Why Should My Child Learn a Martial Art?
Benefit Number 1: Your Child will be More Active
If you want your child to be more active, then martial arts is a good choice. Australia, like many modern societies, is moving (if not already there) towards an obese nation.
According to AMA President, Dr Michael Gannon, obesity is the biggest public health challenge facing the Australian population. Australian children are becoming increasingly unfit as well as being overweight.
Competitive sports are excellent for getting your child active, but not every child is an athlete and competition may undermine some children’s self-esteem.
The International Taekwon-Do Federation South East Queensland (ITF SEQ) offers an environment that is non-competitive and instead helps your child set personal goals for them to strive for and achieve.
Martial arts offer many benefits, and fitness is one of the first things that springs to mind. ITF SEQ can help your child get active and start a life-long appreciation of the benefits of a healthy and fit lifestyle.
Benefit Number 2: Your Child will Learn to Focus and Concentrate
Today’s child is constantly plugged into technology both at school with online learning resources as well as at home with the internet, social media, mobile gaming and the list goes on. This often results in the need to multitask.
While there are a great many benefits from multitasking, there are many more benefits in focusing on a single task and doing the task well. Unfortunately having the ability to focus on single task is a rare skill with the constant distraction of social media and gaming etc.
At ITF SEQ, and the vast majority of martial art classes, you will not find the distraction of loud music or TV screens streaming the latest social media celebrity gossip. Instead there is a focus of each individual to the single task at hand and concentration of trying to perfect that task. This focus and concentration results in hard work, sweat and achievement.
As a martial artist, your child will learn what it is to be focussed, challenged and gain a sense of accomplishment.
Reason Number 3: Your Child will Learn that Life is Not Always About Winning
Too often children are taught, well into adolescence, that every time they participate they should expect to receive a prize or recognition, instead of being taught that the reward is in themselves participating and cultivating a sense of self-worth.
Regrettably, this message seems to be missing in our society's everyone-gets-a-trophy ethos. In the martial arts, your child will learn to accept failure and try again.
At ITF SEQ, children do not receive participation certificates or an automatic promotion to the next belt level just for attending a certain number of classes. Only those children that put in the effort to achieve their goal are given the recognition and the rewards that go with striving for an objective.
In the martial arts, your child will learn that we all have disappointments in life. The key is in learning how to recover from the disappointment and keep on going. Your child will learn to get-back-up after a disappointment and to appreciate that sense of achievement when they accomplish their goal.
Reason Number 4: Your Child will Gain Self-Confidence and Self-Respect
A good martial arts school will teach your child self-confidence and self-respect as they move up through the belt levels and improve their ability in their chosen martial art. Additionally, a good martial arts school will also teach your child humility, as there is always someone who is better, bigger or stronger.
Every martial artist ultimately learns this sense of respect and true confidence. At ITF SEQ your child will learn that confidence and respect for others comes from a sense of self-knowledge and understanding that everyone starts as a beginner in every skill they strive to acquire.
The Next Step
The take-home message in this blog post is that almost any child can benefit from participation in the martial arts. The key in choosing a martial arts school is to ask lots of questions when you meet the instructor.
As a starting place, this related article will provide you with a list of questions to ask the martial arts instructor and help you determine whether the school is the right fit for your child.
Please contact us if you have any questions.
