How you look at things will often determine how successful you eventually are in it. You might have an aptitude to learn a particular skill but if you do not have your mind to it, you wouldn’t be able to master it.
57% of organizations across the world state that they do not find the people with the right aptitude, and entry level vacancies often go unfulfilled with the lack of the right skills.
Attitude Equals Great Success
When managers try to hire for their firm, they do not just look at the skill sets. They look at the attitude too. The right attitude can open up better opportunities for you, with employers being more likely to ‘try you out’ than leaving the post vacant.
How do you get the right attitude?
Saying and doing the right things often come from the fact of how comfortable we are about ourselves. Everybody loves to feel more confident about who they are. However, most people develop their self esteem in the early stages of their life, and it’s difficult to change ‘who they are’ later on.
Developing your Self Esteem
The National Report on the State of Self-Esteem, Dove Self-Esteem Fund stated that as many as seven out of 10 girls believed that they are not good enough to others, be it in looks or performance.
And unlike otherwise thought, self esteem can be taught. People can be taught to feel more confident about themselves. They can be taught to use their skills, and see how they too can make a difference. Whether in sports, academics or even everyday life activities like cooking and sewing, everybody has a talent. Building self esteem helps one appreciate themselves more.
Martial Arts – The Perfect Way To Up Your Self Esteem
Martial arts is one of those exercises that’s fulfilling and can rejuvenate one. You face your fear every time you walk into the ring. You learn to accept challenges and defeat them. With each day in a martial arts class, you’re bound to get stronger as an individual.
With martial arts, you would be able to handle different challenging situations without feeling tensed. And more importantly, you would be able to develop your confidence and self esteem in a safe and secure environment. Push your boundaries and build a stronger you – martial arts is the perfect way to begin your journey to success.
A large number of us suffer from several issues associated with self confidence. Whether it is in our schools, workplace or anywhere else, certain things are bound to happen that cripple our self-esteem and ruin our confidence altogether. But did you know that every time we confront our fears, we end up gaining a lot of inherent strength and confidence? This is exactly how Martial Arts, helps us. Martial Arts, challenges our comfort levels and compels us to confront obstacles. It teaches is to come face to face with our fears. Taking up Martial Arts might seem incredibly difficult for both kids and grownups. But once you get the drill, your confidence levels are boosted like never before.
Self confidence is nothing different from your body. All you need to do is exercise and develop it in order to be stronger and fitter. In martial arts, this happens over a period of time and every small success that you achieve in your training sessions makes it possible for you to achieve larger and better goals. With every small success, your self confidence increases and you feel like challenging yourself once again. Martial arts can help you in setting and achieving goals while giving you the strength and perseverance of mind even when the situations seem to be adverse.
There is nothing better for a child than having confidence, high-self esteem and courage at a very young age. In most cases, one of the main things that affect a child’s confidence is fear. Whether we accept it or not, but bullying has indeed become an insurmountable evil in your child’s everyday reality. These cases even tend to extend till the early adulthood of the child.
Kids are extremely vulnerable to anxiety, and there is nothing more traumatizing for them than to be exposed in a kind of environment that constantly terrorizes them. Whether it is bullies or family tiffs, martial arts, will help your little one to understand who they truly are and how to control and handle these situations around them. When a child is trained to face an opponent in a touch martial arts’ match, he will end up gaining enough courage. The confidence they get would enable them to take on the different challenges that life puts up for them. Challenges are indeed an excellent crucible, and a child who learns to tackle these challenges, are not at all afraid of accomplishing any goal. No adverse situation will intimidate them anymore.
Martial arts, normally takes your child through a beautiful journey and helps them to discover their true personality. And children do need that. As they try concentrating in mastering the different levels, their confidence and courage will grow significantly. They will get a feeling of accomplishment and realize that they can do and perform anything without being afraid.
