Kids who immerse themselves in martial arts practice don’t end up being the victims of bullies in school, they’re left alone, as bullies most usually pick on kids they know aren’t going to stand up for themselves. Kids who study the martial arts also usually end up being adults —who don’t get bullied in the workplace.
Kids who practice the martial arts hang out with teens and adults who practice the martial arts —and those are most often people who value physical exercise, good nutrition, calmness under pressure, and who set goals and methodically —and with no small amount of effort, —set out to achieve them. Not a bad crowd to hang out with at all.
Kids who study the martial arts often hear power words like “respect,” “courtesy,” “focus,” “compassion,” “kindness,” and “perseverance” 10,000 times more than any TV show or any amount of computer time provides in the same amount of time. Kids in the martial arts learn to put these words into action, too, in every practice session —and as a result, they often become the foundation for a lifetime of beliefs and practices.
Kids who practice the martial arts hear adults who practice martial arts saying things like, “If a picture is worth 1000 words, then an action is worth 1000 pictures,” and “If you can’t, then you must —and if you must, then you will,” and ““The ultimate aim of the martial arts lies not in victory nor defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participants,” and “anger is an acid that does more harm to the vessel it is contained in than anything it is poured over” —and these ideas, kept in the mind and put to use, can, in one’s life, end up being absolute, concrete, worth their weight in gold game-changers.
Kids who practice the martial arts can grow up to be adults who write things like this —and who, nearly every day of the year, teach, coach, mentor, encourage, and motivate young people to not only look for and be their best, physically, mentally, and emotionally, but in how to take what they learn on the mats of their dojo —and put it to work in their lives, in their communities, in the world, to their own benefit and to the benefit of others.
Go ahead momma’s, let your babies grow up to be black belts.
