build your knowledge and become an expert children's martial arts coach
7 tactics to help children develop self-control
The benefits of developing self-control Who would have thought that having the self-control to not eat one marshmallow in order to receive a second could have such a profound effect on someone’s life? The results of the marshmallow test turned out to predict much about the participant’s future lives. The …
Psychological Stages Of Development For Young Children Practicing Martial Arts
If you teach martial arts to young children, understanding the psychological stages of development is a must. Taking a ‘participant centred’ approach to our coaching translates as meeting our students where they are. Before we can do that we actually need to know ‘where they are’ cognitively, emotionally and socially. …
10 benefits of cultivating a Growth Mindset in your martial arts students
Henry Ford is reported to have said “Whether you think you can or you can’t you’re right”. This short quote highlights that your mindset can have a big impact on your actions. Your ability to learn and develop is dependent on you believing that with hard work, you can achieve. …
Character development through children’s martial arts
Most martial arts clubs promote character development in their martial arts training. Indeed, if you look at any social media post advertising taekwondo, karate or ju jitsu (or any other martial arts) classes, you would be forgiven for thinking that stepping on the mats and kicking and punching each other …
8 functional movement Patterns for your kids martial arts programme
Although Functional Movements Patterns (FMP) have appeared in many different adult strength based systems over the last couple of decades, they were initially discovered through the observation of infant’s growth and motor skill development. (Wu et al., 2020). If you watch the way a young child performs a deep squat …
Perceptual motor skills through martial arts
This is where the rubber hits the road and you take the standalone Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) and Functional Movement Patterns (FMP) and incorporate them into drills and activities that include the use of the student’s senses. Perceptual motor skills can be broken down in to two parts. The first …
Building Physical Literacy With Your Children’s Martial Arts Programme
The problem We hear all the time that children are doing less sport and physical activity in schools. If they have a 60 minute slot for PE and the first 10 minutes is spent changing in to their PE gear and the last 10-15 minutes to get a shower and …
Physical stages of development for young children practicing martial arts
The knowledge of the physical stages of development is a priority if you want to maximise the development of your martial arts students. Sometimes we may feel we are not very good at delivering sessions to the young children in our care. They don’t always listen and sometimes they ‘just …
Creating a system for categorising martial arts games for kids
I often hear of coaches talking about fun martial arts games or karate games for kids. A common theme is when one coach talks about a drill they love and the other coach says ‘Yes, our students used to love that game but we haven’t played it for ages.’ This …
Is strength training for children healthy?
When anyone mentions strength training for children some coaches will get a picture in their head of a young child trying to use the weights you would expect to find in an adult gym. This picture generally describes weight lifting rather than strength training but as these terms are often …