A tad bit of self-confidence can truly transform the lives of your kid. It will help them to handle different situations, experience hard times, lose excess weight and do many more things. When it comes to martial arts, one of the main focuses would be that on self-discipline. It will also help in making them even more disciplined, thereby reminding them how to act in different situations. You will observe that the martial artists are more likely not to get into an ugly spat even when provoked, as they are completely aware of protecting themselves. Due to this reason, they will be more comfortable and confident in trying to talk their way out of a particular situation.
Having the proper training on how to fight and ample confidence to do so, doesn’t really mean that your child will be knocking off everyone who stands on their way. Rather, martial arts will teach them to resolve conflicts in a non-violent way. Although most of us have a perception that Martial arts can be violent, in reality the style and technique incorporated in this sport is much different from what is telecasted in the shows. There are many defensive styles and techniques that render insight on peaceful resolution of conflict.
Other than self confidence, this self-defensive mechanism is also likely to improve the skills of your child in various other sectors of life. For instance, the fitness levels of your child will increase, he will have better skills for teamwork, he will learn to set goals on his own and achieve them at the same time. Additionally, it will also boost the socialization skills of your child and he will learn to understand and manage both the academic and non-academic aspects of school. In this way, martial arts will help in developing a respectful and responsible teenager.
Enrolling your child in these classes, will play a vital role in building their strength, stamina and endurance levels. It will change the way your child thinks, improve their creativity and develop a better sense of self-esteem. The training will go much beyond the simple concept of self-defense and will truly transform the life of your child.
Why Martial Arts, builds more confidence than any other sport?
It has been observed that any tedious and rigorous sport can effectively increase both your mental and physical fitness, thereby turning up your level of confidence. But since time immemorial, martial arts have been observed and proven to render excellent results in a wide variety of aspects. Why is this so?
Firstly, martial arts, is a personal endeavor where training is provided in a room with students following a particular decorum. Here, the individual results totally depend on your individual efforts, unlike the different team sports where you need to consistently rely on others for support.
Secondly, the structure of martial arts is empirical. This means, the level of difficulty will rise as you eventually progress. Your challenges too will increase in terms of requirements and complexity with each new level. The prestige and self respect that you will earn through every color of belt will be extremely satisfying and motivating.
This controlled structure and environment of martial arts will help you develop a better physique, body language, stance and a posture. These extremely visible and tangible effects will reduce the severity and instances of the different perceptions that lead to low-self esteem and self doubt.
While training in martial arts, you will observe that there are different points of training that will ask you to be confident even in the situations where you are really not. For instance, when you are testing for belts you get to experience public demonstration, when you spar with someone else you have this slight fear of losing or getting hurt, when you train self defense you realize that bad things are likely to happen; but despite this, you face these challenging situations and develop a greater level of self esteem. Ultimately you get the opportunity to practice the most uncomfortable things in a regulated and comfortable environment until you gain a particular level of confidence. This is the confidence that lets you sail through the chaotic environments. Once you see these visible results, there’s absolutely no looking back.
Training sessions will boost your confidence
Martial arts, not only boosts the self-confidence of your child, but it also plays a significant role in boosting your inherent self esteem. I don’t know whether you realize this, but in reality, you end up building your confidence every time you show up to the classes. Simply bowing and stepping for your dojo sessions takes a lot of courage and every time you end up doing it, you also end up being stronger.
Well, I don’t know how you feel, but I definitely feel butterflies in my tummy when my trainer asks me to spar with someone. Every time I am asked to spar, I take one deep breath and compel myself to go out there and get it done. As soon as the match commences, the butterflies are replaced with a focus. This is the focus that drives me to give my best shot. And this is exactly how martial arts training, effectively boosts your confidence. When you are an adult you will realize that the butterflies you get when you’re asked to spar or perform a kata in front of your classmates and trainer are the same butterflies that you experience when you are supposed to give some important presentation, consult with your boss about a relevant assignment or when you are about to call some major client.
The different spheres where Martial arts boosts your confidence
Bully/bullying- One of the worst things that hurts us most while we are bullied is the feeling that we are helpless. But proper training in martial arts can help us solve this issue. Once you understand that you do have a way out to escape bullying, it will hurt considerably less and you will be tad more confident while confronting bullies.
