One of the best things you can do for your child is to start them in a Martial Arts class, training in Muay Thai will give you the same benefits as many other kids activities but also several that are unique to Martial Arts.
1) Discipline
We expect every child who trains with use to have a very high standard of behaviour, the Martial Arts we teach are very effective so we will not tolerate any type of bad behaviour. My own son started training at my gym after his behaviour at school deteriorated and it completely transformed him.
2) Fitness
More and more kids are now classed as obese, various factors influence your child’s health such as the amount of sugary processed food you give them and their activity levels. Let’s be honest they don’t get enough P.E in school any more so you need to get them doing physical activities outside of school hours and Muay Thai is an excellent choice.
3) Concentration
Martial Arts training encourages your child to focus, our coaches are constantly questioning the kids during the class to make sure they’ve retained the information and are focusing on the activities they’re performing rather then thinking about Lego or Pokemon.
4) Age specific classes
You can’t coach a six year old and 14 year old in the same way or expect to put them in the same class without injury but you’d be amazed how often it happens. At Dorchester Martial Arts we offer two classes, Kids Muay Thai 4-8yrs and Junior Muay Thai 9-14yrs. This allows us to offer age specific training in a safe fun way.
5) Goal Setting
Muay Thai has a coloured arm band system similar to the traditional martial arts belt system, we combine this with coloured training shorts so the kids have very visible incentive to work towards. The kids earn their arm bands and shorts through quarterly gradings where they have to demonstrate their skill level in front of our chief instructor.
6) Friendship
Many of the kids at the gym make great friendships with other kids who they may have not previously met at their school or kids from other schools. Having a shared interest that isn’t that common compared to football for example builds a strong bond.
7) Self Defence
Bullying is on the rise and every day we hear more stories of kids being abused by sexual predators. Let’s teach our kids how to be aware when they’re walking about, let’s teach them techniques so they at least have a fighting chance should the worst happen. A confident kid is very difficult to bully.
8) It doesn’t involve a ball.
Some kids suck at the standard school sports such as football, tennis, cricket etc. I know this as I was one of them, I was only good at rugby and martial arts, then the other kids caught up with me size wise and it turned out I wasn’t any good at rugby either!
Martial Arts gives your child a way to learn to love sport and physical activity that they won’t get at school if they don’t fit into one of the mainstream sports.
9) Confidence
Martial Arts training makes confident kids, there’s something about a solo sport that makes a child more more confident and resilient then a team sport. Maybe it’s that you can’t use anybody else as an excuse for poor performance or maybe it’s because you’re treated as an individual rather then a position but the kids get confident quickly.
10) Competition
May Thai offers kids the chance to compete in a light contact competition, it’s not something we massively promote at the gym but the option is there if any of the kids want to test their training in a safe controlled format.
11) Its Fun
Kids sit in a classroom for most of the day, they need a place to let off steam in a controlled way. They love to hit pads and punch bags, they love to run around in skill based games, hold pads for their friends and some of the stranger ones even enjoy the workouts!
If you think starting training in Martial Arts could be of benefit to your son or daughter then please get in touch so we can have a chat and organise a free trial class to see if it’s right for them
