Top 7 Life Lessons Your Kids Will Get From Krav Maga
As a good parent, you want all the best for your children. You work hard to love them, teach them, and show them how to be successful in the world. You try to shelter them from all the unkindness and harshness of the world. The challenge comes when preparing them for success collides with teaching them to protect themselves from difficulties that might arise. It can be a tough balance.
It’s no secret that athletic activities can help our kids learn valuable life lessons. Team sports like baseball, football, etc. teach our children how to socialize and work with others toward a common goal. More individualized sports like tennis and swimming build character in other ways.
So, what about martial arts?
First, it can easily be said, that there are a lot of life lessons associated with studying any system of self-defense.
Sure, you can say we’re biased, but we’ve been teaching kids and pre-teens Krav Maga for years now. We’ve gotten some incredible feedback from our parents as well as the students on basic life lessons and takeaways. Here’s the list we’ve put together (in no particular order):
Hard Work Pays Off
It’s no secret that martial arts training is a very physical activity. It’s not only great exercise, but it’s challenging mentally as well. Some parent’s and students have even told us that we redefine the idea of “sweat equity”.
Regardless of whether you study Krav Maga, Taekwondo, or some other form of martial arts, we all begin as a white belt. It only makes sense that we begin at the beginning and build our skill level. With each belt, students receive recognition along the way.
Our instructors often reward a strong move or an excellent kick with a sticker. Between belt levels, students earn black stripes on their belt as an achievement. Of course, the big achievement comes with testing for the next belt level and earning that next belt.
Students often report a sense of increased self-esteem and a confidence boost as they increase levels. We’ve even had students come work with us and say they initially didn’t care about the belts- only to say later how much the next belt ended up meaning to them.
Either way, the takeaway is that if you work hard, it’ll pay off.
Compare Yourself With Yourself (Not With Others)
One of the biggest traps young people (maybe for all of us) fall into is when we compare ourselves to others. It never works out well.
Psychologists call when we compare ourselves with others “comparing out”. It’s a trap either way. We either use others to make ourselves feel better which is exploitive, or we look to those more successful to make ourselves feel worse. Given this no-win situation, why do it at all?
Unfortunately, when children participate in team sports, it can be fairly easy to compare with others. But, with martial arts, the main question is, “Are you performing better today than you did yesterday?”
The primary takeaway for our students is to always work on outperforming yourself and no one else.
Failure Leads To Learning
Whenever you’re learning something new, you’re bound to fail. That’s why we practice moves over and over again. While we work to keep it fun, we’re very clear that we encourage failure in class since it’s better to fail here than during an actual fight.
As students struggle to master the punches, kicks & moves, we help them understand that he or she is not defined by performance alone. Far too often, kids base their self-esteem on external measures. Maintaining this system of self-evaluation while learning something new is a complete set up. It’s essential to have permission to fail to move closer to mastery- for martial arts or anything in life.
While we’re serious about learning, we’re also serious about having fun and you simply can’t do that if you’re too afraid to fail while you’re learning. That’s a huge takeaway for our students.
Teaching Others Is Rewarding
While we all begin martial arts training at the beginning (where else would we start?), students develop their skills over time. Then, it’s time to give back.
At Krav Pro, we encourage our students to help each other with their techniques. Because of that, it’s very common to see students from the higher belt levels work with and help the students with lower belts. This practice creates an environment where students encourage each other to make progress every bit as much as the instructors.
Our students tell us that working with others helps build their confidence (as well as makes them feel good). The students who are on the receiving end of the assistance also tell us they feel good about it. In fact, we’ve had powerful and hopefully lifelong friendships develop out of our kid’s Krav Maga program.
The clear lesson here is that helping others is incredibly rewarding and can be an ongoing gift.
Develop A Hunger For Learning
Getting a black belt in any form of martial arts takes time and persistence. Not too long ago, we had a student come work with us who told us, “All I wanted to learn was how to take a knife or gun away from somebody.” Of course, that person has been studying with us for quite a while. He knew that he’d learn what he wanted over time, but he told us that he enjoyed learning all the new things along the way.
Our instructors actively work on teaching something new every week. Between teaching techniques or underlying philosophies behind Krav Maga, we work to keep our students learning all the time. The feedback we get is that our students love what they learn- particularly because we build on the skills we teach. Basic techniques build into more advanced techniques.
The easy takeaway here is that learning is an ongoing process essential for a good life.
Your Mind Is Your Only Limitation
We have a lot of students who have seen videos or heard about Krav Maga before they ever took a free class. What’s funny to us is how often they tell us, “I was pretty intimidated by Krav Maga” or “I wasn’t sure I could really do this”- only to find out that they really could.
It’s just a fact that Krav Maga is an excellent workout. We ask the adults when they consider joining whether they want to work more on the self-defense or the fitness aspect of training. We make no apologies for it being physically challenging.
What’s fascinating to watch is how newbies come and begin their training and gradually get into better shape. One adult student recently told us:
“When I first started, I asked several advanced students when they stopped wanting to pass out during class- and I thought I was in pretty good shape! After only a couple of months, I was just getting started when the class ended. I’m amazed at how quickly the classes go by.”
Students of all ages tell us that they never imagined they could do some of the things they eventually do here. We help our students understand that each of us is limited only by our minds. If we think we can do it, that thought opens the doors to actually achieving what we want. That’s a lesson that we want everyone to use daily.
You Are More Courageous Than You Know
Taking any form of martial arts comes with the notion in the back of your head that somewhere over the course of training, you’re going to get hit. This thought naturally comes with a certain amount of fear. Many of our students have never thrown a punch and never taken one.
Even the students who are focused more on the fitness aspect of their training wrestle with fears like, “Can I really do this?” It’s a natural fear-based thought that can creep into many aspects of our lives- and stop us from doing what we want.
When we’re working with our younger students, we tend to address these fears straight on in a gentle, supportive way. We openly talk about how some fears are completely normal (like getting punched in the face). Our instructors have a knack for helping students see ways to use these fears to motivate them to practice their self-defense techniques outside of class.
Many of our students tell us that they never imagined they could do what it takes to reach their advanced levels. They are as proud of their accomplishments as we are.
The takeaway here is to help our students understand that fear doesn’t need to paralyze them and that courage isn’t the absence of fear- it’s learning how to use fear to accomplish what you want.
Learning Krav Maga, or any form of martial arts, requires you to bring a lot to the table, but one thing is for sure, at Krav Pro, we want you to walk away with more than you came with. That’s why we’re sure your child will be able to take the self-defense skills taught here and adapt the lessons to other areas of life.
Feel free to visit us and try a free class. You’ll be amazed at how much fun it is.
Krav Pro is located off Peachtree Industrial in Duluth. Call us at 678-460-6242
if you or your child is interested in taking a free Krav Maga class to see what the fun’s all about. We’ll teach your family some self-defense skills as well as help you all get into the best shape of your life. We have students coming from all around Atlanta such as Duluth, Johns Creek, Suwanee, Buford, Lawrenceville and more. Get fit and fearless.