Keeping your child training

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Keeping your child training

Postby Steve Rowe on Sun Aug 20, 2017 8:23 am

My latest blog...

This is the time of the year that children are going up a school, from Infants to Junior and importantly from Junior to Senior and Senior to University.

Parents in their infinite wisdom decide that their children will have more homework and often drop their martial arts training and teenagers going to university often move away from the area of their club and don’t bother to find a new one.

THIS IS A BIG MISTAKE!

Why? The children going from Junior to Senior school will need to move up in their martial arts club to the adult training; because the bullies they will invariably encounter will be adult size and age. Their training needs to change to be able to deal with it emotionally and physically. They will soon be going out on their own and with friends and going to nightclubs and will encounter nasty weaponised violence, their bodies are rapidly changing and they are likely to suffer attempted sexual assault, they will be changing friends and likely to befriend people that will try to introduce them to drugs. If they are able to keep their friends and be training in a healthy, challenging environment in a martial arts club and learning how to deal with all these new dangers they will have a MUCH better chance of staying sane, healthy and safe.

Homework and study can be challenging, the biggest enemies to academic success are distraction and laziness, the ability to be able train in a club and at home to learn to remain aware and focused are essential skills. you can only study for so long and need an activity that will correct posture, breathing, awareness and focus – what better than martial arts that will also keep you safe and can be practised anywhere, at any time without any special equipment?

Universities are the target of many different kinds of criminal, young, naive, distracted vulnerable targets make for easy pickings, muggings, rape, sexual assault and home invasion are most likely to happen at this time. Emotional intelligence, awareness and good training is essential to deal with these problems.

Schools and universities have become number crunchers and box tickers, they don’t like to admit they have these problems, at the end of the day the only person to keep youngsters safe at the time is inevitably the youngster themselves. They need good training.

The best thing parents can do is to keep their children and youngsters engaged in their martial arts wherever possible, make sure they are getting the right kind of training and give as much encouragement as possible – failure to do so can result in a very heavy price indeed.
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Re: Keeping your child training

Postby aamc on Mon Aug 21, 2017 4:03 pm

Excellent post, as someone who started training at a local school whilst at university. Training got me outside of the university bubble. Importantly I was with people of differing ages, differing backgrounds and abilities. Especially as a southern in a northern city. I went towns I'd never thought to go see, along with clubs, restaurants, fetes, pubs, football clubs, along with being invited into people's homes. A sense of a kinship that is more than each others backgrounds. These experiences, continue to benefit me now, be it social and especially in work. So yes!! Keep training.
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Re: Keeping your child training

Postby hodmeist on Wed Aug 23, 2017 8:17 am

Excellent post and something I am experiencing right now.
My son is starting University next month and is an amateur boxer for a good club where we live. We are doing all the usual research around accommodation for him etc but just as important to him is where to train. We have located two potential clubs, one run by an ex-pro world champion and there is also a possibility of a bursary from the university if he agrees to represent them. When he is back home on school holiday's he can still represent our local club. You are right though Steve, it would and could be very easy for him to drop the training once he is away from home. Although he is very dedicated and rarely misses a day training, he could succumb to temptations and pressures that come with university life. I am hoping not....
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Re: Keeping your child training

Postby charles on Wed Aug 23, 2017 9:58 am

Steve Rowe wrote:The best thing parents can do is to keep their children and youngsters engaged in their martial arts wherever possible, make sure they are getting the right kind of training and give as much encouragement as possible – failure to do so can result in a very heavy price indeed.


Yeeeeah, I'm not convinced this is "the best thing parents can do". It really sounds along the lines of, "When all you have is a hammer, all problems look like nails." Clearly, those on this discussion forum have a vested interest in martial arts. But, that doesn't make martial arts practice the best thing for all people in all circumstances.
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Re: Keeping your child training

Postby Bao on Wed Aug 23, 2017 10:19 am

charles wrote:...that doesn't make martial arts practice the best thing for all people in all circumstances.



Completely agree. I would go even further and say that I am not sure that MA practice suit all kind of people. For my own situation, my practice meant very much for me. But for very personal reasons. I wouldn't want my kid to chose martial arts for any other reason than because of his own genuine interest and because he found something that he really loved. IMO, martial arts really need authentic passion and a whole lot of dedication. Otherwise there are so much other things kids can choose, things that will give them skills that are more useful in our modern society.
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Re: Keeping your child training

Postby Steve Rowe on Wed Aug 23, 2017 1:33 pm

I think you missed the point. They've already chosen training and from junior to senior school it's often the parents that stop them coming because "they have too much homework" and at uni there can be a lot of other distractions. Encouragement isn't forcing anyone to do anything but if they can keep training they've got a better chance of staying, sane, healthy and safe.
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Re: Keeping your child training

Postby Bao on Thu Aug 24, 2017 7:14 am

Steve Rowe wrote:... if they can keep training they've got a better chance of staying, sane, healthy and safe.


Well, that might be so if you feel that your kid is in the danger zone...

If he or she already have a good mental health and want to steer away from martial arts, I would suggest that it's very much advisable to do so. I don't believe that having the mindset of fighting or practice to fight is a particularly healthy thing in our modern society. They should mature and get rid of all juvenile impulses, like playing fights and thinking too much about violence. Then they can develop better. Just IMHO. ;)
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Re: Keeping your child training

Postby Steve Rowe on Thu Aug 24, 2017 8:13 am

Bao - Well, that might be so if you feel that your kid is in the danger zone...


Guess I've lived and taught in that zone all my life. Even those that don't are in for a shock if it comes to them. Life throws up shocks and surprises anyway wherever you are and it's good to be prepared to deal with them, good martial arts training will help.
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Re: Keeping your child training

Postby everything on Fri Aug 25, 2017 9:58 pm

One of my kids took up MA recently after I insisted he has to get back into some kind of physical activity.

Also the discipline and long term goal setting are good lessons imho.

He was angry but then he found he really likes it. We learn together a bit so that's nice.

Coincidentally (or not), he's taken up some resistance training and better nutrition.

I hope like many of us here, MA might be a healthy life long hobby with a good influence on overall Heath and fitness.

As far as self defense, I think I already got him to have my view that there are many life skills and emergency preparedness skills but we can't have them all nor is it really that important to go totally overboard. It might be different where you live or from your experiences of course.
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Re: Keeping your child training

Postby meeks on Sat Aug 26, 2017 7:55 pm

Steve Rowe wrote:
Bao - Well, that might be so if you feel that your kid is in the danger zone...


Guess I've lived and taught in that zone all my life. Even those that don't are in for a shock if it comes to them. Life throws up shocks and surprises anyway wherever you are and it's good to be prepared to deal with them, good martial arts training will help.


Same here - been at it since I was a kid in the 70s. But I see Steve's point - keeping time for martial arts training amidst the madness of all the assignments and homework as a perfect 'reset button' for the brain. From my own experience, I've had times where I'm completely slammed with homework, weekend assignments, little (if any sleep) and my Shifu would call me and force me to come train with him regardless of my other responsibilities. And in the midst of all the hard qi gong exercises, followed up with a good ass-kicking from my Shifu I'd always feel refreshed, all other stress would leave my body because it's the last thing on your mind for the next 4 hours of training.

By the time I got home I felt f***-ing amazing, refreshed, and I'd hit the homework finding suddenly every assignment (software development) made sense, and I'd write code at high speed, nailing off each assignment regardless of how 'broken' my code seemed before going to bagua class.

Great post, Steve!
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