Find a Martial Arts Class in Wheatley

We started out as a family—parents and a six year old child—basically on the theory that it would be easier to keep the child motivated if we were doing it too. We've been doing it for a year and a half now. Lucie had to put it on hold for the time being because she got a job in Birmingham and has to commute, but Jan and I continue; me with both taekwondo and kickboxing, Jan with just taekwondo (he'd have done both, but it was too many nights out for a boy his age and made it difficult to keep up with school work). Hopefully next fall Lucie will re-join the class. My secondary motivation was fitness. Both of my grandfathers and my father had heart attacks in their mid 50s. I'm 54 now. Granted, they were all smokers and I'm not, but it still seemed wise to take exercise more seriously at this stage in my life. I used to play basketball, but my knees won't stand for that any longer. Found it very hard to stay motivated to do aerobic repetitive exercises like running (the knees don't like that either) or swimming (hate sharing lanes with others). The nice thing about martial arts, which I hadn't appreciated fully when we began, is that it's a lot easier to maintain motivation because it continually changes. Each new module introduces new techniques, and of course it's both cumulative and designed so that there's always a new and harder challenge on the horizon. As the one negative review for Rising Spirit mentioned, there are costs, and it's true that one has to be clear headed about making a commitment to do this. Whatever one thinks of the fees, they keep the school stable, and that's extremely important if one wants to stick with it over the long term. But aside from the monthly fee and grading fees (both of which are regular and can be budgeted), the additional expenses are one-time outlays. The instruction from Mr. Williams is excellent, and the classes are fun (also sometimes exhausting, which isn't a bad thing if one is doing it for fitness). The last time I stuck with an exercise program this long was probably high school. If one is doing it for self defence, admittedly a nice bonus, if not my primary motivation, then one is constantly learning practical skills. My son's interest does have some ebbs and flows, which I expect is normal for a kid his age. But the fact that we can do it together, and also the graded always-changing nature of the discipline, keeps him in the game. By next fall, when he'll be 8 and considerably bigger and stronger than when he began, I'm optimistic that he'll be into it enough to continue on to black belt. He's not much interested in the usual male sports in this country (football, rugby and cricket just don't do it for him). This has been a really good way to keep him physically active. So on the whole, if you're looking for a challenge and can make the commitment to do martial arts over the long term, Rising Spirit is a great choice.