In a child’s life these days there are many things that would keep them distracted from physical activities. The beauty of the internet is that it’s great for connecting with people and allows finding information (such as this site, where you can learn more about fighting). Unfortunately, it also gives more distractions to kids and the appeal to sit on the phone all day or play video games is bigger than ever.

The most active years of any human being is when they are growing up. The energy is limitless and they seemingly can run around forever. When you step into adulthood, it’s your energy tank becomes lower. So how do you keep a child away from video games and the internet without creating strict rules around it? Banning computer is a simple thing but does it really push the child into the right direction and make them more active?

As you can tell from the article, we believe that Martial Arts training might be one of the best things a child can participate in. What are the parent’s worries about a child’s life when they are growing up?

Here are some of the problems a child may encounter when being inactive:

Martial arts provide a great solution to all of this. It looks like it has gotten more popularity among many European countries where sports like karate, judo, taekwondo and others are on the list of the ten most practiced sports among children and adults. Many countries still have not embraced the beauty of martial arts and what it offers.

Isn’t the goal of the sport to fight and hence participants are more injury prone?

Studies suggest that Martial Arts are not actually as bad as you might think. We must note that there is a difference between professional fighting and beginner/amateur fighting. Most amateurs will be unable to fight unless wearing protective gear. For example, in amateur boxing the rules are different than professional boxing. Wearing a protective head guard is mandatory in amateur boxing whereas in professional boxing, wearing head guard is prohibited. You can see more on the differences between amateur and professional boxing here. The same study that reviewed the rules also found that amateur boxing is one of the safest contact sports out there. If you’re interested in boxing gear, we’ve done a fair share of reviews on various products that boxing world has to offer.

Martial Arts classes will always teach you the basics first. Anyone with some fighting experience understands that before you can fight, you have to learn the basics. Basics are there to protect you and make sure children (and adults) don’t get hurt. A true martial artist recognizes the value in longevity and that in order to practice the sport - you have to do it in a safe way. This means that if that if the child is practicing unsafe techniques or if perhaps the sparring is getting a little bit out of hand, the spars get stopped. Nobody will go to the first class and get beat up – it just doesn’t happen. And when spar does happen, safety is a key aspect and, as previous studies have shown, other contact sports have higher rate of injuries.

It’s safe to say that, yes, it does. When practicing martial arts, you firstly will be continuously exercising and pushing yourself. Your body will get stronger and once that happens, the mind follows. Additionally, when you know how to defend yourself, it’s much easier to stay calm and confident in situations where you feel a fight might escalate. Knowing how to defend yourself instils that confidence and that’s usually all that is needed to prevent a fight. Someone who does not fear confrontation and does not display fear is one to be feared. Any bully that sees a child not reacting to his or her intimidation in a fearful way will recognize this and usually will back away.

Any Martial Arts class will have plenty of people in there to interact with. What makes contact sports great is that you’re physical with people. And whilst this is not harmful physical contact that everyone is after, it’s one that does allow creating bonds with people after great training sessions together. There’s nothing better to break barriers than a light sparring session with another person. You see this in any professional fight. Even when fighters hate each other before the fights, they always come out of the fight having a lot of respect for each other.

We hope that this article gives you more confidence in Martial Arts and the role it can play in any child’s life. It offers the right level of physical activity, lets you bond with people and teaches self-defense. All of which are important things to learn and will help shape a positive and confident personality.