Inferiority complex- There are many individuals who feel that they are not strong or powerful enough to handle any complex situation. The media had brainwashed us in such a way that anyone of us who do not fit the societal standards of being strong and powerful, can feel insecure about ourselves. But martial arts will flawlessly tackle this issue and restore your confidence back. It will make you feel good about yourself once again and increase your self esteem immensely.
Attractiveness- Most people prefer being with a tough significant other who can protect them and help them and help them to combat difficult situations. The ability to protect oneself and one’s family is an immensely attractive trait for many. Martial arts will help you with this and further ensure that you get your lost confidence and self esteem back.
Helps in both physical and mental development
Training yourself in one or more of the programs taught at the martial arts sessions can help you to develop both physically and mentally. As you constantly train, your body will get tad more powerful and lean. Due to this, you will look and feel better about yourself. Just imagine looking at your reflection in the mirror and seeing a fitter and stronger body. This will automatically give you an entirely new level of self-esteem. A strong body will aid in developing a stronger and better mind.
Another excellent thing about the martial arts session is the martial arts concept that suggests that you tend to be stronger both physically and mentally when your skills improve. This is indeed a very practical skill that can be used in any kind of situation that requires self defense or in a situation where your loved one or acquaintances are being threatened. This will empower you once again and boost yourself confidence. The very idea that you can indeed look after your loved ones and your family will effectively boost your self esteem.
Handling everything that comes your way
As you train for martial arts you will soon develop a feeling that’ll assure you and tell you that you can actually handle everything that comes by your way. This is because you have already exposed yourself to challenging situations in a competitive environment and performed your best in every session. With these training sessions you are actually conditioning and building your confidence. You are getting a chance to develop and strengthen it in every class. You are training and preparing yourself for focusing and performing under pressure, irrespective of the situation or the incident that causes the pressure. And this is exactly why martial arts, is an excellent tool for building and enhancing self confidence both in children and adults. You will never find something that builds and develops your confidence in a safe, fun and interesting way at the same time. You will never end up with something like this that will push you to perform and give your best shot.
Whether it is through the martial arts classes or through participating in the martial arts tournaments, every time you push and compel yourself to train, you end up building your confidence and a stronger part of yourself. With every one of those punches and kicks, you get to build a stronger self both on the inside and the outside. Keep up your training to feel and exude this confidence in every sphere of your life.
Self-confidence is about being convinced in your own abilities and trusting yourself in a given situation. Self-confidence does not mean arrogance. Arrogance is about believing that you are more important than others around you or about having an exaggerated belief in your own abilities. The two characteristics seem similar in words but they look very different in practice. The main difference between the two is where the thoughts are directed. Arrogance is focused on those outside of oneself. Arrogant people believe they are better than someone else. Conversely, self-confidence is a focus inward regardless of the external influences.
What is Self-defense?
Self-defense is the defense of one’s person or interests. By its very nature self-defense cannot happen prior to some external aggression. Self-defense never goes on the offensive. If an attacker rushes you and you deflect them into the wall behind you, that is self-defense. If you then charge them and start punching you are no longer self-defending, you are attacking. This is not to say that it isn’t within your right to go on the offensive but that is not what this discussion is about. This is about the connection between self-confidence and self-defense.
How can Self-Confidence Be an Effective Self-Defense?
Now that there is a baseline for the definition of self-confidence and self-defense it’s time to address the original question. Since self-defense refers to a physical attack how can self-confidence, something that is mental, ever be a self-defense?
Can Martial Arts Develop Self-Confidence?
Martial arts refers to several sports/skills of primarily Japanese origin that focus on forms of self-defense. There are aspects of martial arts that teach how to go on the offensive but the primary focus is on self-defense, self-control, and self-awareness. So if martial arts teach self-defense, can martial arts also teach or develop self-confidence in those who practice martial arts?
Physical Training
There is no doubt that martial arts training is a fantastic exercise. It is a rigorous training that will affect your posture, endurance, stamina, agility, balance and so much more. It will get your heart rate up and burn calories. It is extremely effective as an aerobic and weight loss activity.
