Tiger Cub Program
As time goes on, children are entering the martial Arts at a younger and younger age. Some as early as 3 years old! With good reason, we all know how Karate builds confidence and self-discipline, along with being a terrific way to develop gross motor skills and enhance balance and coordination.

However, it’s time to address the issue of curriculum with these little guys. It hardly seems fair (or intelligent) to ask them to handle the same curriculum as our juniors and adults. Therefore we’ve put together a modified curriculum that will help them achieve the same goals but at a slower pace. Here’s how it works:

Tiger Cubs will be the classification for children starting the program at ages 3 or 5. They will train in the same classes as Tigers. They will follow the exact same requirements as all other White belts. However, upon graduating from their White with green stripe, they will receive a Yellow belt with a white stripe. At this point they will learn the same curriculum as our Yellow belts, but without the form. After 2 months of lessons and 6 stripes, they will test for a Yellow with orange and learn the Orange belt curriculum, but again, without the form. The same is true all the way up to Yellow with Red stripe.

After receiving a Yellow with red stripe, the student tests for an Orange belt, then rejoins the Tigers in the normal progression of ranking. The strategy behind this curriculum upgrade is to give our younger students a chance to mature before being asked to do stances, punches and blocks that they may not be ready to learn yet.

This modification has been seriously overdue. However, we feel the time is right and the system properly developed and ready to implement. (Remember, it wasn’t too long ago that striped White belts didn’t exist, that’s one or our innovations as well.)

Our existing Yellow belts and higher who fall into the Tiger Cub age classification have the option of adopting the Tiger Cub curriculum or staying with the old system.

White belts and all future students who fall into the Tiger Cub age classification will automatically be integrated into the program upon graduation from White with green.

Students who are ready to move upward and out of the Tiger Cub curriculum before completion may do so if the parent, student and staff feel it would be in their best interest. We always have and will continue to be committed to helping all of our students reach their full potential. We truly believe that our new Tier Cub curriculum will do exactly that.

Tiger Cub Belt Progression (age 3,4,5)
• White (8 stripes and one month of lessons)
• White w/yellow (8 stripes and one month of lessons)
• White w/green (8 stripes and one month of lessons)
• Yellow w/white (16 stripes and two month of lessons)
• Yellow w/orange (16 stripes and two month of lessons)
• Yellow w/green (16 stripes and two month of lessons)
• Yellow w/blue (16 stripes and two month of lessons)
• Yellow w/purple (16 stripes and two month of lessons)
• Yellow w/red (16 stripes and two month of lessons)
• Solid Orange (16 stripes and two month of lessons)