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| Karate students proud to receive belts and advance |
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| News | |||
| Written by Jesse Trimble | |||
| Tuesday, 10 November 2009 08:00 | |||
Members of Tammy Dowd’s karate class at Body Maxx Fitness, 708 Baptiste Dr., had been preparing to receive their new belts for quite some time — and on Oct. 27, small bright faces were beaming.  During the promotional ceremony where the students received their karate belts of different colors and rankings, they showed their family members what they’d learned. Smiles were replaced with serious looks when Dowd requested the attention of the class. “This is a big night for us — we’ve got to be focused and keep your eyes on sensei,” Dowd told the class. Sensei, is the Japanese word for instructor, and is just one of among several words Dowd teaches the children while they are enrolled in her class. “We learn the basics,” she said. “From counting to 10 and saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’” In Japanese, ‘please’ is ‘douzo’ and ‘thank you’ is ‘domo.’ “My philosophy is I want them to have fun,” Dowd said. “We play a lot of games and focus on coordination.” One important aspect of martial arts is discipline – something Dowd said she really loves about the ancient art form. Dowd started studying karate 20 years ago and became so passionate about it that she started to teach it 18 years ago. “It gives a sense of belonging to the kids,” Dowd added. “Teaches them to set goals for themselves and they become very proud and know what they are working for.” Dowd stressed that since karate is an individual sport, each child progresses at his or her own pace, and there is no added pressure on them as there may be with team sports. The rankings in belt colors differ, from a yellow belt with a white stripe representing the most basic to a black belt, which can also have several different rankings. In addition to basic phrases, the kids are also given a new character word each month, which they must learn and know the definition. Dowd said the word for the month of October is perseverance. Dowd teaches two classes, one for 2, 3 and 4-year-olds and another for kids four and up. “Martial arts is a great discipline and strength-enhancing art,” Dowd said. “These kids can take this and apply it to anything they do later on in life.”
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