While this is a wonderful result of martial arts training, it is not the primary goal. However, if you were in better shape would you be more confident about yourself? If you developed a better posture, which is primarily straightening the back, holding the head upright, and straightening the shoulders, would you feel more confident? The answer is yes, it would make anybody feel more confident about themselves.
Mental and Physical Discipline
Martial arts is about structure, tons of structure. It is about learning physical motions that you can control completely. It’s about learning to focus your mind not only on your own physical movements but about everything that is around you. Martial arts teaches how to assess a situation in the blink of an eye and make a conscious decision about how you will respond. During training, martial artists are constantly put into sparring matches with an opponent who is bigger and stronger than they are. This forces the trainee to think and act with complete control of their mind and body because they know if they fight by strength alone they will lose.
Would this discipline develop self-confidence? Would a person who has been training for 1 month feel more confident than they did on their first day of training? It most certainly would give self-confidence. Remember, self-confidence is trusting one’s own abilities. The more training a martial artist has, the more confident they will be in themselves.
Can Self-Confidence be and Effective Self-Defense?
So now that it has been established that martial arts will enhance your self-confidence let’s look to see if that self-confidence can be a self-defense.
Arguments For
As stated above, martial arts will instill a confidence in its artists that they did not have before. This may very well be unknown to the person because they might not be able to see or understand the changes taking place. Generally, those who choose to attack or bully someone else will pick someone they feel is an easy target. A martial artist will walk and handle themselves with a level of comfort and control that could very likely deter someone from attacking them.
Beyond the mental discipline of martial arts is the very practical physical training. The training is to teach how to repel an attacker. The training is specifically focused on how to repel an attacker that is bigger and stronger than you. If you are threatened by an aggressor and you are confident that you and those with you will be safe because you can effectively defend against any attack that person can bring, you will not cower before the attacker. On the contrary, you will stand confidently before them. Attackers almost always will prey on the weak and easy targets. If they realize you are not an easy target they will most likely leave you alone.
Arguments Against
If your self-confidence comes from being physically fit or from knowing how to throw a few punches it can be very easy to cross the line from self-confidence to arrogance. If you have an exaggerated sense of your own abilities you may ignore the dangers and you may actually encourage them. Self-confidence that is really arrogance will look like a challenge to an attacker and may, in fact, encourage them to attack.
Self-confidence means you know what you are capable of but it also means knowing what you are not capable of. The reason that martial arts works against a stronger opponent is because the opponent believes that their strength, street smarts, and rage will give them the upper hand. All the self-confidence in the world doesn’t ensure victory every time.
Conclusion
The answer to the question “can self-confidence be an effective self-defense?” is yes it can be. If self-confidence is grounded in reality it can be very effective at stopping an attack before it ever happens. That is the best kind of self-defense, the kind you never have to use. But self-confidence won’t always be effective. There are situations where self-confidence won’t be enough and where physical self-defense will be required. Martial arts is great for both. It will boost your self-confidence to levels you never expected and it will also give you the skills and training necessary to use physical self-defense to protect yourself or those around you.
Don’t assume the person knocking on your door is the person you are waiting for. Make SURE you know who is on the other side before you open the door.
Even though most burglars and potential intruders look for unoccupied homes as their targets, you should never assume that just because you are home you will be safe from a potential break-in. Not only are your home and personal belongings at risk, but your family and loved ones as well if an intruder enters your home while you are in it. In addition to ensuring your home security system is up to par and in good working order, they are a best self-defense tactic if someone enters your home threatening harm while you are at home with your children?
When people mention the phrase self-defense it conjures up all sorts of images. For some those images will be of the Karate Kid, for others it will be visions of elderly women learning techniques in the local church hall. Then of course we have the extreme, men dressed in camouflage, rolling around in the woods and eating bugs. All these images spring to mind because there are actually courses and classes being taught that mirror your visions. Sadly, these courses and classes are not how a self-defense class should be structured and taught.
