Posted by admin on March 29th, 2008 — Posted in Web Of Martial Arts
Here are three more valuable life skills for children who study Karate.
Attraction
Doesn’t everyone want to feel appreciated, popular, and get some recognition? Children need it even more that you do. This is why a child, who has leadership, success, and social skills, will go far among his or her peers. This is one more reason why a child who studies Karate will avoid following the crowd and become a trend setter.
How can a child be so self assured? It comes with inner confidence, achievements, and enhanced athletic abilities. These are all benefits that children gain from regular participation in a Karate class.
Innovation and Creative Thinking
When teaching the children, in our North Providence martial arts studio, I often emphasize the value of the words, “martial artist.” It is the art that really separates a martial artist from the street fighter. Otherwise, children would only learn self-defense skills, which is a by product of Karate training, but they also have a moral code. Many life skills are learned within martial arts classes. Children in a Karate class should be encouraged to find solutions that work for them.
Therefore, the young Karate student is not a clone of his or her teacher. After the basics are accomplished, all Karate students should use techniques that work for their mind and body. Karate practitioners are not all “wired” in the same way.
As long as the basic foundations are followed, the child who practices Karate should find independent solutions, just like any other artist. I often compare this to music; and here is my comparison, “I can give you the notes, and teach you songs, but it is up to you to create your own songs.”
Time Management
Children, who practice Karate, or any other martial art, learn to be dressed on time, line up in formation, and remember to bring their equipment. This is elementary to adults, but if your child is slowing you down, Karate is a fantastic solution for the child who needs to manage time a little better.
When this same child grows into adulthood, he or she will be thankful for the lessons in time management, when going through college, working at a job, or raising his or her own children. When learning Karate, children also learn to prioritize the important things in life and establish much better control over time management. The co-worker, or college student, who is habitually late, is rarely successful, and has always left something important “on the back burner.”
Paul Jerard is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center, in North Providence, RI. He has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995. He is a master instructor of martial arts, with multiple Black Belts, four martial arts teaching credentials, and was recently inducted into the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame. He teaches Yoga, martial arts, and fitness to children, adults, and seniors in the greater Providence area. Recently he wrote: Yoga: The Key to Self-Mastery http://www.kids-karate.com
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Posted by admin on March 26th, 2008 — Posted in Web Of Martial Arts
Growing up we’ve all heard tales of great Roman gladiators fighting until the death. These warriors were trained fighters, in various disciplines, and gifted athletes. The thing that separated them from all others was the courage and lack of regard for their own safety exhibited by these fighters. They honored having the opportunity to fight for and entertain the fans and they had the utmost respect for the other combatants. You may be asking yourself what this has to do with MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) or any martial art for that matter. If you subtract the fighting until death aspect you will see that MMA fighters exhibit many of the characteristics of these past warriors. You could even say they are our modern day gladiators!
What is MMA? Firstly it stands for Mixed Martial Arts and it is a relatively new combative sport that combines wrestling, boxing, karate, Jiu-jitsu and pretty much any other Martial art you can think of. Some events are held in a cage while others go the traditional combative sport route and use a ring. A match pits two competitors against each other usually for 2-3 five minute rounds. A fighter is allowed to use strikes consisting of elbows, kicks and punches and is allowed to grapple with their opponent both while standing and while the two are on the ground. A fighter can win a match by either knocking their opponent unconscious, applying a submission hold and having their opponent submit or by going the distance and having the judges decide upon the outcome.
You often hear various slurs, like street fighting and human cock fighting, in association with MMA but these detractors couldn’t be further from the truth. The biggest misconception is that your average tough guy can enter one of these events and hold their own. Would people expect your average golfer to be able to keep up with Tiger Woods or your average basket ball hobbyist to stand a chance against Michael Jordan? The answer is no because these athletes are extremely trained and incredibly athletic. This holds true for MMA as well. No, the fighters you see competing in mixed martial arts are not street fighters or thugs they are highly trained athletes. The average fighter trains for 1 hour a day each in boxing, jiu-jitsu and wrestling. They also do an hour of cardiovascular training as well as an additional hour of strength training. That’s 5 hours of intense training in martial arts and conditioning. You’re not going to find many other pro athletes with that much of a work ethic.
Mixed martial arts, is becoming the fastest growing combat sport in the world with many representatives from every continent. When you look at the fact that just 5 years ago there weren’t many mixed martial artists taking home more then ten thousand dollars a fight and now some of these same fighters earn 250 to 500 thousand dollars a fight it definitely shows how far this sport has come. Boxing better make way because mixed martial arts is here to stay.
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Martial Arts
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