Seven to nine-year olds are what most people consider “the golden age.” They are proficient in their vocabulary and problem-solving skills, yet they are not at the age where they want complete independence from adults. This makes the teacher-student relationship stronger than ever. The problem we discovered is they still lack core skills, and although they are highly intelligent, they struggle to keep up with students ages 10 and up. The solution we found is to provide them with their own program that targets their stage of development in a manner that adapts to their adventurous attitude and youthful nature while at the same time building skills that set them up for success. With that said a structured program introducing core skill-based training in Martial Arts has proven to be very successful.

Here’s an overview for the stages of development of children ages 7 to 9:

Physically – they typically have weak fine motor skills therefore proficient technique is not quite there yet. Also, they still tend to stumble when their body is in motion therefore advanced movement is still a little sloppy.

• We expect them to initially struggle with great technique in their blocks, strikes, kicks, and stances. We also expect them to initially look sloppy when jumping, spinning, switching feet, etc.
• The goal for our program is to get them to perform technical blocks, strikes, kicks, and stances while applying power. Also, our goal is to get them to apply speed to motion without looking sloppy.

Intellectually – they are extremely bright, but they typically have a hard time concentrating during distractions.

• We expect them to initially lose focus if there are other, more “interesting” things going on around them. We also expect them to forget simple commands mainly because they try to “over-think.”

• The goal for our program is to get them to concentrate on the task at hand despite other distractions. Our goal is to also get them to retain simple information without trying to put excessive thought into it.

Emotionally – they are wonderfully stable and love challenge. However, they will typically show excessive fear when they over-process something.

• We expect them to have emotional stability for the most part on normal days. We also expect them to initially show excessive fear when put on the spot.

• The goal for our program is to help them persevere through challenges, especially when they initially feel like giving up. We will also help them face their fears.

Socially – they love to interact with others, especially adults. However, they typically don’t like when something is unfair and will be determined to point it out and be heard.

• We expect them to initially interrupt us when they think something is wrong. We also expect them to show great determination when trying to get their point across.

• The goals for our program are to help them know how to address problems and challenges properly without interfering on the overall flow of the class.

By understanding the stages of development of 7 to 9-year olds, we were able to select 8 age-appropriate skills that make up the Core SKILLZ Program.

Check out our Core SKILLZ Bronze membership for age-specific warm-ups, stretched, drills, and game that target this age group!

Check out of Core SKILLZ Silver membership for age-specific class planners, a 9-belt level testing curriculum, and licensed branding tools for this age group!