Many parents are concerned about their children getting hurt when doing martial arts and that’s totally understandable. As parents it is our job to help our children navigate potentially dangerous situations and avoid getting hurt.
As martial arts is a contact support, there can be risks of injury or getting hurt but our programmes are tailored to be suitable for children at different levels of development to help them avoid injury where possible.
For example, our 4 to 6 year old students (Ministrike), don’t spar and contact only happens when paired with their parents to practice exercises like bobbing and weaving or moving out the way.
Where our junior students (age 7 – 12) then start sparring they will be wearing full protective gear and paired with a student of similar size and level.
Offense vs Defence
At Excel, we teach a mixture of martial arts including kickboxing, but all with a focus on defensive skills.
It is important to us that your child’s first instinct when needing to navigate a potentially dangerous situation is to use skills to defend themselves and avoid putting themselves at unnecessary risk.
Whilst we do still cover offensive techniques, we prioritise techniques such as falling safely, using your body to minimise damage, bobbing and weaving and creating distance.
However, we know that this will not always be the case and that’s where calculated risks come in.
Calculated Risks
With the implementation of our life skill programme, our students are instilled with skills beyond martial arts. These life skills include confidence, practice, control, co-ordination and more.
When applied correctly to martial arts, these skills allow students to take calculated risks. So, when sparring with a fellow teammate they can decide when is best to use offensive techniques.
Calculated risks also mean performing martial arts in any environment like our academy where there are soft mats, supportive individuals and first aid trained professionals instead of a scenario where a child could fall unoccupied and increase their risk of injury.
And this is where our students begin to trust their bodies abilities.
Building trust with your body
Building confidence, co-ordination and balance, allows children as young as 3 and 4 to begin to assess the risks of a situation and know when something is safe or not.
For example, it is more likely for a four year old to get hurt from falling over doing martial arts as they might not have the best balance. As their balance improves, they will be able to decide what they can and can’t do safely.
This encourages them to make mistakes and try again if they don’t succeed*
Applying perseverance and never giving up
So if your child does get hurt doing martial arts, it is highly unlikely to be severe injury in a safe setting like our academy.
But minor setbacks like falling over, or getting a bruise (for older children), are instead great lessons. They teach that instead of walking away from the situation, we can figure out what we can do differently next time to avoid the same thing happening.
They teach us to never give up and instead EXCEL IN LIFE.
If you are interested in your child starting martial arts but you are concerned about them getting hurt, get in touch on [email protected] or call us on 0114 2485188.