There are few things as rewarding in life as watching your child undergo a positive change in attitude or skillset. These are moments to be treasured forever and which will stand your child in good stead for the rest of their life.
Hobbies are perhaps the best way to cause positive change in your child- it’s rare to come across an adult who doesn’t credit at least one of their childhood hobbies as having a beneficial impact on them.
Here are 3 changes you’ll notice in your child after they take up martial arts.
More Confident
“A feeling of self-assurance arising from an appreciation of one’s own abilities or qualities.”
This is perhaps the most noticeable, instant, and rewarding change you will notice in your child after they take up martial arts. Safe in the knowledge that they can defend themselves against bullies, your child will become exponentially more confident.
This is a change universal to martial arts and we notice it in every single kid who steps through our doors. For some reason the combination of self-defense skills, a martial arts gym, and a strict environment just skyrocket a child’s confidence levels.
There are no limits to the areas increased confidence this will help them with in life. They will be more comfortable socialising, able to lead teams, and will always get their opinion across to name just a few.
For subtle signs that your child’s confidence has increased watch out for things like them speaking up more in group conversations.
More Resilient
“The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.”
Resilience is a life skill all successful people possess. Life is not easy, and successful people are the ones who keep going in the face of adversity.
In order to develop resilience, children need to be metaphorically knocked down and made to get up again. And there is no hobby which will help your child with this more than combat sports.
Extremely tough training; competing with children who are more experienced than them; coaches who will never let them give up; developing resilience is a natural side effect of training martial arts.
And the benefits of this are truly lifelong, from revising for exams to working their way up the corporate ladder, resilience is always needed.
To experience this change, it’s essential your child sticks at it for at least 6 months otherwise they simply won’t have had the time to develop resilience.
More Disciplined
“Showing a controlled form of behaviour or way of working.”
Helping your child control their behaviour is arguably parenting’s greatest headache. Countless parenting gurus, books, and strategies exist, most of which appear to be written by people who have never actually parented.
Fortunately, martial arts presents an excellent solution. Combat sports classes are extremely disciplined and misbehaviour is not tolerated under any circumstances.
By partaking in martial arts, your child will become use to disciplined environments and will soon start to look down on undisciplined environments.
If your at a dead-end for how to improve your child’s behaviour or are worried about the amount of time they spend in undisciplined environments then martial arts could be an excellent solution.
Conclusion
Those are just 3 of the many changes that you will notice in your child after they take up martial arts.
As a bonus, most children fall in love with combat sports after trying and they're left with a new obsession to keep them busy.
If you think your child would enjoy martial arts and reap the benefits then check out our Kids section to learn more.