Training in karate provides your child with a long list of benefits. It gives them new skills, builds confidence, and often helps with their self-esteem.
But did you know that karate classes can help your child perform better in school?
Karate helps with the development of many of the skills that students need to succeed!
Is your child is struggling with school work? Action Karate Plymouth Meeting’s classes may be an integral part in helping to change that!
Rigorous Academics Require Discipline
In our classes, we define discipline to our newer students as: “Do what you’re supposed to do, without being told.”
As our students mature, we reshape that definition a bit: Discipline is the difference between what you want most, and what you want right now.
A good student is one who understands that life is not a free-for-all, where they can do what they want, when they want.
Good students do their homework even when their favorite show is on TV. In order to get good grades, they must complete their homework, turn it in on time, and study and prepare for tests.
The trait necessary for completing each of these steps is discipline. Karate helps to develop this discipline by teaching students structure, order, and most importantly, self-control.
Preparation Leads To Success
Benjamin Franklin once said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
Much of academic success hinges on being prepared and organized.
Think about it: what good is it to compose the greatest essay ever written if you leave it at home and can’t turn it in on time?
Karate teaches kids that they always need to be prepared. For example, when students are learning to spar, they know they need to stay in fighting stance and stay on their bounce so they can explode into action when they need to.
Kids who train in karate carry this trait over to their school work.
Good Students Have Exceptional Focus
With all of the opportunities and channels of entertainment available to today’s youth, it can be difficult to focus.
In order to cope with rigorous schoolwork, students must learn how to listen to the teachers and not get distracted by their surroundings.
One of the greatest benefits of karate is that it can help your child develop two of the most important character traits: focus and concentration. When in karate class, they learn to shut out distractions, whether they’re external (classmates playing around) or internal (negative thoughts and doubts).
Goal-Setting Leads To Success
Success comes from achieving a series of smaller goals, which ultimately culminate in the accomplishment of larger goals.
In school, this could mean finishing an essay on time or reading a few chapters ahead of the class. In karate, it means passing an evaluation and earning a new belt.
As a karate student, your child learns to enjoy the satisfaction of accomplishing goals. This will spur them to seek out opportunities to replicate in school and at home.
Physical Activity Builds Cognitive Functions
Researchers have discovered that physical activity levels have been positively linked to cognitive function during development in school-aged children.
Besides the neurological connotations, giving kids an outlet to move their bodies can actually help them academically by improving their memory and increasing their attention span.
Karate is a very physical activity which can help build cognitive functions as well as serve as an outlet to help improve memory.
Even if your child is already a A-student, karate can be extremely useful in helping to teach your kids how to achieve their educational goals and maintain them for life. If they are having problems with school work, it can also help them by helping to develop necessary skills to become a very good student.
