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What an Educator and Mom says about our Programs at Surrey Black Belt Academy

An interview between Chief Master Karpiuk and Mrs. Tammy Inimgba:

Chief Master Karpiuk:  Hi, could you introduce yourself for us, please?

Hi there, everybody. I’m Tammy Inimgba. I am the mother of Chiazam and Jahmauri.

Great. Can you tell us what brought you to Black Belt Academy?

I’ve got two boys and originally we had my older son Jahmauri that he joined Taekwondo. He had started a little bit earlier and he wasn’t quite ready.

So he joined when he was 10 years old and that was mostly because we wanted him to be more focused. So, he struggled with his focus. He was struggling at school.

He was struggling with his academics, but also a lot of social skills. So communication problems he was having and then some bullying issues were kind of coming up at about that same time period. We really wanted to try and help him with his focus and his ability to communicate and speak his needs to people.

Chiazam, he joined last year. So, about a year ago and for him, it’s also focused but he’s a very high energy kid and he’s got a strong, we say, a big personality.  We were trying to help him to be able to be calm, maintain his focus and be able to essentially take direction from people and learn how to follow instructions well and feel successful doing that.

Kickin

Okay, perfect. And how has this program helped your kids since they have been in? How long has Jahmauri been in? You said Chiazam has been one year?

Yeah, so Chiazam joined last summer during a summer program. So, it’s been a year and a tiny bit and he has really helped to calm him.

He’s following directions better. He’s highly competitive. So, it was always, you know, I want to be first.  I’m going to be the fastest. I’m going to be the best and of course that doesn’t always feel good to other people. So, trying to manage that part of his personality and that is much better now.

So especially now he’s joined leadership too. So he’s learning how to work with others and cheer other people on and take on a leadership role as well as take on a student role within those small student leadership roles and that’s really helping him. So he’s coming home feeling confident like he’s really learning how to be a leader but he’s also learning how to be respectful of other people as well.

Jahmauri’s confidence has grown exponentially. Taekwondo is kind of his life.  It’s what he breathes and sleeps and it’s his focus in life. He doesn’t do anything that doesn’t have a thought about Taekwondo. If not Taekwondo itself, then at least the skills he’s learned through Taekwondo.  Everything kind of plays a role in his life. His confidence is much better. His communication is really improving.  He’s learning how to take orders, take direction as well as be able to give instructions to people and his language is just really really grown from, you know, bumbling and stuttering and stuff to being able to give very clear instructions. So I’d say that’s a huge plus for Jahmauri. Very good.

That’s great to hear! What would you tell others about joining our Academy?

I think that when we look at joining something, especially something that has some value to it like Taekwondo, I think parents are always looking for something to help their kids because let’s face it, we want our kids to be as good as they can be and we’re always trying to help our kids. We want them to do well in school.

We want them to do well in life. And there is a few programs that can do both of those things. So, when we think sports, it’s going to make them a great athlete, but it doesn’t necessarily tie over to school or home life.

Taekwondo does that because, especially this style of Taekwondo ATA organization, it’s not so much about, you know, you’re not signing your kids up for Taekwondo to teach them how to do a kick. You’re signing them up as a life program for life skills to learn how to be a responsible human being. They’re going to learn the traits of being an adult and they’re learning them early on.

Taekwondo focuses not just on the movements, but it’s focusing on you as a human being. It’s focusing on teaching your child self-esteem, self-confidence, perseverance, fighting through life’s challenges. It’s teaching them how to have joy about being themselves, being unique.

They’re thankful and it’s teaching them responsibility. They have to do their forms, learn things. It’s helping them with their memory.

It’s helping them with their kinesthetics. And it’s teaching them respect. So, teaching them how to be respectful to others and respectful to adults as well.  I think that’s really important in this day and age.

I’m a teacher. I teach grade 7 in the Surrey School District. I’ve been teaching for 25 years, and I can say that students are more focused on their peers and putting their peers in role model positions as though their peers are the ones instructing them on how to be a good person rather than the adults in their life.

And of course a 12 year old, it’s hard to teach a 12 year old how to teach another 12 year old how to be an adult because they just don’t have the experience. So, at Taekwondo, you have a child who has adults who care about them and they’re in a safe environment and they are being taught those skills of confidence, determination, perseverance, kindness, being respectful, taking on responsibilities. And that is paramount in this day and age.

The other component of that is that ATA and Newton Black Belt Academy has a really strong connection with families. So, there is an expectation that your child is not being dropped off. You go do your thing and you pick up your kid.  It is a bond. It is a link between the academy and the parents and we’re all working together to help the child. So, we’re encouraging the parents to learn and teach the life skills at home and they’re teaching at the academy how does this life skill transfer to home? How do you show thankfulness? How do you show gratitude? How do you show respect to your parents and your family members and other adults in your life? And then that comes back home and then the parents can work with that.

It gives parents some help essentially that is a full circle because we all know it takes a village to raise a child. So, if we have parents involved and the academy involved, the instructors and the students are all acting, you know, are all following those directions too, then we build a young person who is founded. They are founded socially and emotionally in those really strong skills that we need them to be successful in life later.

And I think that’s why the academy is so successful. It’s a connection with home. It’s the fitness part as well, but it’s the life skills part.

It’s really building these kids up and that’s what’s going to help them. And you touched upon this about the social aspect is so influential these days. And so, the kids at school are looking to their peers.

So how do the programs here, how are they set up to help the students in school?

Right. If you have a child that is peer-centered, so their life revolves around their peers, then they don’t take instruction very well from adults. That’s the parents in their life, their coaches, other people in their life, adults, including their teachers.  If their focus is only on their peers and essentially, you know, having a six-hour play date at school, then they’re not open and willing to take instruction from their teachers. So, once they’ve learned that they can have connections with adults, which is what Taekwondo does, is that they’re learning from adults and leaders, and they learn how to make connections with those adults because that’s where they’re going to get the information from. That’s where they’re going to get the skills from and not their friends.

Then they take that to school and they’re better able to listen to a teacher, listen to staff, take instruction, learn the skills that they need to have, and they’re in a mindset to be able to do that too because it’s been modeled for them and they’ve practiced it.  When the other kids in the classroom are fooling around or just not focused on their work, they’ve developed focus through Taekwondo. They’ve developed memorization of how to stick with something and learn it.

They’ve developed the perseverance that even when it’s hard, they’re going to still keep on trying, and they’ve learned how to be respectful to the adults and students in their classroom. They’re better able to hand out quality work and that’s just really, really important because as a teacher, I don’t really care if a child struggles on work. If maybe they have learning issues or maybe it’s not an activity they enjoy.

What I care as a teacher is, is this child willing? Are they teachable? Are they open-minded? Are they positive? Do they have that growth mindset where they want to learn more? If you can give me a child that’s really low, but they want to learn, they’re willing, and they can take instruction, that child is going to rock it. They are going to soar. Take a child who’s fairly intelligent, maybe intellectually average child, but they’re not willing to learn and they can’t listen to an adult, and they won’t take instruction.

They can’t go anywhere in the school system. So that’s, that’s the problem these days. Taekwondo teaches them how to make links with adults and the people who care about them and be willing to learn and learn difficult things and that’s what sets them up, so they succeed in school.

That’s great. Thank you very much Mrs. Inimgba!

Submitted by

Chief Master Karpiuk
Academy Director, BA Education
ATA 8th Degree Black Belt