It is unfortunate that there are instructors all over the world teaching versions of self-defense that actually are far removed from the reality of violence, and what they teach is not likely to ever help you to be able to both protect yourself and reduce risk of being involved in a violent incident. This has caused people to ‘switch’ off about the need and importance of learning a quality self-defense system, in fact due to these images the term ‘self-defense’ is often deemed ‘un cool’ and almost slightly ‘cheesy’. The truth however is that it has never been more important to learn self-defense skills and when taught correctly self-defense is an interesting subject to learn regardless of your age.
Now I am not going to sit here and frighten you with stories of violence. We all know that there are dangerous people out in the world that can cause both our loved ones and ourselves harm. The chances that you will come into contact with these individuals after the age of 25 are greatly reduced due to a likely change in social habits. After all most people either settle down at this age into a relationship or career.
However self-defense is certainly not all about fighting or fancy moves. It is my belief that good self-defense and self-protection is about applying common sense crime prevention advice to your life.
If you learn something but then do nothing with the information you have received then learning it in the first place was pointless. This is exactly what self-defense is all about. It is the study of preventing harm. Not just dealing with it when it happens.
A good self-defense instructor should tell you that 90% of self-defense skills are what are known as ‘soft’ skills. They are the physical application of common sense crime prevention tips. For example, you might be walking home and have two routes to take, one is across a dark and spooky looking field and the other is actually a longer but well-lit route which takes you passed populated areas and is clearly a safer option.
Now the person who takes the safer route is actually practicing self-defense. This shift in viewpoint is essential to acquiring the belief that self-defense is not about fighting. It is about avoiding the need to fight and removing the risk from your life.
For that reason it is so important to take a good quality self defense course. Not because you want to learn to fight, but because you want to avoid the risk of being hurt. Many people believe that self defense is just about fighting down the local bar or pub. This is totally not the case.
Good self-defense is routed in taking steps to minimize the risk of harm coming to both yourself, your family and your property. These steps are usually simple ones such as taking a safe route home, to the more complex ones that involve installing burglar alarms to your homes and perhaps where appropriate using physical intervention and self-defense skills to keep safe.
It is essential that you take steps to learn these skills and pass your knowledge to your children and you friends. This is why it is never too late to start your self-defense training, because the most effective self-defense training actually involves using your mind.
So please at least look into finding a course or session near to where you live, however as I have said not all self-defense courses are the same. You need to be aware of just what a good course offers. However a good rule of thumb is a course that focuses on avoidance and awareness, rather than physical fighting skills is actually far more useful that a fighting based class.
So if you sign up for a short course or a class makes sure you ask the instructor what the course entails. Ask them if they cover things such as ‘avoidance and awareness’. If the course or class is a quality one then these skills will be a major part. As I stated it’s never to late to start training because self -defense is not about fighting. It is about using your mind to avoid danger and take steps to reduce the risk that you will ever face violence.
Real self-defense knowledge is more necessary than it has ever been. The world is a dangerous place. It does not matter where you go; you hear stories about terrible things happening to the nicest people. Sometimes it seems like dreadful threats are lurking everywhere you go – in the cities, in the towns and even in the villages.
You’re probably thinking that this is a paranoid, pessimistic attitude to take, right?
Maybe yes, maybe no, but if you are female, do you want to take the risk of becoming another awful statistic?
This is where real self-defense comes into play because it is better to have practical self-defense tools that you do not use than to lack the means of defending yourself when the worst comes to the worst!
Real self-defense is a complex subject, though, and there are many powerful, practical techniques and theories that can be learned, but here are a few simple tips on how best to defend against a bigger, stronger opponent.
Maintain your distance. The best means of real self-defense is the avoidance of physical confrontation. Whatever the creep says or does, try to maintain and if possible extend the distance between the two of you. The best possible outcome is an easy escape from a dangerous situation, and being able to maintain and control distance can be the key to making this happen.
