Helping kids to get a grip on the art of self defence

Lifestyle –  Judy Murphy meets the man who has introduced Taekwon-Do Kubz to Galway children as young as three

Go away,” says Kyle, putting up his hands in a gesture designed to deter a playground bully. This is role-play and Kyle is one of a group of children learning how to stand up for themselves in a special training programme being offered by the Connacht Taekwon-Do Academy.

The Taekwon-Do Kubz club is designed for children aged between three and six, offering them a specific version of this popular martial arts form.

It’s all about teaching communication skills, inner strength and assertiveness, as well as instilling a sense of responsibility and the need to help out at home and school, explains Shane Fitzgibbon, who has been teaching this martial art in Galway for almost a quarter of a century and who, as a seventh dan black belt is called Master by his students.

Taekwon-Do Kubz was developed in Scotland by another Master, Mark Hutton, and has been introduced to Galway by Shane.

“I’d been teaching Taekwon-Do to older children for about 20 years when I came across this syllabus in June and was so impressed that I wanted to incorporate it into the class,” says Shane, who is as healthy and fit looking as you’d expect from a six-time world champion in Taekwon-Do and kickboxing. He and the other teachers in the Connacht Taekwon-Do Academy trained in Taekwon-Do Kubz and are now certified to teach this new aspect of the Korean tradition.

“This course has taken an adult discipline and brought it to a level that children understand. It’s about student-centred learning,” says Shane.

A trip to the Academy’s headquarters in Ballybane’s Glenrock Business Park shows, at first hand, just how much the children are enjoying Taekwon-Do Kubz.

Training is interspersed with games and even as they are learning their moves – which involves counting in Korean and using Korean terminology –  it’s all done in a fun environment.

But underpinning it all, is the motto that ‘effort and attitude builds champions’.

Each child receives a book which Shane stamps every week to chart their progress, but not before he asks questions such as ‘did you make your bed this morning?’.

Similarly, if they get awards at school for doing well, he acknowledges these in the book, because Taekwon-Do is about developing the entire person.

As with Taekwon-Do for adults and older children, the emphasis is on physical development, movement skills and the basic skills of the discipline. But, explains Shane, because it’s done through Korean, they learn the terminology for between 20 to 30 body parts and also how to count to 30.

“So it’s developing the part of the brain that we use for language skills and also teaches them communication skills.

“Not being intimidated by public speaking is so important and they’re doing it in a fun way,” he says, and that’s something that the parents are happy to endorse.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.