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Kids Judo and Martial Arts (6 – 13 yrs)

Learn a martial art. Earn your stripes. Make friends. Learn effective throwing and grappling skills. Develop confidence. Learn the meaning of commitment. Get fit. Try your hand at competition. Be part of a great team. Judo’s got it all.

Judo is a great activity for kids. It was designed to be that way on purpose and The Academy is a great place to learn it. It can be whatever the individual needs it to be, whether just a bit of exercise, self-defence, competitive sport, confidence building, or a way to make new friends.

Our class structure is about developing good basics and physical conditioning. From here, students are able to develop their own style of judo as they mature and progress.

We believe that our kids should earn their stripes. Our grading system de-emphasises the handing out of grades just for being at training for a set period of time. Unlike many martial arts clubs which have set grading dates where everybody is graded irrespective of their effort or proficiency, we constantly track student progress using our own system, which has been developed over a decade of use and is constantly refined. This means students do not make progress through the grades unless they demonstrate that they have actually made a tangible improvement.

First and foremost, students must demonstrate a good attitude to their training, and to those they train with. From there, they are able to fulfil the set technical requirements for each level that will allow them to move on to the next. We find that far from being put off by not having a black belt by the age of 9 years, our system encourages our students to stick around longer. Ultimately we hope it encourages students to train hard to learn, rather than chase bits of coloured cloth. Such rewards come in their own time.

Old school Japanese Judo has the maxim : The amount of time you spend practising completely determines your judo. This means that the more you train, the better you get. We have three regularly scheduled classes a week for the kids. Students may attend any or all of these as they wish. Students who put in more training understandably make greater progress in the long run than those who train less. It is a good idea for any student of 8 years or over to be training twice a week as a minimum.

Some kids like to compete regularly at competitions. Competitions are great fun, and range from friendly local events to bigger national level tournaments. We have produced champions at Local, Island and National Level. We do not promote competitions as an end in themselves, but as a way for people to develop their judo further and learn a bit more about themselves. The Wellington Judo Association runs a handful of events each year, which we encourage students to participate in. Other students are more serious about their competition and compete at higher level events.

Judo is a lifelong activity. We have members at the Academy who have been training since they were in the junior class and are now grown up and show no sign of giving judo up.

Kids Holiday Programmes

We also offer regular holiday programmes, which are a more intensive course run through one week of the term holidays. The holiday programmes accept participants who are new to judo as well as experienced judoka. Read more about these courses here.