Martial Arts For Children

Of the many activities available for children Martial Arts can be one of the premium choices. As an extracurricular activity, some of it’s benefits is that Martial Arts and Self Defense training is not subject to seasonal scheduling and focuses on each individual child’s development. Martial Arts is also a very good example of goal oriented training, with a well established reward system. This is extremely important to children while they develop into well rounded and well adjusted people.

In terms of physical development Martial Arts provides a perfect way for children to develop strength, flexibility, and coordination. The traditional forms taught in many Martial Arts and Self Defense schools develop the body through continued exertion as well as require an obvious measure of coordination in order to perform correctly. Depending on the style, flexibility will be stressed differently. Kicking styles such as Tae Kwon Do will stress flexibility in the legs above all else. Capoeira, a Brazilian Martial Art, stresses both flexibility in the legs as well as the torso and is very demanding on the upper body as well. Styles such as Eskrima, a Filipino Martial Art, stresses upper body endurance, eye hand coordination, and flexibility of the shoulders and arms.

Mental development is also very important, and something a child can expect to enhance through the pursuit of Martial Art expertise. The focus needed to complete long forms can be very challenging for any practitioner of Martial Arts, especially for children. Concentration is developed by requiring a student to perform complex movements under pressure. Pressure is either through reflex drills or sparring exercises.

A fighting spirit is very important to a Martial Artist. While training, each student will be confronted with challenges that will be difficult and may leave the student with a desire to quit or feel that it is just too hard. A good instructor will help coach each student through these challenging times, the child will come out of the challenge with an indomitable spirit and a sense of self motivation that will help him or her conquer greater challenges as they go through live.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of Martial Art training for children is the sense of ethics that Martial Arts encourages. Martial Arts are essentially the military secrets and warrior traditions of different civilizations. Part and parcel to this noble tradition is a code of ethics that is present in virtually all martial art schools and traditions. Central to these are Honesty, Respect, and Courtesy, however they do very from school to school and art to art.

By: Suro Jason Inay

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Suro Jason Inay is a world class intructor of the Filipino Martial Art of the Inayan System of Eskrima. He is available for seminars at www.Jason-Inay.com The system of martial art he teaches is at www.inayan-eskrima.com and the organization website is ito.inayan-eskrima.biz