Why I believe Every Child Needs Martial arts

Why I believe Every Child Needs Martial arts

(From the book “A Dad’s Toolbox for Better Parenting”)

             The benefits of enrolling your child in a martial arts program extend far beyond self-defense.  Martial arts will help your child in nearly every aspect of their life.  It will improve your child’s health, fitness, athletic abilities, confidence, concentration, and behavior. 

            Does this sound too good to be true? It’s not. Many experts agree that martial arts are good medicine for the escalating childhood obesity, increased violence at school, and deterioration of the family structure.

            There is a reason why Dr. Phil, Jillian Michaels (expert from the television show, “The Biggest Loser”), Tony Robbins, pediatricians, child psychologists and educators the world over all recommend martial arts as one of the most valuable activities in which your child can participate.

Self Defense

            The self-defense benefits of martial arts could be described as practice the fight so that you don’t have to.  As your child trains he will become more confident in his own ability to defend himself. As this confidence increases the need to defend himself will decrease naturally because he will begin to carry himself in a more confident manner.  He’ll project confidence to everyone around him and will be less vulnerable to predatory behavior.

            Martial arts training includes preventative self-defense as well as physical self-defense.  Your child will learn how to recognize potentially dangerous situations and how to avoid confrontations.

 Athletic Enhancement

            There is a reason why every professional sports team in every major sport supplements their training with martial arts.  Martial arts training offers several advantages.  It is amazingly effective in enhancing general coordination because it uses every part of the body in a balanced way.  Upper body, lower body, right side, left side, forward movement, lateral movement and rotational movement are all included in the marital arts training.

Fitness

            Fitness has three components: strength, flexibility, and endurance.  Martial arts training demands a balance between the three. Therefore, a child who trains in martial arts will find her weakest areas greatly improved.  Because of her greater balance of strength, flexibility, and endurance your child will be less likely to injure herself while participating in other athletic activities.

Health

            While martial arts training improves health for people of all ages, it is especially effective for children.  It’s great exercise and its fun so kids don’t mind doing it.  And part of martial arts training includes discussing diet and lifestyle habits so children who grow up training develop healthy habits that stick with them for life.

Concentration

            Very few activities engage the mind, body, and spirit more than martial arts.  Because of this a child’s ability to concentrate is greatly enhanced by his martial arts training.  He’ll bring this ability to concentrate to other activities, too.

Respect and Courtesy

            Martial arts techniques are, by nature, designed to injure others when applied.  Because of this, martial arts instructors greatly stress the importance of respect, courtesy, and restraint. It has been proven time and again that children who are skilled in martial arts tend to be extremely respectful, considerate, and composed.

Confidence

            Martial arts training always increases a child’s confidence for two specific reasons.  First, there are no bench sitters.  Every child participates and competes against her own potential rather than against the other students.  Second, martial arts training is built on the concept of setting your child up for success by giving her a series of realistic, short-term goals that she can attain quickly while keeping her focused on an exciting long-term goal.  Each time she experiences success her confidence improves until she begins to believe that she can accomplish just about anything with hard work and dedication.

…and to add our own two cents to the above article…POSITIVE SOCIALIZATION!

            Having a consistent safe environment that promotes respect and humility is the ideal place for your child to learn how to navigate social situations. Using interpersonal communication skills, teamwork drills, and watching their peers do amazing things promotes appreciation and confidence. We all want places and people in our child’s life that encourage them to do well. But don’t you want your kid to also know how to encourage others to do well?