First of all, I want to thank anyone who has been a member of our academy over the years. It is truly a blessing to be a part of your journey, and share the life changing message that fuels my desire to become a better person each day.
Regularly attending martial arts can become a challenge in the spring and summer seasons. Trips, outdoor activities, and desiring to take a break are all hurdles that can interfere with showing up to class. Simply put, life gets busy and martial arts may fall to the wayside. However, there are a few factors I’d like to encourage considering before you choose to pause for the season.
Long Term Training Benefits
It's important to remember that martial arts’ greatest benefits come from training long-term. There’s no doubt that students gain focus, confidence, respect, and a basic knowledge of self defense from short term training. However, true mastery of these skills and values comes with years of practice. Taking a break often makes returning more difficult, especially if there is no set return date. As the famous author James Clear would put it, “Mastery requires a lot of practice. But the more you practice something, the more boring and routine it becomes. Thus, an essential component of mastery is the ability to maintain your enthusiasm. The master continues to find the fundamentals interesting.” In maintaining a long term commitment, we offer the ability to master perseverance and grow a strong character, which will ultimately help our students see themselves through life’s challenges.
James Clear reminds us that boredom can be a natural thing that creeps in for any student when repeating fundamentals. Repetition is just as essential to developing muscle memory as it is to reinforcing respectful behaviors in class. Our goal as instructors is to counter that feeling of boredom by making the class as fun and interesting as we can. Appropriate progression to the next class is also critical. Waiting to get the first tip on a fresh belt or circling back to a missed tip is fine and can be accommodated. However, delaying progression significantly stops students from being challenged in the next color ranked class. This is a unique way that we structure our program, which is designed to keep students engaged in their training. Therefore, during a busier season, I recommend a motto from Dave Kovar (one of my martial arts role models): “maintaining is gaining.”
Parent Attendance Tips
As parents, there are also things you can do to help encourage long-term commitment to martial arts. If your child is losing interest or if you are struggling with scheduling conflicts that limit your child’s ability to attend class, you can visit us at the front desk to request a one on one lesson. This can typically be scheduled before or after class on the day that you attend, and we can do one on one lessons as long as they are needed for the circumstance. We understand that fitting everything into your schedule can be chaotic, so we want to help you out however we are able to!
There are some other lesser known ways to gain class credits, too. Our app contains an online video library, which you can use to train and receive up to two class credits per month. This is particularly helpful if you get sick, and need to get caught up on some classes. Summer camps also provide 2 credits for that week. We understand that coming back in the evening after a full summer camp day can be excessive, so we intentionally review class curriculum during the camp sessions. Lastly, for families who have trips planned, you can decorate a Flat Master Nathan to take with you. If you train on the trip and take a photo with Flat Master Nathan, you will earn class credits! Make sure to show us the photo so we can see where your adventures took you!
Please come have a chat with us if you’re having difficulty with attendance. We will do everything we can to find a solution that will help you maintain and gain during the busier seasons.