Every month, on the last Saturday of the month, is Fun Day. Fun Day is three hours (5:00 PM to 8:00 PM) right here at St. Matthews Martial Arts. We do a karate class, bunches of fun games, then eat pizza and watch a movie. Students will get to learn special material that isn’t usually taught in class. We also get to play extra games that our regular class timeline doesn’t have time or space for. Plus eating pizza at the dojo, what could be more awesome than that?
Hyperbole aside, Fun Day is about three things: students having fun, their siblings or friends getting to come to the dojo to try things out (if they want to), and parents getting a date night once a month.
One of the things we’ve found over the years is that it’s hard for an advanced student to bring their friend in to try class. When the class divides up, the advanced student and their friend get separated, so it’s basically less fun. If the advanced student is helping their friend (the student almost always thinks this is a good idea) it’s hard for the friend (karate classes are intrinsically fun but it’s hard for most kids to have their friend teach them and enjoy it). That’s the best part about Fun Day, it’s all about the fun. We do a karate class so everyone gets a little taste, but it’s not as formally structured as a class, students and siblings and guests are all together in one big group going through cool stuff with the instructors.
Ultimately we want it to be as easy as possible for you to tell your friends about us and have them try it. Personally, Fun Day is one of my favorite things every month (this is Master Alan btw). We get to do cool stuff that we can’t usually do in class, we get to help students make friends that have never been in class together, and it’s a great way for assistant instructors to get experience teaching. We just get out on the floor and do karate and laugh and have fun. If you can’t join us this month, there will be another one next month (and one after that). We have Fun Day even if UofL and UK are playing that night (it’s happened twice I think). Hopefully we’ll see you there.