The minimum age for a student to join the NLTKD is 11 at the moment. This is a relatively new rule brought in because we simply cannot cater for both under 11 who will be nursery and primary school children and maintain the tougher physical standards required by the over 11 who will normally be moody secondary school teens to adults within the same class. And we simply do not have enough time to run separate junior classes. We may in future look into setting kiddie taekwondo classes up in future.
A loophole for a child, under 11 years old but older than 9 to join the NLTKD is if they have previous martial arts experience (in any discipline) or have a parent and/or older sibling already training with us. The older family member will then help control the young child but the lesson will still be aimed at the older students. The highest grade a younger student can attain is a blue belt while under 11 year old.
While we accept there are many highly talented 3-8 year old Black Belts, we prefer our Black Belts be older physically and mentally and at least be able to walk to school on their own.
