Why I believe every child should have a base level of martial arts
Dec
It’s common in martial arts schools to think that martial arts are superior to other sports, which isn’t the case. Ask yourself why you want your child to participate in sport, the primary focus should be to move and have fun – Which can be accomplished by any sport.
However, what is it a martial arts sport like Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu offers that makes me think a base level should be needed?
For me two things stand out, general self-defence and the humbling factor the sport offers.
I do not need to go over the self-defence factors in mass detail, but why I like grappling as opposed to striking sports it has an emphasis on using their weight against them and controlling them, rather than trying to cause damage. If focusing on self-defence that should be your priority, to control and get out. Plus getting punched and kicked hurts :(.
But what does this humbling factor mean?
Often now you will see that children have a lot more say in the way their life goes, I’m not here to argue if that is a good thing or bad thing but with that comes responsibility. Now if you are given a lot of responsibility and the the repercussions for your actions won’t be met because you are a child, this is when bad decisions may start to happen.
So how does martial arts help with this?
If you’re a child attending a 50-minute session, and in that session, you have to pick yourself up off the ground 10 times after being thrown by another child, you’ll slowly realise that you’re not invincible and that you have to work and train to improve. Now this isn’t to say sessions are designed to knock your child’s confidence, quite the opposite, the sport is designed to build confidence. This comes from an ability to know that if you get put down, you can easily get back up. As coaches we don’t need to make the sessions any harder in terms of humbling, the sport does that itself, instead we help support them to make sure they enjoy finding this newfound self-belief.
9/10 The reason instigations happen in the real world is because two people are too insecure to walk away, someone who has indulged in martial arts training would rarely entertain those scenarios, and that is THE BIGGEST self-defence factor you will get from Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. If someone
Now this process is a long journey, it doesn’t happen overnight and requires overseeing by a coach who has an interest in your child’s growth as a person.
What is a base level?
Now this is something I don’t really know the answer to. I’m not a massive fan of self-defence courses as they advertise you’ll have a base-level understanding of self-defence, when in reality when push comes to shove you’d be like a fish out of water. For the base level skills to become innate in reality it would take a LOT OF HOURS to even reach a base level. I would love to give an answer to which amount you need to do and at what age but I think it would be too difficult to pinpoint due to how variable it would be.
We have run self-defence courses in the past and they are very much used as a gateway to start the journey, not something where you should receive a certificate because you know one hip throw and an arm bar.
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