Axé Boom Boom works to ensure that all people, regardless of gender, age, ability and social and ethnic origin, have the opportunity to practice sports based on their preferences and needs. This means that all children who want to play sports are welcome in our classes and workshops. The pleasure of practicing sports in safe and good conditions is always top priority, so that children feel encouraged and motivated to be physically active for life.
To make sure all children benefit from the fun, engaging and safe environment to practice capoeira we have values and principles shared in capoeira classes. We call them Our Rules:
1. Have Fun
This is the most important rule ever, as we believe that if children enjoy what they do they are more likely to continue being active for life. And this is our mission to encourage all people out there to be more active and stay this way for life, so we know that the classes need to have this element of fun.
2. Stay Focused & Stay Safe
Another crucial rule relates to listening. When children listen, they are focused and they stay safe. There is no fun if activities are unsafe and our teachers do their best to get the attention of all participants and explain them all the activities in a clear and safe way.
3. Try Your Best & Set a Good Example
We strongly believe that all of us can do better in whatever we do. At capoeira classes we encourage children to try their best and set a good example. Each of us is different and have set of individual skills, therefore, we like to inspire children to show off their best skills to motivate their friends to be their best too!
4. Encourage Others
We’re in it together and we love our community of people who like to encourage others to train well. We encourage children to encourage their friends to be the best versions of themselves and motivate one another to train.
5. Follow Teachers’ Directions
Our great teachers are there to provide the best value for the children and families. We pay a huge attention to following all these rules ourselves in classes and in life, therefore we too follow our teachers, Mestre Papa-Leguas and Mestre Medusa. We listen and follow them and ask all children at the classes to listen and follow us so we can all train to the best of our abilities.
6. Respect Others
We have a very strong policy on respecting others. We teach all people, regardless of gender, age, ability and social and ethnic origin and ask all to respect one another. We don’t tolerate any upsetting behaviours and will ask all families to adhere to that.
7. Look After the Equipment
We make sure we provide the best quality of equipment for the children, from bean bags to musical instruments and everything in between and ask all participants to look after the equipment so it can last for long time and everyone can enjoy it.
8. Raise Your Hand If You Have a Question
This rule is important to create a good learning environment at the classes. It goes along with so many previous ones from being focused and listening well to following teacher’s directions. And most importantly, it provides the space for all children to be listen to and acknowledge and give opportunity for the teachers to be able to pass knowledge and tips on how to exercise capoeira in a fun and safe way.
9. Be Prepared & Be Positive
We know how busy life can be, nevertheless we encourage children and grownups to be active outside of the class. Children often say I don’t have time so we like to say don’t look for an hour you don’t have to train look for 10-20minutes that you can use to go for a walk and do an aú (cartwheel) or Bananeira (handstand) on the grass. And keep it positive in and outside the class, training and being active for life takes time 🙂 the whole life to be exact 🙂 but it doesn’t mean that you have to train for hours. Small steps every day, that what counts!
10. Learn from Mistakes and Falls
We live by the words of the song “Capoeira que é bom não cai E se um dia ele cai, cai bem!” – Capoeira that is good doesn’t fall. And if one day it falls, it falls well! We encourage children to try and make mistakes and learn from them. Let them fall and they can stand up and try again. Improving ourselves take time and many errors along the way and as long as one keep trying there is no failure! The only F.A.I.L. we accept stands for First Attempt In Learning.
11. Celebrate Small Victories
We love to celebrate and party 🙂 every even small achievement should be celebrated; therefore, we always acknowledge each child for progressing in the exercises. The prizes can be as small as a positive comment and feedback, a high five or as big as formal acknowledgement of a student during our annual grading event – Batizado e Troca de Cordões (Baptism, welcoming into the world of capoeira, and Exchange of Belts).
12. Teamwork Makes a Dream Work
Last, but definitely not least is our community! As we mentioned before we’re in it together and we can achieve great things together. We like what T.E.A.M stands for Together Everyone Achieves Better! Let’s make it happen and do better together!
That’s me for today 🙂
Keep training,
Kasia
axeboomboom.org 