There are Martial Arts Academies and there are exceptional Martial Arts Academies. Just like restaurants, just like cars, but we aren’t talking about cars or restaurants are we, we are talking about your child’s, safety, welfare and happiness.

It’s what every parent wants for their child, happiness, but it is often hard to obtain and even harder to keep.

A great Martial Art Academy should Be Consistent
Children crave consistency, however this is one of the hardest things for a parent to provide, consistency is practicing what you preach from rules to lifestyle to diet to education. Consistency is having rules not just for your child but for your whole family and sometimes most importantly, consistency is knowing when your child needs you to be a friend and when they need you to be a parent. Providing consistency will help stabilise your child’s mind and allow them to see their place in the world.

A Great Martial Arts Academy must promote Good Nutrition
Across the world the numbers in childhood obesity are growing and growing, we see it in the news almost every day, this is for of a number of reasons, one of the largest factors being the rise in the availability and consumption of sugary and fatty fast foods. It is important for kids to know what to eat what to drink and when. One good strategy is the colors challenge – tell your kids to eat a different colored fruit or vegetable in each meal for a week to win a prize, make going to the shops an adventure and make eating the right foods as exciting as possible. Kids with a good diet will have more energy, more friends and a more positive outlook on life, they will feel good.

A Great Martial Arts Academy must provide Physical Activity
Another cause for obesity, unhappiness and social exclusion for our children is a lack of simply not enough exercise. This is not only brought about by lower numbers of children participating in traditional recreational activities like soccer, footy, martial arts, etc but in children’s loss of real ‘play’ with other children, running together and having fun outside rather than in front of the TV or devices. Encourage your children to be adventurous and find extracurricular activities and organisations that support them to be active.

A Great Martial Art Academy must promote Friendships and Social Interaction
All kids need friends and all kids crave friendships among their peers. For some kids this is difficult, they have trouble finding similarities with other children, they don’t understand cultural differences between families or they are so fully committed to many recreational activities that they simply do not have time to make lasting friendships. Take the time to explain just how important having good friends is to your child and actively help them arrange play dates and sleep overs with kids from school.

A Great Martial Arts Academy must provide a platform for Education
A good education sets your child up for life, it helps them communicate well, become socially accepted and financially stable in later life. It is never to soon to set your child up for success. The key is knowing when you are pushing and when you are encouraging. Whenever you talk about school use positive words make it sound exciting and your child will attach to your excitement and believe it is. Make sure your child still has time for fun… but when its homework time make them knuckle down and instil the work ethic you want them to have.

A Great Martial Arts Academy must Support the Children and the Parents
Children need people they can go to for help and support such as parents, teachers, mentors and friends. They need as many supportive, trusted people as possible around them. A Great Martial Arts Academy supports parents with training make sure we are all there to explain to your child how to recognise trusted people and detail all the people they can go to if they are in trouble or need help. This will do wonders for your child’s peace of mind. A Great Martial Arts Academy is a support for the families they influence. Promoting great values and connection for all their students.

So yes Martial Arts should be the great answer to the development, safety and well being of Children, but be careful, they are not all the same……..ShiGong Chris Futcher-Coles

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