Tigers & Dragons Stripe Breakdown

 

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The Tigers & Dragons Program are detailed curriculums that focus on improving your child’s basic motor skills, listening skills and overall self esteem.  These skills will help them enter society with a more confident and enthusiastic outlook.  They will be better students at school, better listeners at home and more ambitious towards the future.  The Tigers & Dragons Program will also prepare your child for our Karate Kidz program.  Your child will be exposed to positive social interaction.  They will learn how to work with others and follow directions from their instructors.

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​The Tigers & Dragons Program consist of developing 8 Major skills that are necessary for participation in any sport or activity.  During the first 4 – 6 classes the instructors do an assessment of your child and enter them into the Little Ninja, or the Tiger’s program.  A child may move up from the Tigers Program.  Once a child has finished the Tigers Program they either enter the Dragon’s Program or graduate up into the Karate Kidz program depending on their age.  Tigers receive coloured belts with white stripes down the middle of them. 
 

We use coloured stripes throughout our programs to guage your child’s progress.   These stripes are usually handed out on the second class of the week.  Stripes are awarded for successfully meeting the instructor’s minimal criteria.  If a child does not meet the minimal criteria for that stripe they will not receive one.  While this may seem heart breaking at the time it does help your child set and attain goals.  At

 

Titanium Martial Arts we do not give away rank.   Rank has to be earned.
 

There are specialty stripes that are handed out as well from time to time they are:
 

Excellent Kick – Handed out for participation in a Kick A Thon
 

Awesome Sparring – Showing excellent skills, focus and control when sparring
 

Great Effort – Putting forth an effort that is above and beyond what is called for
 

Self Discipline – Showing dedication in class, paying attention and showing self control
 

Outstanding Attendance – Perfect attendance for 3 months
 

Excellent Form – doing a form with precision, focus, control and timing

 

 

Green Stripe – The Green Stripe is for Control.  Students must show control in their actions and to make sure they keep themselves and their training partners safe.   Control is essential so that children learn to control and guard their temper.  Control in essence means never having to say you’re sorry.  Whether your child is handling a pet or handling a problem, your child will learn how to make the right decisions with good control.  Control builds confidence in children.  During our control week students work on basics such as blocks, stances, kicks, punches etc...
 

Yellow Stripe – The Yellow Stripe is for Balance.  Balance is crucial to develop at an early age.  Your child is beginning to participate in many physical activities that are challenging.  Your child will develop good balance and a better posture.    During the week we work on balance while  learning their  basics.  This week we work on marrying most of basics with our various stances so that we can maintain balance while in motion or in static positions.
 

Orange Stripe – The Orange stripe is for Memory.  Developing a good memory is exercise for your child’s brain.  The sooner your child exercises, the better their brain will function and smarter they will be.  Our drills are constantly helping your child think and make smart decisions.  During the memory week we work on our forms.  A form is a small routine of basic strung together in a sequence to simulate self defense applications.
 

White Stripe – The White stripe is for Discipline.  There are two types of discipline, directed discipline-when someone tells you what to do and self discipline- doing what is needed with having to be told.  Through directed discipline children eventually gain self discipline.  We often mask discipline based activities though out our cycle so that students gradually gain the self discipline skills necessary to succeed in life.  During the Discipline week we work on Weapon’s forms and uses.  The weapon in this program is the Yawara, a small little stick that, in Okinawa, was used for many different types of self defense.  By holding this 6 inch weapon students learn discipline so that they don’t hit themselves or others.
 

Teal Stripe – The Teal stripe is for coordination.   The first step of coordination is a child learning their left from their right.  This valuable skill will be important for the rest of their life.  Your child will become better all physical activities.  The more coordinated a child is the less likely they are to suffer from injuries.  During the Coordination week we work on our form again.  Now we work on marrying our upper and lower body movements.

 

Blue Stripe – The Blue Stripe is for teamwork.   Teamwork to young children is very important.  Children are exposed to positive interactions with other children.  Through teamwork skills your child will become leaders at school, at home and at the karate school.  The more confidence your child shows working with others, the more they will get accomplished in life.  Your child will develop character, which will help them make new friends and become a better leader in life.  We spend time during the teamwork week doing sparring combinations.  By holding pads and assisting their classmates with the combinations they demonstrate great teamwork skills.
 

Red Stripe – The Red stripe is for Focus.   Focus plays a key role in the mindset of your child.  Most young students have a limited attention span.  Your child will learn how to focus on the task at hand.  Children experience having focus for one of the first times in their lives as they train in our classes.  We spend our time during the focus week sparring.  Sparring is about safety first in our school.  Sparring is really just tag using kicks and punches.  Our sparring sessions for this age group are mainly games such as chicken fighting, flag fighting, etc.  Only when a student owns their own safety sparring gear do they throw actual punches, and kicks at each other.
 

Burgundy Stripe – The Burgundy stripe is for Fitness.  Fitness is a key component for your child, good fitness habits now will carry through for the rest of your child’s life.  We teach children that fitness can be fun and that it is important.  We use our fitness week to review our level and for students that are ready it is also the week that they test for a new belt.
 

Splits Club Patch – For students who can demonstrate the full splits.
 

Student Of The Month Patch – Given to students after a month of assisting the instructor.  Students also receive a certificate upon completion of being an assistant.
 

Rising Star – For being recognized in the community
 

Coloured Stars
Students get coloured stars for different reasons:
Green Stars – For doing a public event such as Kids Funfest, Parades, etc...
Red Stars – For entering a division at a tournament
Gold Star – For winning a trophy at a tournament
Black Stars – For grades that are B and up First an Academic Achiever Patch is handed out for the first report card with great grades
Silver Stars – For attending sanctioned events at other schools