karate

‘Little Dolphins’ is a Sutherland Shire kids Karate program. It was created by Master Gary Simmons at his Caringbah Taekwondo training centre.

The Little Dolphins program is renowned as being a progressive personal development program for kids aged between five and six years old who live in the Sutherland Shire, in Sydney’s South.

Master Gary Simmons founded Shire Martial Arts over 20 years ago. The Little Dolphins class is now one of the most popular programs at his Caringbah Martial Arts centre. Little Dolphins began when Master Gary Simmons was continually asked if he would let five year olds join his kids classes. Master Gary Simmons realized that he needed to create a Sutherland Shire kids Karate class that specifically catered for pre schoolers.

After much planning as well as trial and error, the Little Dolphins program evolved into the program it is today. This link leads to a movie where Master Gary Simmons explains how the Little Dolphins program helps young children develop confidence, self esteem and other important life skills. Check out the video here.

The Little Dolphins program is designed around the principal of mentorship. The assistant instructors from our STORM employment program play a huge role in this preschool Sutherland Shire kids Karate class. You can learn more about our SWAT and STORM teams with this link.

As well as our elite STORM team, we also use the older kids from our Big Dolphins leadership team which we call our Black Belt Club (BBC) to hep mentor our Little Dolphins. (The Big Dolphins is our program for 7-10 year olds). This works really well because most of the Big Dolphins are former Little Dolphins themselves and they really enjoy getting some practical leadership skills. Its win-win! You can find out more here with this link.

The Little Dolphins program is an ATTENDANCE based program. Master Gary Simmons believes that five and six year old kids are not ready to grasp the concept of being assessed like his other Shire Martial Arts students. So instead of being tested, the Little Dolphins are taught about setting goals.

This is how it works. Each Little Dolphin is issued with a booklet which gets stamped after each class. When they get four stamps a ‘stripe’ is placed on their belt. In this system they get three stripes per belt. After they get their third stripe, they do four more classes to complete the booklet and then they are awarded their next belt.

Getting a stripe and especially a new belt, is a huge deal for the Little Dolphins and their parents! We see a LOT videos and photos being shot by proud parents in this belt graduation ceremony. There is no doubt that Little Dolphins is a much loved Sutherand Shire kids Karate class. If you click on the Little Dolphins video link you can see for yourself. https://shiremartialarts.com.au/ld-promo.html

Each week the Little Dolphins program features a new competency or theme including: co-ordination, self discipline, focus, memory, fitness, teamwork, balance, courage and confidence. Another great feature of the Shire Martial Arts Little Dolphins program are the mat chats. Basically, the whole class including the assistants and instructors have a huddle and discuss the weekly class competancy within the context of everyday life. This is a very powerful learning tool because if for example, the competency is about ‘focus’, the Little Dolphins get to understand how they can be ‘focused’ at home and at preschool or kindergarten.

Find out more about our Sutherland Shire kids Karate training techeniques and competencies that we use in our Caringbah Martial Arts school here: https://shiremartialarts.com.au/kids.html

If you have a five to six year old child, take a look at the Little Dolphins video and see how all the elements of Martial Arts come together at our Caringbah Taekwondo. Shire Martial Arts is located on the border of Taren Point and Caringbah.

In the 20th anniversary year of Shire Martial Arts (we used to be known as Taekwondo Cronulla), our founder Master Gary Simmons says that he is “prouder han ever” of his Little Dolphins.

To find out more about our Sutherland Shire kids Karate classes please have a look at our website and blog with these links:

https://shiremartialarts.com.au

http://shiremartialarts.blogspot.com.au