The benefits of kids karate classes are countless — that’s why it has been practiced for thousands of years. But from our perspective, the best 4 benefits are healthy stress management, discipline and perseverance, better grades, and being bully-proof. Pretty awesome right? Read on to find out more!
1. Stress Less
Nowadays, kids juggle unprecedented issues like cyberbullying and social media pressures. They might also find it hard to make friends in a socially-distanced world. In this day and age, kids experience stress way earlier than any kid should. Stress happens to everyone, so it’s worth teaching your child early on about how to cope with the stresses of day-to-day life — in a positive way.
That’s where martial arts come in! One of the benefits of kids’ karate classes is that it serves as a mental and physical outlet for their energy. Our instructors are quite sneaky (like a ninja!) in how they teach important life skills that help your little one succeed outside of the dojo, including stress management. Teaching martial arts to kids is their life passion, and they pass along their sense of discipline and perseverance to their little ones with every class they attend! Which leads us to.
2. Discipline and Perseverance
Stress and challenges are just a part of life, and kids need to be equipped to handle them! All humans are faced with tough decisions and mountains they need strength to overcome — kids are no exception!
Whether it’s a math test they’re studying for or an audition for a lead role they want to knock out of the park, throughout their childhood, your little one will need discipline and perseverance to see it through! Kids Karate Classes are so fun — trust us! — but it’s not a walk in the park, and that’s intentional. There will be days when your child doesn’t want to come to class, just like there will be days when they won’t want to go to school — they’ll say they just don’t “feel like” doing either of them.
But our world-class instructors teach them how to dig deep and find self-discipline to achieve their goals. If a student is struggling to break a board, maybe they’re crying or feel like they can’t do it, we’re not giving up on them. All of us, instructors and classmates included, are going to rally around that student and cheer them on. Because they can do it, and when they finally do, they’ll have a gigantic smile on their face!
3. Improved Grades
This one always puts a smile on parents’ faces! One of the biggest benefits of kids karate classes is that it helps improve your child’s grades. How? Well, as we mentioned, they learn how to self-discipline, which helps them stick it out when doing their homework or during a long school day. But perhaps one of the best benefits of kids karate classes is that it helps them improve their behavior.
When our students learn how to be still and listen intently to the authority figure in front of them, we see those skills transfer to the classroom. Instead of losing their attention to the pencil sharpener or whatever their classmate is doing, they can focus intently on their teacher and the instructions, and actually learn better than their peers. Parents really love to hear that and that self-control and focus are key components of kids martial arts that they’ll carry with them well into adulthood.
4. Bully-proof
Of all the benefits of kids karate classes, this one might be the most helpful. We look to build our students up to be bully-proof, which means we teach them the skills they need to stand up to bullies in a non-violent way. First, we help them grow their confidence.
As our young martial arts students notice themselves improving in the dojo — perfecting their punches and kicks, gaining better coordination, and learning new moves after lots of practice — they become more and more confident in their abilities and themselves. We also instruct our students to never misuse their martial arts outside of class. Instead of their fists, they learn that their voice is their weapon. We teach them how to speak confidently and assert themselves to our instructors, their peers, and the classroom bully, to stand up for themselves and others. It’s a really amazing process, and we’re very proud of our bully-proof kids!
Conclusion
So did these benefits surprise you? We’re not surprised at all! We see it time and time again — kids walk in the door with behavioral issues, low self-esteem, or difficulty focusing, and they walk out the door with improvement in all these areas and a huge smile on their face. These transformations are what we really love about our jobs. Hopefully now you know that the benefits of kids karate classes go far beyond just self defense — martial arts is a life-changing tool that promotes success far beyond the dojo! Check out our life-changing, transformative kids karate classes right here at our school!