When there is no alternative to getting physical, remember that:
1) You might not be able to rely on your strength, but a palm slap can help you to escape a potentially dangerous situation. It does not require fine motor control, which is one of the first things to be inhibited in a tense situation, so it is easy to perform. It may not be a strong attack, but a well-timed slap might stun your attacker long enough for you to make a quick escape. You can extend this line of thought to many other forms of attack too; stick with strikes that do not require too much accuracy or complicated movements to be performed effectively. Gouges, rakes, slaps, bites: these are not fancy to look at, but they can be effective means of real self defense for people who lack quality training in more sophisticated methods.
2) A swift kick or knee to the groin of a male opponent, if landed correctly, is guaranteed to weaken even the strongest punk. Real self-defense techniques might not be flashy but they work!
Follow these few tips and you will have an advantage over many people who know nothing about real self-defense applications, but there is so much more to know. Finding yourself out of your depth in a dangerous situation is not the time nor place to realize how much you do not know, so you owe it to yourself to get informed!
Effective self-defense requires more than just a few “karate moves.” It involves the ability to think strategically, and understand how to defend yourself with as little wear-and-tear on you as possible. Especially if you are a woman dealing with a larger, stronger, male assailant.
Many sensible aspects of self defense involve avoiding those situations where you may be at risk and also ensuring your personal environment is secure, i.e. correct locks, movement activated lights, alarm systems etc.
The question which arises is, do you or do you not defend yourself? The reality is that you won’t have much time to ponder this question, and even a moment’s hesitation may see you overpowered.
You need to make up your mind and have a plan in advance. Different circumstances will call for a different response. e.g. someone enters your home threatening harm while you are at home with your children?
That example is clear-cut, don’t be hero, even if you are taking self-defense classes! Just cut your losses. So here you have a clear policy.
But what if you encounter someone in your home or a pleasant date turns nasty? Here you have to make another decision, do I fight or give in to them and hope they don’t hurt me too badly. The problem is you don’t know what their intentions are.
What you do know is that a decent normal human being wouldn’t be doing what they are doing. If you are going to fight then you must fight with all your heart, all your resources and all your brains.
Note I didn’t say with all your strength. This is because it is highly likely that your attacker will be stronger than you, if you try to match strength then you will tire faster than them.
The main thing is the intensity of your defense, which must instantly become an attack. Make a lot of noise, scream and yell. Don’t just flail your arms widely in circular motions, use straight-line thrusts to the eyes, throat and face.
If your arms are being held stomp with your feet and thrust forward with your knees, jab with your elbows and bite!
Whenever I discuss some of these aspects of defense some people cringe and think it’s just too much. But imagine yourself being knocked to the ground, kicked punched, raped. Your attacker isn’t going to be gentle, why should you!
Fight and fight until you are exhausted and then keep fighting. So what if you are tired, so what if you can hardly breathe, never give up! Your adrenalin will mostly mask your injuries.
This will certainly gross you out, but if you thrash and fight for your life and you reach a point of utter exhaustion then you may well vomit from the shear effort. If so don’t turn from your attacker but vomit on them. Yuk I hear you say! Survive I say!
The harsh reality is that you may do all you can and are still badly injured, raped or both, but you will know in your heart you did all you could do and this knowledge is sure to speed your physical and emotional recovery.
If you have already been the victim of a violent assault and you didn’t fight back. Don’t blame yourself, don’t look back in regret, you’re not weak; you just didn’t have a plan, you weren’t prepared.
In our world we shouldn’t have to think about such things, people should treat each other with respect, but sometimes life isn’t fair! Take action attend a quality defense class and decide to fight if heaven forbid the situation should arise again.
A large number of us suffer from several issues associated with self confidence. Whether it is in our schools, workplace or anywhere else, certain things are bound to happen that cripple our self-esteem and ruin our confidence altogether. But did you know that every time we confront our fears, we end up gaining a lot of inherent strength and confidence? This is exactly how Martial Arts, helps us. Martial Arts, challenges our comfort levels and compels us to confront obstacles. It teaches is to come face to face with our fears. Taking up Martial Arts might seem incredibly difficult for both kids and grownups. But once you get the drill, your confidence levels are boosted like never before.
