Tag: confidence

Martial Arts Confidence Keeps Children Secure

Posted on | by Dojo Kyle

There is absolutely no doubt that confidence can go a long way in providing a sense of – and a posture of – personal security, especially for children. Your child’s self-confidence is what lays the foundation for his or her future health and happiness, both mentally and physically. A child’s confidence stems from the environment that they grow up in and how they are taught to perceive and react to their experiences. A household that can provide stability and security will also instill confidence.

Steps to make your child feel secure and confident

  • The most basic step is to appreciate and praise your child when he or she does something good or completes a given task. Giving him or her the required attention can boost his or her sense of security and self-confidence.
  • Listening is an art form in which most of us fail miserably! But you can’t afford to fail at it when it comes to children. When you listen to your children you’re basically opening the doorway to fruitful communication and trust with them. It not only shows that you care but also provides you with an opportunity to explain things to them.
  • Correct yourself in front of your children when you make a mistake. This will provide
    them with a positive frame of reference that teaches them to learn from their failures, correct mistakes, and make amends for their wrongdoings.
  • Build a bond with your child. Share and engage in activities with them. This will help your child trust you and feel secure around you knowing that you’re always there for them.
  • Express your love physically. As they are too young to understand complex human emotions, children rely on physical touch to express their love and affection. So hugging, kissing, and high-fiving your child is a good way to reciprocate their affection.

Karate builds security and confidence

You might ask how karate can help your child feel secure and confident. Karate is an art form founded on the values of discipline, hard work, motivation, and goal-setting. Learning karate allows your children to develop a sense of accomplishment through goal-setting, achievement, reward, and growth of knowledge, ability, and self-reliance. Your child will learn to compete in a positive environment with other children, which will not only boost
his or her confidence but also teach him or her to handle defeat constructively and with good sportsmanship. With intense training and hard work, karate will instill in them a sense of confidence and security that will last a long, healthy, and successful lifetime.

Stand Tall and Stand Proud

Posted on | by Dojo Kyle

We live in a world where the pressure to “fit in” is tremendous, magnified now by mobile and social media, fast food, consumerism, crime, and other daily challenges. Many believe the “peer approval” demand is affecting our children in the worst ways possible. Thanks to technology, peer pressure and bullying aren’t just limited to the school or the playground anymore. This has created an even greater need for us to teach our children the values of self- confidence and self-respect – demonstrated in belief and action!

Experts state that self-esteem and confidence are two of the most important traits that can shape a child’s entire future and help them succeed. Consequently it is of utmost importance for parents to encourage and teach their children to respect themselves and others from a very young age. Studies have shown that children with low self-esteem and poor self-image are much more likely to become victims of peer pressure and bullying. On the other hand, children with high levels of confidence tend to have better coping skills, higher resiliency, and better focus on their tasks for longer time periods.

Boost their confidence

In order to boost your child’s confidence, teach them to accept themselves as they are. Tell them that they are unique and nothing ever good comes out of comparing themselves with other people. Focus on their inherent talents and encourage them to pursue and persevere in their interests. Take a step back and allow your child to make decisions, face problems, and take risks. Tell them that failures are a part of our existence and they only help us learn and grow wise from experience.

Also, avoid overpraising your children. This does more harm than good as you’re basically teaching your children to be incompetent and mediocre. Being good at something takes time, therefore, encourage your child but don’t make them lower their standards or give up prematurely. Teach them to be humble about their strengths and to work on their weaknesses. Above all make sure that you communicate to your child that you love them unconditionally and that your love for them isn’t based on their achievements.

Encourage an activity

Encouraging and presenting opportunities to engage in interesting, constructive activities
is a good way to boost a child’s self-esteem. One of the best year-round sports/hobbies is karate for kids. It cannot be stressed hard enough how beneficial martial arts for children can be for growing confidence, positive outlooks, and amazing capabilities. Karate is more than just a form of self-defense and healthy lifestyle. It is an ancient art form deep rooted in the purpose of helping people lead more disciplined lives. Starting your kids early with karate can do wonders to their self-esteem. When children learn karate, it teaches them to defend themselves against both the physical and mental threats that they might face throughout their lives.

The Confidence to Shut Down Bullies

Posted on | by Dojo Kyle

If you have watched the ‘80s film ‘The Karate Kid’ or its 2010 remake, there are many life lessons to be learned, key among them about firmly facing down bullies. The film charts the story of a teenager who learns to fight bullies with the help of karate. Karate and other forms of martial art can, as the film portrays, help a kid build confidence and stay prepared to handle bullies. Contrary to popular perception, learning a form of martial arts does not make a kid combative; instead practicing karate helps a kid feel strong and safe.

Role play to hone self-defense skills

Among other things, karate can teach children to anticipate trouble. Much of karate training is devoted to applying techniques in practical self-defense situations. Wwhen a kid practices karate, he or she learns to respond to aggression or a scenario of bullying in an instinctive manner. Children often develop the self-confidence to confront, deter, or subdue aggression because of the dozens or hundreds of previous times they practiced in a safe, supervised, role- playing environment.

Karate stances and positions also help instill confidence in a child in terms of body language. If a child’s body language or posture is poor, he or she is especially vulnerable to being bullied or victimized. When a person of any age has high self-esteem and self-confidence, it sends a visual message that deters bullies or would-be assailants. Aggressors typically choose a vulnerable person to threaten or force into conflict and submission. Mankind shares with animals a primal instinct to sense fear. Kids must be taught to behave fearlessly and exude confidence in their actions. Karate accomplishes these goals effortlessly, and the rewards of a safer, more secure child is self-evident.

Boost communication skills

Karate not only helps a all practitioners physically, it also helps in other skills such as communication and interpersonal skills. Karate teaches children how to build a rapport and communicate calmly, thoughtfully, and clearly. Kids learn to defuse and de-escalate bullying situations with humor, or firm tone and volume when needed. Karate helps build mental fortitude, teaching children how to stay focused and composed for longer time periods. It helps develop a body posture that is straight, eyes and mind focused, and feet on solid ground – until the moment those feet are required to not be in self-defense! Karate also helps children learn breathing techniques that aid as coping skills and improve relaxation, stretching, and proficiency in the execution of many martial arts moves.

Many karate schools conduct special anti-bullying programs that focus on self-defense and body language. Bullying is a serious problem in American schools, the source of many crimes of passion and suicides. A 2013 study of 200,000 children between third and 12th grades indicated 39 percent were bullied regularly. The number has only increased as technology has proliferated in the mainstream. In the face of such a serious problem, learning a form of martial arts such as karate will surely help in a multitude of ways.