Classes for Pee Wees (4–9)

Three WYSOK clubs run dedicated Pee Wee classes for the youngest children, and they are quite deliberately not simply the adult class made shorter.

A four-year-old is not a small adult. The sessions are built around what children of that age can actually do: short bursts of activity, plenty of changes of focus, a lot of repetition dressed up as games, and firm but friendly discipline about lining up, bowing and listening. Children learn to follow instructions from someone who is not a parent or a teacher, which is often the thing that parents notice first at home.

Newmillerdam Pee Wee Karate Club runs at the Lakeside Methodist Centre on Barnsley Road, Tuesday and Thursday from 6:00pm to 7:00pm, taking children from four to eleven with Sensei Diane Townsend. The main club trains in the hour afterwards, which makes the step up a natural one when a child is ready — they have usually been watching the older students for a year or more by then.

Iruka Pee Wee Karate Club meets at The Hub on the White Rose Business Park in Beeston, Tuesday and Friday from 5:45pm to 6:45pm, for four to nine year olds. Suzaku Sparks runs at Beeston Village Community Centre on Friday evenings from 6:30pm to 7:30pm, also four to nine, with the older Suzaku class training alongside for the first half of the session before the youngest finish.

Parents are welcome to stay and watch at all three. Most do for the first few weeks, and then find their child prefers it if they sit a little further back.

What children get out of it varies, and it is worth being honest that it is rarely the thing parents expect. Some arrive full of energy and learn to channel it. Some are shy and find that a structured class where everyone is in the same uniform is an easier place to make friends than a playground. Almost all of them get noticeably better at standing still and listening, which is a skill that transfers everywhere.

There is no expectation that a four-year-old will train for life. Try it, see whether it suits them, and take it from there. The first session is free, there is no contract, and no one will pressure you into anything.

Every WYSOK instructor is DBS checked, first aid trained and fully insured, and the association has been teaching children in Yorkshire since 1979.