Guest post by Evolve MMA, Asia’s premier championship brand for martial arts. It has the most number of World Champions on the planet. Named as the #1 ranked martial arts organization in Asia by CNN, Yahoo! Sports, FOX Sports, Evolve MMA is the top rated BJJ gym in Singapore.
Getting your child started with martial arts early provides them with many physical and mental benefits that can stay with them for their entire lives. Martial arts classes for children are designed to be fun, and that’s all most children need to become hooked on them.
Martial arts training isn’t just mindless fun, though. These classes are carefully structured to create a positive environment for learning martial arts techniques. The child will also learn many valuable life lessons such as the importance of perseverance, commitment, and discipline.
Why Martial Arts Provide More Physical And Mental Benefits Than Other Activities
Let’s take a closer look at some of the reasons why martial arts classes are more beneficial for your child than other activities:
1) Martial Arts Are More Engaging Than Most Sports
Regularly showing up for martial arts classes is a lot easier than getting a child to stick to a fitness routine like calisthenics. Both activities provide children with a full-body workout, but calisthenics can get boring eventually. After a while, the child knows exactly what they will be doing during each fitness class, making it hard to stay motivated.
Things work entirely differently with martial art classes. Each class is unique since most martial arts have countless techniques. The child is constantly learning new things during each class, which motivates them to keep training. Each class is like opening a wrapped present since the child has no idea which techniques will be taught or drilled.
The most crucial factor regarding how effective any fitness-related activity will be is your ability to stick to it for a long time. Martial art classes make it easy to stay committed. Years can fly by without the child realizing how long they’ve been training.
2) Improves Confidence
Martial arts classes are a great way to boost a child’s confidence. The struggles each child will face on the mat are predictable, and their instructors will be right there to help them get over it. No one steps on the mat and masters all the techniques a combat style has to offer in one day.
Some techniques might come naturally to a child, while others are more challenging. The child might even feel some of the challenging techniques are impossible to learn. Their instructors will be there to encourage them and assure them they can learn any technique if they keep drilling it.
Eventually, the child realizes how the technique is executed, and they start performing it effortlessly. Each obstacle the child overcomes during training increases their confidence a little bit.
3) Teaches Self-Defense
Martial arts are fighting systems that teach practical ways to defend yourself. Children who know how to defend themselves if needed are less likely to be the target of bullies at school. Bullying is rampant worldwide, and it’s one of the leading causes of mental health disorders in children. Children who are viciously bullied typically have emotional scars that stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Children who know how to defend themselves tend to be better at setting boundaries with their peers and are more self-assured. They do not present themselves as easy victims that bullies typically prey upon.
4) Provides Destructive Therapy
Children barely understand their own emotions, and their communication skills are limited at that stage in their lives. They do not always have the words needed to express themselves about things that are bothering them. That often leads to the child misbehaving as they try to alert adults they are displeased about something.
Martial arts classes serve as a form of destructive therapy since they allow children to take out any frustration or anger they have on inanimate objects like a heavy bag or mitts. This helps to lower the child’s stress levels, protecting them against mental health disorders like depression. Lower stress also helps to strengthen the child’s immune system.
5) Improves Communication Skills
Martial arts classes are group activities that often involve children working with their peers. The instructors break down the techniques for the day, and students are typically paired up with one another.
This gives children that train in martial arts more time to work on their social skills. Martial art classes provide an excellent environment for children to have positive interactions since instructors constantly stress respect and politeness.
6) Intense Physical Exercise
Very few sports can compare to the intensity of training martial arts like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai. Students can burn an excess of 1,000 calories for every hour spent on the mat, making it easy to keep themselves in top physical shape. To put things in comparison, activities like running or swimming burn about 450 calories for every hour spent engaged in it.
The massive caloric burn that occurs during martial arts training makes it easier to get rid of excess fat on your body and stay lean. Martial arts classes provide a full-body workout that does not neglect any muscle groups.
7) Optimizes Physical Fitness
Martial arts training provides more than simply building stronger, more defined muscles. It optimizes a child’s physical fitness in multiple ways. First, martial arts improve mobility and flexibility. Techniques like a roundhouse or spinning heel kick require lots of both, which is why many people struggle with them at first. However, repeatedly drilling these techniques improves the student’s flexibility and mobility to the point they can perform such techniques effortlessly.
Martial arts also improve a child’s cardiovascular endurance so their heart and lungs can work harder. Improved cardio also protects the child against serious health issues like heart disease.
Third, martial arts training improves a child’s coordination. Most techniques require using multiple body parts to perform specific movements. This leads to a more coordinated child.
Last but not least, martial arts also help to sharpen a child’s reflexes. Training involves blocking and evading while sparring and competing, improving the child’s ability to react to things.
Give Martial Arts A Try
Bring your child to one of Evolve MMA’s complimentary introductory martial arts classes to give them a taste of what training looks like.
The post Here’s How Martial Arts Can Improve Your Child’s Physical And Mental Health appeared first on Bjj Eastern Europe.