There are many benefits children receive from marital arts lessons. Everyone has different reasons for staying with or starting the martial arts, we’ve listed five that you might not have thought of. Whatever reason you might be interested in the martial arts, the benefits stack up quickly.
1) They’ll get active
Martial Arts makes for a great physical activity. There aren’t seasons. There is no bench. Everyone participates the same amount and you don’t need special equipment to practice at home. The activity is mentally engaging and it’s fun. You put all those things together and it makes it very easy for kids to have a physical activity that puts them in the habit of being active from a young age. One of the advantages to martial arts as a physical activity is that anyone can participate. Field sports can be difficult or impossible for children with asthma and allergies. Some sporting leagues can’t accommodate children with physical limitations or disabilities. Martial arts can do those things. The only reason a child can’t do martial arts is if they don’t want to (and even then they could, it’s just not fair to the child). The key to getting better at the martial arts is to keep doing the martial arts. Conveniently the key to staying physically fit is to stay active. So a physical activity that is fun and encourages a child to stay active is something they can keep with them throughout their life.
2) Integrating their physical and mental development
It is no surprise that children develop their minds and bodies at different rates. As kids grow they develop different skills, like throwing a ball, that grow and advance as their mind and body advance. As they gain strength they can throw the ball farther. As their hand eye coordination increases they can aim where they throw that ball. Any physical activity will help a child develop balance, strength, and coordination . The one that works best is the one that keeps their attention. It’s different for every child. One of the advantages of martial arts for this development we already said above. There is no offseason for kids karate classes. Another advantage is that martial arts appeals to different children in different ways, one child’s favorite part will be different from the next. Having multiple ways to engage a child’s mind helps keep them interested, active, and having fun. Keeping them engaged helps them continue to integrate those physical and mental developments as they make them.
3) Confidence for bully prevention (and making friends)
Martial arts classes give children the opportunity to build their confidence in multiple ways and alleviate social anxieties. No one gets left out of the group, there are no cliques, everyone is the cool kid. In class they get actual physical evidence that they are capable of doing things. They learn about how the shape of their body can give them power, it doesn’t take big muscles. All of that together helps them have confidence in themselves. Studies have shown that verbally responding to bullying usually ends bullying. Studies have also shown that a child who feels confident in their ability to respond physically is more likely respond verbally. By helping them feel physically capable they can protect themselves and prevent bullying without ever having to punch or kick.
Most of the physical skills kids learn through the martial arts have multiple benefits, the mental ones work the same way. The same things that help children deal effectively with bullies also help them make friends. Not only is each martial arts class an opportunity to make new friends, but it’s great practice for the other places in their life. The social skills and confidence help kids understand how to talk to other children and create friendships. This helps them have the confidence to talk to new people at school, or to navigate a new class with other children they don’t know.
4) Respect for themselves and others
Teaching self respect might not seem like a vital lesson for children to learn until you think about it a little deeper. We spend a lot of time teaching children how to take care of their body as it grows and develops. We show them how to brush their teeth so that it will be a habit when they are older. We teach them good nutrition so they learn to make good choices about what they put in their bodies. The process of learning self respect also helps build their confidence, they learn to identify and value their strengths. They learn to identify themselves as individuals which helps them avoid getting sucked into groups of bullies. Understanding these things about themselves will help them learn to be compassionate to others and be thoughtful about their choices.
It’s about more than respecting authorities and peers. They don’t just learn the window dressing around being polite, they learn empathy. This doesn’t just mean that children learn to say “please” and “thank you.” It’s about much more. This helps children share, it helps them be inclusive, and keeps them from being judgmental.
5) They’ll learn how to try
Stop me if you’ve heard this one. A child who hasn’t learned how to study encounters a subject or task that they don’t automatically understand how to do. Then they hesitate to start or try because they are worried they will do it wrong. Every child encounters this at some point in their development. Some of them get it out of the way in elementary, some of them won’t see it until high school. Martial arts helps with this whether they haven’t found it yet or if they are already struggling with it. In martial arts kids learn to be excited about new and difficult things rather than intimidated by them. Practice isn’t a means to an end, practice is the whole point. The best way to get good at anything is to practice it. In martial arts, there is always something to practice, you don’t ever stop getting better. And the more they practice the more new and challenging things they earn the right to learn. Students learn that the new and difficult is an opportunity to be relished, talk about a powerful thing to arm a child with for when they go out into the world.
Too Long, Didn’t Read:
There are lots of really great benefits kids get from training in the martial arts and participating in classes. It doesn’t matter what age they start, so much as how long they stay and how consistent they can be. The more consistent they come, the more progress they make on all the different benefits as well as how they progress within the art. There isn’t any one martial arts school or class that is better for children than another (a really good school that doesn’t fit into your schedule doesn’t benefit you that much).
Each one of these probably could have been a blog post by itself. But we wanted to keep it short for today. If there are benefits we didn’t list that you feel are important, message us, we will put those at the top of a follow up list.
Shameless Plug:
If you are interested in trying a kids karate class with us, feel free to give us a call (502)899-5506
Or you can hit the “Contact Us” button up at the top of the menu there.
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