More to Martial Arts than just kicking and punching. The common thought is that Martial Art just teaches your child self defence, but the truth is there is so much more. The physical skills learnt in Martial Arts transfer to other sports and activities, while the life skills and values will stay with your child for a long time. Read below to see how our Teens Taekwondo and Muay Thai programs can help the development of your teen as we introduce them to physical exercise and movement, martial arts, and structured learning.
Teenagers in this age bracket have either moved up through the Children Programs, or are starting Martial Arts for the very first time. In most instances, this group of students tend to be the smartest students in the school. They are constantly learning a variety of subjects, they are constantly exposed to the ever changing advances in technology, and social media ensures this group is constantly up to date with what is happening around them. Despite this, this age bracket can also be the laziest when it comes to physical exercise. With hormones racing and many external influences affecting their moods and behaviour, this age group needs the benefits of Martial Arts and physical activity. You’ll also find that students who have been training previously will often already have developed many of the following Milestones you’ll read below. For the ones they haven’t developed, they will often reach them faster than the students who have not been exposed to Martial Arts training previously.
Our Teens programs would be working on developing and improving the following developmental milestones:
- Technique and Agility
- Decision Making
- Focus and Concentration
- Flexibility
- Fitness
- Strength
- Confidence
- Intensity in Training
- Self Management and Correction
- Teamwork
In addition to these ‘action’ milestones, we’re working towards Physical, Intellectual, Emotional and Social developmental milestones. Some of these include:
Physical Developmental Milestones:
- Attention to Details. Understanding how things work and how the body moves in order to perform movements safely and with technique and power.
- Applying Effort. Understanding that effort is needed for an action to be successful, for example, certain kicks or movements may need momentum to create speed and force.
- Applying Strength. By understanding the DETAILS and knowing the EFFORT needed, students can generate strength and power in their movements.
Intellectual Developmental Milestones:
- Decision Making. Making the right decisions through actions. How the kicking pad is held will determine the technique needed to be performed, how a person attacks you will determine what your self defence response will be – using instincts and training to develop the appropriate responses.
- Precision. The ability to correctly apply movements with accuracy in order to hit the target. Quick critical thinking is key as they often will need to make the right decision as quickly as possible.
- Awareness and Versatility. The ability to move in all directions when kicking pads are being held, or when sparring with a partner.
Emotional Developmental Milestones:
- Motivation. Applying effort in their training to create action. Whether the motivation is for Fitness, a Release Outlet, or because they want to progress through the belt system and Grade.
- Connect with the Activity. Hormones, school, social and family life can all affect their moods. By engaging and connecting with what they are doing, students can find a way to move past their current emotional state.
- Resilience. Working through their mistakes despite the feeling of everyone watching them and everyone (particularly the opposite sex) noticing these mistakes.
Social Developmental Milestones:
- The Big Picture. Looking past the temporary obstacles and seeing the big picture. What are we trying to achieve? Why is the Black Belt important and how is it a symbol of status to you peers and future employers?
- Maturity and Acceptance. Being able to work with students from all schools, races and gender.
- Accepting Praise. Being able to accept praise and recognition as signs of growth and achievement.
An example of how this all fits:
Skill: Intensity in Training and Teamwork
Drill: Pad Sparring. As students move into the Teens/Adult program, Pad Sparring drills are operated less by the instructors, and more by the students themselves. They take turns holding pads for one another, and in some instances they’ll participate in Pad Sparring. This drill calls upon one student holding pads in various positions and calling out various kicking and striking techniques. The partner must complete the techniques with speed, precision and technique. Once the time has run out (duration lasts from 30 seconds per round, to a minute, or more depending on the skill level) the students will either switch roles, or the students will move to another pad holder to do the same thing again but with another pad holder.
Benefit: In this drill students are being tested on their ability to quickly recall techniques they have learnt in class. One of the goals of this exercise is for students to train with an Intensity that helps to improve their Fitness and Memory Recall. In addition to this, students will be mixing with multiple students (not just their usual training partner) and will have to work safely with others.