In my many years of teaching martial arts I’ve had the privilege of working with thousands of children and I continue to be impressed with the positive impact martial arts can have on them.
In recent years however, I have become aware of a trend that concerns me. Today’s children seem to be way less fit than the children I first taught back in the late 70’s…and even less fit than a decade ago. They also seem to be more prone to injury than in years past.
I ask a doctor friend of mine about this recently and his comment was that there seems to be an increasing number of fluke injuries among children. His observation is that the sedentary lifestyle of today’s child is causing major issues with the way their bodies are developing. I asked him what he felt we could do about. His answer was that kids just need to be more physically active. They need more unstructured play time.
No I’m not a doctor, but I have had years of experience working with young children and I couldn’t agree more with my friend. For children to develop properly, they need to run, jump, crawl, climb, fall and somersault on a regular basis, things we do in Martial Arts class on a regular basis.
As parents, I believe that there is nothing more important than working time into your child’s busy schedule for structured Martial Arts training and unstructured, physical play.
So one of my secrets to getting AND keeping kids motivated is to turn off the TV, unplug the phone and get your kids in martial arts and get them outside for some good old fashioned fun and discipline.
—
In addition to being an elite martial artist with black belts in 6 Martial Arts styles, Sabom Peter Liciaga is a 5th Degree master educator at Dinoto Karate Center in Mount Laurel NJ and is recognized as a motivational public speaker and community activist.
