The children’s group works for the great majority of children. For a minority, walking into it is too large a first step - and those are often the children who most need what a martial art gives.
For those cases we run private hours. This piece explains when they make sense and when they do not.
When one-to-one is better
- A child who freezes in a group. Some children simply cannot try anything new in front of twenty peers. Two or three hours alone solve that faster than six months of persuasion.
- A child with attention difficulties. In a group every sound pulls them away. One-to-one the structure of the hour can be shorter, quicker and more varied - and it holds.
- A child who was excluded or teased in another sport. They need a space where nobody is watching for the first few weeks.
- A child who is very uncoordinated. If the basic patterns are missing, it is better to build them individually and then move to the group.
- A teenager who refuses to “train with kids”. A real problem at fourteen or fifteen. A few private hours often lead to them joining the adult beginners’ group.
What an hour with a child looks like
It is not a shortened adult session. The structure differs because the attention span differs.
Shorter blocks. Five to eight minutes on one thing, then a change. An adult can hold thirty minutes on the same technique; a child cannot, and there is no reason to force it.
Play as method. Balance is taught through play, not explanation. A child chasing balance because they have to catch a ball learns it faster than one being told about centre of gravity.
Immediate feedback. Short, concrete, no long explanations. “Knee further out” works; “you need to watch your alignment” does not.
One thing they can do. Every hour must contain something the child takes home as a success. That is not a teaching trick but the condition for them coming back.
It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.
What we need from parents
An honest description. What you see at home and at school, what your child has already tried and how it ended. Diagnoses, if there are any - not to label the child, but so we know what works.
Realistic expectations. A martial art is not therapy and does not fix what requires professional treatment. It does give structure, physical activity and an environment with clear limits, and for many children that is a great deal.
That you do not stay in the hall. With private hours this matters even more than with group classes. Children behave differently with a parent present.
Patience with the pace. For the first three hours often nothing visible happens. The fourth is usually where something moves.
The aim: joining the group
This is worth saying plainly: the aim of private hours for children is not for them to stay on them.
A group gives a child what a teacher cannot - peers, comparison, cooperation, belonging, and the experience that you can train with an older child without getting lost in the process. So after three to six private hours we suggest a transition, even if at first that means only the first twenty minutes of a group class.
With some children we settle on a combination: the group twice a week and one private hour a month. That has proved the most sustainable arrangement.
Practicalities
Age: from roughly six upwards. The lower limit depends on attention span rather than years.
Length: 45 minutes for younger children, an hour for teenagers.
Place and time: Ziherlova 44 in Ljubljana, daytimes and weekends by arrangement.
For two children at once: siblings or two friends. This often works better than one-to-one, because there is less pressure.
How to start
Write and tell us what you are seeing and what you would like to achieve. If from your description we think your child will be perfectly fine in the group, we will say so - and save you the money.
