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.
