Dear Parents & Guardians,
Our Spring Break is next week soon from Sunday, March 12th to Saturday, March 18th, and no regular classes will be offered during this time. However, we are still offering four weeks of regular classes in March, inclusive of the break. Please refer to our calendar at https://www.mindfulmartialarts.org/calendar for further details. Our next week-long break will be at the end of May.
NEW OFFERINGS!
Women’s Self Defense
Our next 4-Week Women’s Self-Defense Course will run from April 4th - April 25th. In this course, multi-time BJJ World Champion Penny Thomas will teach situational awareness, boundary-setting, verbal and non-verbal de-escalation, as well as powerful physical self-defense techniques. Registration is live on our website now. Please consider signing yourself or your daughter up! For ages 16+. Register here: https://www.mindfulmartialarts.org/women
Adult’s Kickboxing & MMA Essentials
We will soon be offering an Adults Kickboxing & MMA Essentials class! With over 37 years of experience in martial arts, our instructor Rob Marchese has dedicated his life to studying and practicing Muay Thai Kickboxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Mixed Martial Arts, Tae Kwon Do, Hwa Rang Do, and more. He will be teaching some of the most effective techniques from these martial arts to help you build the skills and confidence to face any challenge that comes your way. The website will be updated soon with more information and with a link to register for a free trial class. We expect to begin offering this class at the end of March.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN CLASS? –
Here's a brief overview: In our BJJ classes this past month, we've been focusing on mastering basic movements and techniques, including the Shrimp Escape from Mount, Side Control Escapes (including the Shrimp Escape and the Modified Scarf Hold Escape), and various Side Control positions (including the Modified Scarf Hold and, the Reverse Scarf Hold). In our Kickboxing classes this past month, we've been focusing on the proper fighting stance, the Jab, the Cross, the Hook, the "Low 10," and the "Mid 10" kicks.
In the mindfulness portions of the classes, we've been exploring tension-and relaxation exercises to prepare the body for meditation, and have introduced a new sitting posture. During the Mat Chat or discussion part of the class, we've been discussing how to take control of potentially dangerous situations by using verbal Jiu-Jitsu, specifically by using questions to focus attention and gain control of the situation. You might want to try asking your child to play the “Questions Game” with you. This is a short 30-60 second game we played during class and which the students all seemed to really enjoy.
Note that each of the 11 kids classes we offer each week receives a slightly different curriculum based on the readiness, focus, and ability of the students in the class that week and that Minis (ages 4-6) and Kickboxing classes tend to get a much different curriculum across the board.
UPCOMING COMPETITION –
An island-wide Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competition is taking place on Saturday, March 18th at Baldwin High School. If your child is interested in competing against students from other schools, please register at the website provided by the competition's organizers (link below) and email me to confirm. To prepare for the competition, we are offering a special "competition training class" during the week of Spring Break at no extra charge. This class will be held from 4-5:30 pm on Tuesday, March 14th for registered competitors aged 8+. If your child will be competing and you want them to attend this class, please email me to confirm their attendance after you've registered them for the competition. Note that I will be unable to attend on the day of the competition due to prior obligations.
Link to competition registration: https://hfbjj.smoothcomp.com/en/event/10790
Thank you so much for your continued support of our program. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns.
Aloha,
Coach Gabe with Support from Admin Kellie