Other benefits of martial arts training

You won’t know till you try

Everyone has their own reason for enrolling themselves or their children into martial arts. Since I’ve been training in martial arts for over 40 years, it’s been my experience that most people start their children in martial arts for better focus or for bullying problems. But I’ve had parents who have come in for better physical fitness, more confidence, more discipline, teaching perseverance.

What’s fun and what has also been my experience is when they get the results they were looking for, but also get so much more. A good example of this was a student named Michael (not his real name) came in because his mother was told from Michael’s pediatrician that martial arts is a good place for children with high functioning and spectrum autism. So, she brought Michael to us with the expectation of seeing some improvements in his ability to interact with the world. Also, the image above is just for illustration purposes. We never make assumptions on the appearance of the child. We always work in concert with the parent and in the child’s best interest. 

Michael hesitantly got on the floor on day 1. He didn’t like a lot of noise, he didn’t like to be touched, and could only be taught in small increments because he was easily overwhelmed with too much information. Michael didn’t want to come to class, but being a good parent, she decided to stick with what she thought was good for him.

What a difference a year makes

About a year later, Michael was all smiles when he came to class. He was on par with his learning with others who were the same rank as he. He was talkative and interacting with his instructors and other students. He was tactile, so as long as you asked his permission to help him, he was okay with physical touch.

A little over the 3-years later, Michael tested and earned his black belt. He was sparring and loved his martial arts training. He had a new sense of confidence and was willing to try new things. He interacted better in the world around him. Michael didn’t stop his martial arts training until he moved away. Since then, we’ve helped many like Michael and other children too.

Leave Expectations At The Door

My point? You come in with one expectation, and given time, you get so much more back at Innovative Martial Arts Academy. You come in looking for some self defense skills to help you combat a school bully, and you get those, but you also gain an enormous amount of confidence which shows in the way you walk, talk, and interact with others. With that new-found confidence, you end up never needing to use the self defense skills that you originally came for. I love my students and I’m so proud of the people they become. I literally could go on and on with example after example, but it would all say the same thing; get your children into Innovative Martial Arts Academy. We make a positive difference and why we were voted Best of the Best Martial Arts School in Wake Forest for the last 9 years running.