rev:text
| - Enrolling our son here three years ago is one of the best decisions my husband & I have made. Our then seven year old boy was having difficulties behaviorally in school & we did not know what to do to help him. Sensei Rick has been in the community for over 35 years & his guidance along with the other Senseis', parents' & families' there has been invaluable. There is a sense of community, family, discipline, self confidence & pride. I'm not going to tell you that we enrolled our son & everything has been perfect ever since because, if you have kids, you know that is not realistic. However, we have been able to turn to the Senseis (similar I think to turning to a trusted coach on a sports team) when situations arise & the support & insight Sensei Rick has from over 35 years of training kids is wonderful.
As far as sparring & katas go, there are dedicated classes during the week to each, in addition to monthly competition training & competition team (extra but worth it!) training. It is of note that as kids get older the katas are explained more & more as to how they translate to self defense & practical terms. If you do your research on Wado Ryu karate, the katas are extremely disciplined, as is sparring. The movements are concise & to the point. There is definitely an emphasis on technique, but I have only seen positive effects from that. The school has been increasing it's presence at competitions but we were not overly concerned with that as we did not enroll our son for showmanship, we enrolled him for discipline, self confidence & self defense.
The rates are reasonable to us when we factor in that they are flat monthly rates with no test/belt fees, no rate increases for utilizing more class time, etc. There is an additional annual fee that is explained up front. I don't feel that it is any more expensive than any other extra curricular activities or sports. This is an investment in our child's future, self confidence, self discipline, & safety.
|