Self confidence is nothing different from your body. All you need to do is exercise and develop it in order to be stronger and fitter. In martial arts, this happens over a period of time and every small success that you achieve in your training sessions makes it possible for you to achieve larger and better goals. With every small success, your self confidence increases and you feel like challenging yourself once again. Martial arts can help you in setting and achieving goals while giving you the strength and perseverance of mind even when the situations seem to be adverse.
There is nothing better for a child than having confidence, high-self esteem and courage at a very young age. In most cases, one of the main things that affect a child’s confidence is fear. Whether we accept it or not, but bullying has indeed become an insurmountable evil in your child’s everyday reality. These cases even tend to extend till the early adulthood of the child.
Kids are extremely vulnerable to anxiety, and there is nothing more traumatizing for them than to be exposed in a kind of environment that constantly terrorizes them. Whether it is bullies or family tiffs, martial arts, will help your little one to understand who they truly are and how to control and handle these situations around them. When a child is trained to face an opponent in a touch martial arts’ match, he will end up gaining enough courage. The confidence they get would enable them to take on the different challenges that life puts up for them. Challenges are indeed an excellent crucible, and a child who learns to tackle these challenges, are not at all afraid of accomplishing any goal. No adverse situation will intimidate them anymore.
Martial arts, normally takes your child through a beautiful journey and helps them to discover their true personality. And children do need that. As they try concentrating in mastering the different levels, their confidence and courage will grow significantly. They will get a feeling of accomplishment and realize that they can do and perform anything without being afraid.
A tad bit of self-confidence can truly transform the lives of your kid. It will help them to handle different situations, experience hard times, lose excess weight and do many more things. When it comes to martial arts, one of the main focuses would be that on self-discipline. It will also help in making them even more disciplined, thereby reminding them how to act in different situations. You will observe that the martial artists are more likely not to get into an ugly spat even when provoked, as they are completely aware of protecting themselves. Due to this reason, they will be more comfortable and confident in trying to talk their way out of a particular situation.
Having the proper training on how to fight and ample confidence to do so, doesn’t really mean that your child will be knocking off everyone who stands on their way. Rather, martial arts will teach them to resolve conflicts in a non-violent way. Although most of us have a perception that Martial arts can be violent, in reality the style and technique incorporated in this sport is much different from what is telecasted in the shows. There are many defensive styles and techniques that render insight on peaceful resolution of conflict.
Other than self confidence, this self-defensive mechanism is also likely to improve the skills of your child in various other sectors of life. For instance, the fitness levels of your child will increase, he will have better skills for teamwork, he will learn to set goals on his own and achieve them at the same time. Additionally, it will also boost the socialization skills of your child and he will learn to understand and manage both the academic and non-academic aspects of school. In this way, martial arts will help in developing a respectful and responsible teenager.
Enrolling your child in these classes, will play a vital role in building their strength, stamina and endurance levels. It will change the way your child thinks, improve their creativity and develop a better sense of self-esteem. The training will go much beyond the simple concept of self-defense and will truly transform the life of your child.
Why Martial Arts, builds more confidence than any other sport?
It has been observed that any tedious and rigorous sport can effectively increase both your mental and physical fitness, thereby turning up your level of confidence. But since time immemorial, martial arts have been observed and proven to render excellent results in a wide variety of aspects. Why is this so?
Firstly, martial arts, is a personal endeavor where training is provided in a room with students following a particular decorum. Here, the individual results totally depend on your individual efforts, unlike the different team sports where you need to consistently rely on others for support.
Secondly, the structure of martial arts is empirical. This means, the level of difficulty will rise as you eventually progress. Your challenges too will increase in terms of requirements and complexity with each new level. The prestige and self respect that you will earn through every color of belt will be extremely satisfying and motivating.
This controlled structure and environment of martial arts will help you develop a better physique, body language, stance and a posture. These extremely visible and tangible effects will reduce the severity and instances of the different perceptions that lead to low-self esteem and self doubt.
