Why are martial art forms/katas good for Children?
With the popularity of MMA its become fun to kick and punch bags and wrestle.
While striking pads is lots of fun and should be part of everyone’s training, there is a lot of value in training forms too.
Health benefits.
The practice of forms helps with body strengthening; building strong legs through stances, strong arms and shoulders through tension movements and a strong core.
Just think of yoga where adults practice holding positions and moving from one position to the other.
Forms training also helps with strengthening the internal organs, learning how to breathe correctly; “internal breathing”.
Breath control is something that is taken for granted because we don’t really pay attention to it, its something we naturally do. You can see this when people start an exercise routine, the shallow breaths, or even sometimes holding their breath.
I’ve lost count how many times I’ve said, “don’t forget to breathe”
Breathing out fully forces your body to exhale expelling all the used air and bringing fresh oxygen into your body. Essential for fueling your body.
Breath control is great for children to learn how to control emotion and can prevent outbursts.
Memory enhancement.
Children’s brains go through different stages of development starting out with learning and remembering, which is their left and right to remembering how things work and solve problems.
The mind is like a muscle and like every other muscle it needs working out to keep it sharp! Memorizing sequences helps stimulate the brain. We see this in the school day with learning times tables to become familiar with numbers.
Doesn’t require a partner or equipment.
All children are different, and if your looking to build a child’s confidence, the chances are they won’t like physical contact with people outside their family.
Forms training allows a child to practice by themselves or, once they are confident enough, in a group.
Confidence
Martial Arts Forms training helps children to self-express themselves. The same movements done by two different students can appear unique in their expression due to the creativity of the student.
Children love creativity!
There will always be children who love and hate forms, we strongly believe in over all health benefits to having a curriculum that covers all areas of development for children. Yes we do boxing and kickboxing, yes we cover self defence, yes we cover grappling, We also do forms too.
They may look silly, however the benefits are visible and numerous!
Martial arts is not all about combat, fighting or competing, its about self improvement, self discovery and becoming the best version of yourself!
SOLO “A better you!”
Much Respect
Sensei Darren
