Preschooler Martial Arts Classes

By Elsie McDonald

Putting your child into a preschool martial arts program has many benefits. More importantly, putting your child in Colorado Taekwondo Institute’s (CTI), Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo Martial Arts program, has even more. CTI has programs for children as young as 2 years old (sometimes even younger!), with highly trained instructors, making it available for very young children to learn self control and discipline. 

At CTI, the children under the age of  5 years old are called tiger belts. Tiger classes are a great way for a child to burn off some energy. The classes offered to preschoolers are half an hour long and can be any of the days from Monday to Thursday, excluding holidays. In these classes, they will start with some jumping jacks, other warm ups, and stretches. They will then be guided through the basic kicks, blocks, and strikes that taekwondo is based around and allow the student to progress forward. They will learn poomse, which are patterns of movements, that can help build your preschoolers memorization and coordination skills. Other skills that can be enhanced by putting your child in taekwondo, include focus and impulse control. Besides being good for the focus of your preschooler, they are also fun classes that a child would enjoy. They usually have a game or some kind of fun activity at the end of class, if kids are well behaved throughout.

Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo is centered around our Korean founder, Lee H. Park, and his creation of the model concept. This concept shows that as the student gets older and increases in belt level, the techniques and moves they learn will become more complex and difficult. So once your child is no longer a preschooler, they can become a junior belt. Junior classes are 30 minutes longer, and they go more into depth with form and self-discipline. 

There are lots of benefits to preschooler martial arts, rather than starting later in life. The first junior belt that a child will earn after being a tiger, is a junior yellow belt. For example, a yellow belt that was a tiger beforehand, has more experience than a yellow belt who started when they were 6 years old or so. This means the yellow belt with tiger experience will most likely reach the next belt level quicker, already knowing self control and the basics of CTI. 

There are also events that your children and family can attend, such as tournaments, Friday fun nights, day camps, and our summer expo. All of the activities at these events are age appropriate for preschoolers and elementary schoolers, and vary from competition to fun classes and games. Some activities, the parents can come along also (tournaments and expos) while some others are well supervised by trained adult black belts (Friday fun nights and day camps). CTI offers age appropriate involvement for children and adults of any age. Check them out if you are looking into preschooler martial arts!