HEALTH + FITNESS
Tiny Tigers Hone their Power
with Catie Blake at Blitz Fitness
By Tessa Permar
Peer into Blitz Fitness’s new Amos Lane location in West Tisbury and you’ll see something astounding. 3 and 4 year olds channeling their exuberance into focused shapes in unison. They wait for instructor Catie Blake’s go: “Slither like an alligator.” The kids swivel across the floor, newly-earned white-belts brushing the mat. “It’s amazing, the discipline they are able to muster,” Blake says after class.
Fitness teacher and business owner Catie Blake is expanding the traditional exercise class age group. As founder of Triangle Fitness, current owner of Blitz, and Tisbury Council on Aging’s Executive Director, Blake provides workshops tailored to support longevity, strength, and fall-prevention for the Vineyard’s elders as well as a range of Blitz classes geared toward teens and adults. For the past two years, she’s been introducing the Vineyard’s youngest generation to martial arts through her Tiny Tigers classes at Blitz.
Catie is a 5th degree black belt in Taekwondo, a Korean martial art form. She began studying 30 years ago with a Triangle Fitness instructor, and traveled to Boston regularly to complete her training. Blake brought the training back to eager adult students on the Vineyard. She expanded these classes into a program where dedicated young students train, compete, and regularly place at off-Island tournaments. She started the Tiny Tigers program for kids ages 3 - 8 to introduce youngsters to a valuable practice where discipline meets imagination, where physical energy meets focus, and where persistence builds self-confidence.
“I firmly believe that the sooner you start teaching kids body awareness, the better,” says Blake. “I teach seniors now, and I can tell if an 80 year old person hasn’t played a sport” because of the kind of lifelong body awareness athletic training instills. In addition to skills like balance and body awareness, she says, “One of the biggest things that comes from it is self esteem.”
Blake shares one of the highlights of her life during a traditional Blitz Christmas event - board breaking: “We had a four year old who could not break a board. We probably stayed three hours after the event, and that kid broke the board. The look on his face, wow, pure magic. I’ve never forgotten it.”
While she weaves in creativity and play into teaching the Tiny Tigers, Blake incorporates traditional structures of Taekwondo training. When we start, “You earn everything,” explains Blake. “Once [the students] can accomplish the five tasks that they need, we give them their white belt.” The students work on animal movement, like walking on all fours, and learning to move side to side as well as front to back. “Once you have them doing lateral movement,” says Blake, “you can easily turn that into teaching them to do cartwheels.” As the students grow and improve, they transfer into other classes, where they learn more advanced forms, earn solid color belts, and can go on to compete.
In addition to Tiny Tigers, Blitz offers a range of classes for teens and adults including indoor bootcamp, core, cardio, and weights, spin, boxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, TaeKwondo, and much more.
For more information about Blitz Fitness Martha's Vineyard Gym/Physical Fitness Center
(508) 776-7032, E-mail: Blitzfitnessofmv@gmail.com
The Center is located at: 18 Amos Lane, West Tisbury Follow them on Facebook at: BlitzFitnessMarthasVineyard