Last week, ATA Karate Life Skills Training Center came to my daughter's school abd taught the kids some self-defense techniques. All the kids seemed to enjoy it, and the instructor handed out cards offering them a free self-defense class at his school the following weekend. Brianna seemed really enthusiastic about going, although that might have had more to do with the pizza being offered than the karate itself. But I was all about having her learn some more defense techniques, so I gladly signed her up and we went out there.
It was a really good class, focused on empowering the kids to get out of dangerous situations. The instructor, Mr. Bentley, did a really fantastic job of motivating and engaging each of the children. His questions to the class as a whole made a point of setting the kids up for success with their answers. And when he spoke to them one on one, he made sure to maintain constant eye contact and bring himself down to their eye level whenever he could. The kids learned multiple ways to get away from an attacker, up to and including specific targets to strike at if someone has grabbed them. And with the parents coming out onto the floor to grab their children, they learned that it really is possible to pull yourself free of a full-grown adult.
The session hit it's peak when they brought out the boards for everyone to break. One of the promises was that by the end of the day, they'll all be able to break a board with their bare hands, earning their white belts should they want to continue with classes. Every single child out there managed to pull it off, even the one little girl who couldn't have been older than five or six. I even managed to capture the action shot above of Brianna snapping hers into three pieces. I couldn't have been prouder.
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