By Maria Held, Switzerland
It’s fashionable in our youth today to go to a fitness center. Statistics show us that more and more people go to a center. The women often want to lose weight or they want to have a fit body for the swimsuit in the summer, often to suit our beauty ideals. Men want to have muscles as many as possible, also to suit our beauty ideals, but there are other sports, which we don’t even think about, fishing or golf for example. But today I’ll speak about Martial Arts as specially Martial Arts for children.
What are Martial Arts?
Martial arts aren’t just battles. The sports are a method of training your mind, body and spirit, but you don’t have to learn vocabulary. Martial arts are known for harmony, but also to learn effective and self-defense techniques. Today, self-defense is important. Children who get involved in martial arts reap many benefits in several areas of life. Martial arts were created in Asia, for example karate, kung fu, jiu jitsu, aikido, tae kwon do, judo and muay Thai. The most known sports are karate and Kung fu.
Fitness
Self Defense
The ability to defend oneself against a bad person is a good feeling. It gives people safety. Most martial arts use self defense as a cornerstone of the entire program. The methods will vary from discipline to discipline, especially children learn different ways to defend themselves. Many martial arts schools also teach street-smart techniques to kids to help avoid problems all together.
Self Discipline
Martial arts help instill mental focus. It gives the ability to concentrate on one task. The discipline that is taught in the training in regard to uniforms, customs and techniques often translates into other areas of life, including school and household chores.
Self Confidence
A child who is involved in martial arts is generally a child who is confident in herself. Working through a martial art gives a child goals to follow, that are realistic to attain.
My Experience
I’m doing martial arts since 9 years. At the beginning, as a little girl, it was interesting, because it was something else. All the others girls in my class went to the farm to riding or they played volleyball. I liked it to do something different, and it was a lot of fun. Now I’m physically fit and I learned a lot about another culture. If there is a dangerous situation, perhaps, I’ll be able to defense myself. This sport helped me also in the school for my discipline. I can benefit in every part of my life. It isn’t just a hobby for me. It is a big part of my life or a way of life.
By Maria Held, Switzerland
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