I had just realized that my daughter, a new kindergartner, was getting home from school full of…read moreenergy and needed a constructive outlet for it. I hadn't given it any serious thought yet when I came across an advertisement for Elite Chinese Martial Arts Academy in a glossy circular I was leafing through as I ate a bowl of cereal. Why not call and find out what it's all about?
I left a message and got a call back quickly and was invited to come let my daughter try a Tiger Team class (for the pre-K through early elementary ages) to see what we thought. My daughter loved it, and still loves it two months later, three times a week.
Elite Chinese Martial Arts Academy is, as the name says, a Chinese martial arts school. Kung fu, tai chi, Chinese kickboxing, and weapons training for adults are all part of the curriculum. There are classes all through the week for young kids (Tiger Team), juniors (older elementary through teens), and adults.
Sifu Reynolds, who operates the school and teaches the Tiger Team classes on Monday and Wednesday afternoons, is a young man himself and the kind of All-American good guy you feel you could naturally count on to do the right thing in a crisis.
(Sifu, I learned, is a Chinese word meaning master and is a title of respect for a student's kung fu teacher.)
Beginning students can join in from their first class. Sifu Reynolds makes sure to give every student the necessary attention for them to assimilate and advance. Everybody learns (even the parents watching) and all the kids have fun.
The Tiger Team classes are only 30 minutes long, but wow! do they ever accomplish a lot in that time. They warm up, stretch, and do some strengthening exercises like push-ups and sit-ups. New students quickly learn common exercises like the Monks' Punching Drill and Punch, Palm, Hook. Over the course of a couple months, students learn a full set of stances, blocks, punches, kicks, and defensive maneuvers like how to escape from grabs and holds.
In addition to general fitness and kung fu skill building, Sifu Reynolds very thoughtfully and effectively teaches the children respect for their peers and adults, self confidence, discipline, concentration and focus, and good manners in social situations.
I feel like we're getting a lot more out of this program than we ever expected, and it's totally affordable. My daughter has made a lot of progress in just two months. She's much more focused and coordinated now than before we started. Knowing what I know now, if it ever came down to a choice between keeping my cable service or continuing at ECMA, I'd cancel the cable in a heartbeat.
Other details, let's see ... There's a seating area for friends and relatives to watch classes. Uniforms are provided. They offer a deal where the whole family can join the school for a fairly small incremental price over the cost of a single person (my daughter is begging me to start classes). There are social events sometimes, like the kung fu Halloween party for kids coming up my daughter is so excited about. They sometimes have free public workshops like keeping safe from bullies, and paid workshops like Hsing-I Chinese mind-body boxing (no idea what that is, to be honest).
There are other martial arts schools in the area teaching other styles, and no doubt many of them are also very good. But before there was anything else, there was kung fu. And this particular school of kung fu has been a great benefit to my little girl. An added bonus for us is it's right around the corner from where we live. Couldn't be happier.
