The little people who enter your gym aren’t simply potential future gymnasts; more importantly, they’re future adults and contributors to society. And the skills they need in order to grow into that important role can be developed now in your gym. We’re not talking primarily about the physical skills you’ll be teaching your students, here […]
Martial Arts
Teaching Life Skills: Resilience, Part 3
Many of today’s parents are afraid to allow their children to fail; but if kids never fail, they won’t be equipped to face difficulties later in life. They won’t have the opportunity to learn resilience (see Parts 1 & 2). Your instructors need to realize that they’ll be swimming upstream in a culture where many […]
Teaching Life Skills: Resilience, Part 2
Among many life skills your students can learn in your gym, resilience (see Part 1) is definitely among the most significant. Children start facing challenges early in life, and they need to learn to respond in a way that’s healthy. Every time they respond to even small daily challenges with resilience, they strengthen that life […]
Tips for Encouraging Your Young Martial Artists to Progress, Part 4
Helping young students to progress may be one of the most difficult yet most rewarding aspects of being a martial arts instructor. In this series (see Parts 1, 2 & 3) on encouraging your students to be the best they can be, we’ve saved perhaps the hardest to deal with category of students for last. […]
Tips for Encouraging Your Young Martial Artists to Progress, Part 3
Keeping students on track so they can see progress is vital to the success of any youth martial arts program. As a martial arts instructor, you may find it challenging to know how to approach students with different levels of motivation (see Parts 1 & 2). In this third article of our series on encouraging […]
Tips for Encouraging Your Young Martial Artists to Progress, Part 2
When it comes to martial arts students, there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for getting them to succeed. Each student is a unique individual. However, observant and experienced senseis can pick up on patterns that can give clues as to how to approach different students. In the first article in this series, we looked at three different […]
Tips for Encouraging Your Young Martial Artists to Progress, Part 1
If your dojo is anything like a typical youth dojo, you probably have belt tests on a fairly regular basis. Allowing these periodic intervals for students to mark their progress can really boost motivation to achieve higher levels of mastery. The following series of 4 articles will explore some helpful strategies for encouraging your students […]