Martial Arts is more than a sport, especially at Goshen Martial Arts. At GMA, we are an academy of life changers who empower kids and adults to be their personal best through exceptional martial arts and life skills training. Our goal is to make our community a happier, healthier, and safer place to live.
At our academy, we place a heavy emphasis on learning life skills and encouraging students to be the best versions of themselves. Parents who bring their children to train at GMA often see improvements to their children’s attitudes, moods, and habits as they go through the program. Martial Arts offers many benefits outside of learning how to perform the techniques, all of which shine in the home, at school, in other sports, and more. Here are some of the best benefits of GMA’s program:
Improved Discipline and Focus
GMA’s program has had a considerable positive impact on many students who struggle with focus and following directions, including several students who have ADHD. Martial Arts is a highly structured sport which involves strict protocol: bowing before moving, saying “yes sir” or “yes ma’am,” standing at attention, sitting with correct form, and following directions. This structure helps improve students’ tolerance for attention-demanding tasks, like sitting and paying attention in school for several hours per day.
Teachers and parents often see a difference in students as they continue through the program. Many parents see improvements in their children’s grades and hear their children's teachers praise improvements in students’ behavior and focus levels while at school.
A unique feature of GMA’s program is our mat chats. In them, our instructors teach students about healthy habits and encourage students to implement healthy habits and routines into their days. As an example, a mat chat may center around routinely finishing homework and chores before playing when the student gets home from school. This contributes to greater discipline in the students’ lives outside of the studio.
Greater Respect
At GMA, we aim to create a positive environment where students are praised for what they do well and are given opportunities to correct their behavior when it’s necessary. We care about teaching accountability and encouraging students to show great respect to parents, grandparents, teachers, sports coaches, and the other adults in their lives. Mat chats often incorporate this message, and in these mat chats, students are given positive examples of how to show respect to others.
Listening to instructors and following directions is a massive part of being successful in Martial Arts. At GMA, we emphasize positive reinforcement while maintaining firm boundaries with students. If students are disrespectful towards instructors or other students in class (not listening, refusing to follow directions, making inappropriate comments, etc.), the instructor first redirects and corrects. If the behavior persists, we hold students accountable for their actions by having them sit out of class for a period (with their parents off the mat), or they may face consequences like not earning a tip during a tip test.
When this happens, GMA’s instructors have active conversations with students about what happened and how to avoid it in the future. Our goal is not to shame students, but to redirect their behavior as privately as possible. When they come back to class, they are welcomed as readily as they were in the first place!
Confidence Building
One of GMA’s greatest goals is to maintain a positive environment where students are encouraged and praised for trying new, potentially difficult things. We build students up, praising their attitude and effort rather than focusing on raw ability. Through this, we help students build self-respect and self-esteem. When students show improvement in techniques, protocol, showing respect, or in any other area, they are praised for their actions and efforts!
Challenging a student to break a board during a belt promotion presents a high-pressure situation; there is a crowd of people watching, cheering them on. When a student fails to break a board, we encourage them to try again until they can break it, which they do. Not only does this teach them how to handle a high-pressure situation, it teaches them that they absolutely are capable of successfully completing difficult challenges. While they’re working towards the break, everyone in the room cheers them on. When they finally achieve the break, everyone in the room celebrates with them. This is one of the greatest ways we help students improve their confidence.
Physical Benefits
Training in Martial Arts improves general motor skills, flexibility, balance, and body control, which makes it excellent cross-training for a variety of other sports! For kids who are growing, learning to adjust to their body’s changes is a challenge. As their body changes, training in Martial Arts can help keep them centered and learn how to maintain body control as they continue to grow, too. In general, exercise is a productive way to reduce stress and anxiety while improving physical health, too.
The most notable physical benefit to students is gaining the ability to defend themselves in a dangerous situation. They gain the skills they need to keep themselves safe when a situation calls for it, and they learn how to discern when a situation escalates to requiring physical action. Whether their aggressor be a bully at school or an adult intending to hurt them, they are prepared to handle the situation.
Part of our self-defense curriculum involves understanding non-physical deescalation methods. At GMA, we teach that if a situation can be diffused without using physical force, then it should be. We teach students the skills they need to be able to discern when it’s time to use force, how much force to use, and what they should do once they are able to escape the situation. Students can develop a plan for when conflict arises, giving them confidence in their abilities, and giving parents peace of mind knowing their children have the tools they need to keep themselves out of harm’s way.