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Our end of year video showcasing our activity throughout the year including all our camps, workshops and classes. This video is live on Youtube and can be shared! :-)

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After a summer full of activity we decided to open up the dojo for a full family workshop with students new and old as well as extending the invitation to everyone we had worked with over the year and the turnout was incredible! This session also culminated in us showing our end of year video.

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Another day of workshops at the Isla Gladstone Conservatory. We spent some time today talking about healthy eating and the impact it can have on our bodies. We worked up an appetite through some tough (but fun) drills and lots of really movement games. We also introduced some deescalation and self defence techniques.

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Summer Camp Taiko Drumming

A video posted by Foundation Martial Arts (@foundationma) on Aug 24, 2016 at 9:27am PDT

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Another day of family workshops. This time we took over the Movema Dance studios to teach a martial arts to a great group of kids, parents and carers!

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We spent two full days running our family workshops in ESLA Liverpool. Over the two days we saw loads of wonderful kids and families teaching them our fundamentals (kihon) through movement, games, music and language.

We also spent some time practicing our breathing and meditation techniques at the end of each session. Fantastic work!!!

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Some of the wonderful feedback from parents for our family workshops

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Our second group of family focussed sessions. These were held at the Isla Gladstone Conservatory in Everton. We worked with amazing kids and parents throughout the day.

We were able to focus these sessions around basic movement concepts as well as working with the parents, giving them the tools to make physical activity as engaging and enjoyable as possible for their little ones.

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Our first day of family workshop held at IM Marsh. We worked with some truly amazing families, all with ASD or ADHD children, teaching them how to move, play and learn together. Fantastic feedback too.

As this was our first session we invited an Occupation Therapist with experience in sensory integration which really helped. We used new equipment like peanut balls and ropes to encourage vestibular and proprioceptive movement in all our participants as well as using this as an opportunity to guide parents on how best to teach and engage with their little ones when it comes to exercise.

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Day five was all about celebrating what students had learned over the week culminating in a grading ceremony (which they all passed!) for their first grade and belt. We looked at kicking techniques, pad work drills and learned more about feudal Japan and the weaponry used by the ninja and samurai. We also talked about the seven values of the organisation - Family (kazoku), Health (kenko), Respect (sonkei), Joy (yorokobi), Honesty (shojiki), Communication (tsushin) and Heart/Mind/Spirit (kokoro) before handing our our amazing bags to all participants to keep them training filled with water bottles, t-shirts, health snacks, training guidance, certificates and their belt. Truly amazing week.

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A day focussing on traditional Japanese music and training. We spent the morning with Jared from the Tengu School of Taiko learning about traditional Japanese drumming and then looked at how we use the hanbo (half-staff) learning some fundamental stances and techniques.

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Some clips from our Warrior Yoga session on day two

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Day two of the summer camp was all about the Warrior Spirit and Self Defence. Our guest instructor Nikki Heldt came in to run a Yoga workshop that focussed on making us all stronger warriors as well a providing a tough test of everyones balance, coordination and flexibility. We then sat down and had a talk about what self defence means both to us and to the law before we looked at some of the most important and useful techniques we can use to defend ourselves, replacing violence and confrontation with control. 

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Part of Kihon (basics) is learning how we start the class and the culture of respect that exists around traditional Japanese martial arts like Ninjutsu. The students all learned why and how we start each lesson with the zarei (kneeling bow). 

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Day one of our Summer Camp. These sessions focussed on Kihon (or basics) with us easing the students into the week by getting warmed up, playing some games and learning positional awareness and movement fundamentals.

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Support packs almost ready to go! 

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Some fantastic illustration work by Scott Duffey for our Summer Camp and Family Workshops.