While training in martial arts, you will observe that there are different points of training that will ask you to be confident even in the situations where you are really not. For instance, when you are testing for belts you get to experience public demonstration, when you spar with someone else you have this slight fear of losing or getting hurt, when you train self defense you realize that bad things are likely to happen; but despite this, you face these challenging situations and develop a greater level of self esteem. Ultimately you get the opportunity to practice the most uncomfortable things in a regulated and comfortable environment until you gain a particular level of confidence. This is the confidence that lets you sail through the chaotic environments. Once you see these visible results, there’s absolutely no looking back.
Training sessions will boost your confidence
Martial arts, not only boosts the self-confidence of your child, but it also plays a significant role in boosting your inherent self esteem. I don’t know whether you realize this, but in reality, you end up building your confidence every time you show up to the classes. Simply bowing and stepping for your dojo sessions takes a lot of courage and every time you end up doing it, you also end up being stronger.
Well, I don’t know how you feel, but I definitely feel butterflies in my tummy when my trainer asks me to spar with someone. Every time I am asked to spar, I take one deep breath and compel myself to go out there and get it done. As soon as the match commences, the butterflies are replaced with a focus. This is the focus that drives me to give my best shot. And this is exactly how martial arts training, effectively boosts your confidence. When you are an adult you will realize that the butterflies you get when you’re asked to spar or perform a kata in front of your classmates and trainer are the same butterflies that you experience when you are supposed to give some important presentation, consult with your boss about a relevant assignment or when you are about to call some major client.
The different spheres where Martial arts boosts your confidence
Bully/bullying- One of the worst things that hurts us most while we are bullied is the feeling that we are helpless. But proper training in martial arts can help us solve this issue. Once you understand that you do have a way out to escape bullying, it will hurt considerably less and you will be tad more confident while confronting bullies.
Inferiority complex- There are many individuals who feel that they are not strong or powerful enough to handle any complex situation. The media had brainwashed us in such a way that anyone of us who do not fit the societal standards of being strong and powerful, can feel insecure about ourselves. But martial arts will flawlessly tackle this issue and restore your confidence back. It will make you feel good about yourself once again and increase your self esteem immensely.
Attractiveness- Most people prefer being with a tough significant other who can protect them and help them and help them to combat difficult situations. The ability to protect oneself and one’s family is an immensely attractive trait for many. Martial arts will help you with this and further ensure that you get your lost confidence and self esteem back.
Helps in both physical and mental development
Training yourself in one or more of the programs taught at the martial arts sessions can help you to develop both physically and mentally. As you constantly train, your body will get tad more powerful and lean. Due to this, you will look and feel better about yourself. Just imagine looking at your reflection in the mirror and seeing a fitter and stronger body. This will automatically give you an entirely new level of self-esteem. A strong body will aid in developing a stronger and better mind.
Another excellent thing about the martial arts session is the martial arts concept that suggests that you tend to be stronger both physically and mentally when your skills improve. This is indeed a very practical skill that can be used in any kind of situation that requires self defense or in a situation where your loved one or acquaintances are being threatened. This will empower you once again and boost yourself confidence. The very idea that you can indeed look after your loved ones and your family will effectively boost your self esteem.
Handling everything that comes your way
As you train for martial arts you will soon develop a feeling that’ll assure you and tell you that you can actually handle everything that comes by your way. This is because you have already exposed yourself to challenging situations in a competitive environment and performed your best in every session. With these training sessions you are actually conditioning and building your confidence. You are getting a chance to develop and strengthen it in every class. You are training and preparing yourself for focusing and performing under pressure, irrespective of the situation or the incident that causes the pressure. And this is exactly why martial arts, is an excellent tool for building and enhancing self confidence both in children and adults. You will never find something that builds and develops your confidence in a safe, fun and interesting way at the same time. You will never end up with something like this that will push you to perform and give your best shot.
Whether it is through the martial arts classes or through participating in the martial arts tournaments, every time you push and compel yourself to train, you end up building your confidence and a stronger part of yourself. With every one of those punches and kicks, you get to build a stronger self both on the inside and the outside. Keep up your training to feel and exude this confidence in every sphere of your life.
