Princeton ATA Black Belt Academy

We love this place.
My daughter has been attending classes for a few years now, and my son is expected to start this spring.
Susan (Ma’am) is fantastic & runs a great studio with strong, fair, & competent instructors:
–if your child or you are new, try out some classes, for a few WEEKS.
–Shy child? Join the class with your child, or another child will help yours out (this translates even outside the studio, ie when siblings from class helped my daughter adjust to chess class at the library – great character building instructors!).
–Special needs children? They’re welcome too and no one bats an eye, the way it should be.
–Classes M-​Sa. (MWF 4:30, TTH 5:30, Sa I don’t know, but this is great if you’ve missed a class due to illness, other activities, long weekends, etc.)
–Multiple kids? I would have to confirm, but I think that after the 3^rd one, others are gratis.
–There’s a parking lot & if you don’t or can’t cook, Lucy’s Kitchen is 2 doors down to pick up dinner.
–Having a bad day? Ma’am will check on you and give you some helpful words, including reminding you how good your kids were in class while you were running after the crazy one.
–Charity: collections for Homefront & Breast Cancer, annual run on Father’s Day, more that I can’t remember.
–Self defense classes offered to women and older girls a few times a year, for free
–GREAT instructors: they are fair & they understand children & their abilities, but also push them with positive reinforcement. If my child is acting up, they focus on the children who are acting like black belts and commend those students. If you, as a parent, don’t think your child should get a reward, the instructors know and respond accordingly.
–If you have little kids not yet in class and the back mats are free, you can entertain your crazy one.
–The star system: for good behaviour, paying attention, and acting like a black belt, there are paper stars: 10 paper stars=1 blue star to attach to your uniform or card if you’re a Tiny Tiger. 10 books or following a star chart at home? 1 gold star. Attending TKD events? Red stars. Positive reinforcement.
–Whole families are involved – Mom, Dad, sisters, brothers. They train together & go to tournaments together. If you’re not that type, that’s okay too. You’re free to stare at your iPhone or Macbook or novel during class, but you also don’t need to be there – it’s monitored and the instructors know who is or isn’t there at all times – your kids will NOT be lost or allowed to wander off. I’m not sure how they do it, but they do (hence, I’m not a teacher).
My kids are still little, and *I* am not quite ready for them to train in weapons. I keep adding the number of stars my daughter needs before we make that leap. She is learning discipline & friendship. She tries, but she’s still little & used up her focus at school. For me, that’s frustrating, but I’ve also seen her grow these past few years. The environment is safe, sane, fun. The kids and instructors are great. I myself am learning more patience simply by watching the class. I know my kids will eventually become black belts – they may become more serious, or not, but do they need it? Yes. Particularly my daughter, but it will be good for my son too. Thanks Ma’am!

I went to a Krav Maga knife defense seminar this weekend at Princeton ATA. The goal was to learn how to disarm someone coming at you with a knife. It was a really effective class. I liked the instructor, I learned a lot, and I’m sore today. There were only a few people so the instructor worked with us all personally at some point. I was really satisfied. I have a lot better chance against an assailant with a knife than I did yesterday.
I’ve done a lot of martial arts over the years, and they’re more about ‘art’ and forms, whereas Krav Maga is very practical and you spend the majority of the time with a partner, really touching them, really taking hits. This is not a kick-​at-​the-​air sort of thing.
The seminar was 2 hours, and we worked the full two hours. There was a little bit of a warm up — 5 min of stretches and a few pushups while he explained what we would do. We learned 5 different techniques for knife blocks, in which your partner would try to stab you with a rubber knife in a few different ways, and you would try to knock it out of their hand using the prescribed technique.
Look, I want to be clear; this is about real life self-​defense. I’m sore — from practicing groin kicks. I’m sore — from having to block my partner coming at me full speed with just my forearm. I’m sore — from trying to stab MY partner and having them push me back. This is how you learn, so you don’t panic when the real thing happens. The instructor was frequently taking about real-​life — situations you might be in, your legal liability when you fight back, etc. (And sometimes he was joking around with us, which was cool, too.)
We were half men and half women. Ages were from 12 – 30, I’d guess. After we learned five techniques, we did something called a stress test, where one of us stood inside a circle with our eyes closed, and the other people took turns jumping out at us with knife attacks.
I was really intimidated by the idea of this because I’m self-​conscious, but it was fine and it’s really useful. In real life, you won’t know what direction your attack is coming from. You won’t know what kind of attack it is. You’ll be panicked. I respect that the classes are run to emulate real life.
The nice thing about these seminars is that you’re not committing to a series of classes. It’s just a two hour block of time on a Saturday.