Our Taren Point Taekwondo Classes For 5-6 year Old Kids

'Little Dolphins' Taren Point Taekwondo Classes For 5-6 year Old Kids

Master Gary Simmons teaching the Taren Point Kids Karate class at his Shire Martial Arts Caringbah Taekwondo School

'Little Dolphins' is a Sutherland Shire kids Karate program. It was created by Master Gary Simmons at his Taren Point 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 Taren Point 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 Caringbah Taekwondo 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. http://www.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 the Little Dolphins training techeniques and competencies that we use in our Taren Point Martial Arts school here: http://www.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 we bring all the elements of Martial Arts together in our Taren Point Taekwondo classes at Shire Martial Arts.

In the 20th anniversary year of Shire Martial Arts Master Gary Simmons says that he is "prouder han ever" of his Little Dolphins.

To find out more about our Taren Point Martial Arts classes please have a look at our website and blog with these links:

http://www.shiremartialarts.com.au

http://shiremartialarts.blogspot.com.au

The Big Dolphins Sutherland Shire Kids Martial Arts Program

Sutherland Shire Kids Martial Arts Class or Big Dolphins Program

Sutherland Shire Kids Martial Arts program at Caringbah Taekwondo is called 'Big Dolphins'.

The Big Dolphins program is best decribed as being a personal development program for kids who are aged between 7-10 years old and live in the Sutherland Shire in Sydney's South.

Shire Martial Arts was founded by Master Gary Simmons over 20 years ago and his Sutherland Shire kids Martial Arts program is one of the most successful programs that he has created for his Caringbah Taekwondo centre. This link leads to a video where Master Gary Simmons describes exactly how the Big Dolphins kids program works. Big Dolphins Movie

The Big Dolphins program is heavily based on mentorship. Older students in our STORM employment program play a big part in all of our Sutherland Shire Martial Arts programs because most of the STORM team are former Little Dolphins as well as Big Dolphins themselves so they naturally make great role models for our 7-10 year olds. There is more information about our SWAT and STORM teams with this link.

The Big Dolphins program is a competency based program. It works like this. For each belt in the Big Dolphins program there are three competencies including kicking, technical as well as self defence/sparring. Each month the Big Dolphins have three weeks of skills training and one week of testing which we call tip test week. Once a Big Dolphin has completed and passed all three competencies they move up to their next belt at our Belt Graduation ceremony where each child does a board break. The Shire Martial Arts Belt Graduations are SO excititng - for the students and their parents.

There is more information about our training techniques, competencies and Belt Graduations in our Shire Martial Arts kids programs here: http://www.shiremartialarts.com.au/kids.html

Also, check out the Big Dolphins video on this post (above) and see how our junior assistants help to mentor our young 7- 10 year old Big Dolphins at our Sutherland Shire Taekwondo achool (which by the way was aka Taekwondo Cronulla) which is located on the border of Taren Point and Caringbah.

Also, as mentioned above Master Gary Simmons is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his Sutherland Shire kids Martial Arts classes and in 2015 the Big Dolphins program has never been stronger.

To find out more about Shire Martial Arts please have a look at our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/SMASY 

Our Shire Martial Arts Caringbah Taekwondo Classes Have Been Going For 20 Years!

 To see a pictorial history of Shire Martial Arts please click on this link

On 23 May 1995 in the Gunnamatta Park pavilion at Cronulla, Taekwondo Cronulla, as we were then known first began teaching fitness, self defence and Martial Arts to boys, girls, men and women from all ages and walks of life.

In 1996 we moved to the Cronulla Girl Guides Hall on the corner of Gunnamatta Park.

After Master Gary Simmosn’s instructor Master Kim Chong Soo passed away in early 1998, Gary was fortunate enough to train under some of the top Korean Masters in Australia in preparing for his 4th Dan.

In early 2000, Caringbah RSL club was undergoing some major redevelopment and they were kind enough to donate an area within their complex, for Gwangjangnim Gary and his Black belts to use as a training facility.

Then, after the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games where Gwangjangnim Gary was the Taekwondo Presentation Supervisor and Presentation Manager, he was invited to travel to Melbourne and grade for his 4th Dan Black belt with Gwangjangnim Martin Hall 7th Dan, who was the Australian Olympic Taekwondo Coach and instructor of Olympic Gold Medallist Lauren Burns.

On 1 July 2001 after passing that gruelling 4th Dan test alongside Olympic athletes Carlo Massimino and Warren Hansen, Shire Martial Arts moved to Caringbah North Primary School where we started the programs that we use today.

In 2003 we grew out of that hall and moved to the auditorium at Woolooware High School. It wasn't long before this venue became too small!

On the 23 May 2005, ten years to the day after starting at Gunnamatta Park, we opened our full time centre on Taren Point Rd.

Unfortunately, in July 2006 it became apparent that the facility on Taren Point Rd had some major structural problems. After we reported our concerns to a structural engineer we were given 10 minutes notice to vacate the building!

Twenty four hours later we moved into the Production Rd site!

When our lease came to an end, we decided to find a place where we could start a whole new and exciting era where Christine and Gwangjangnim Gary could take Martial Arts and Yoga in the Sutherland Shire to the next level.

It was in October 2008 we commenced classes at the Northumberland Drive training centre.

This was a good facility. The main floor had a roller door that opened up onto a bike track and in Summer the training floor was open to the cool sea breeze. In Winter it was protected from the wind and we installed air conditioning for maximum training comfort all year round.

Although Northumberland Drive was a good facility, it was not great. There was no onsite parking and during our class times the traffic on the street out the front was really heavy. Also, with no windows, the super high ceilings and limited natural lighting, this industrial space was quite a stark environment.

We knew we deserved better.

In September 2014 we were told about a brand new commercial facility that had street frontage, more training and facility space as well as ample onsite and street parking. It also had lots of windows and ducted air conditioning. It was immediately available so we had to take a look.

So that’s what we did.

It wasn’t long before we were able to negotiate terms, sign a lease, do a fit out and then move into our current location at unit 30, 3 Box Rd Taren Point. We are now busily creating some brand new ‘good old days’.

To see a pictorial history of Shire Martial Arts please click on this link