How Kids Become Disciplined Through Martial Arts

Discipline could be the most important trait to teach to children these days. It’s certainly necessary in modern times, with kids growing increasingly independent. How can we build trust in our children that they will have enough discipline to walk down the right path, even without our supervision?

Discipline is a popular reason why parents want their kids to learn martial arts. Whether it’s listening at home or in school, or showing more respect to parents or other kids. Martial Arts provides kids with discipline and respect, but it’s not given, it is earned.

Jiu-Jitsu is a great martial art to teach your kids discipline. Through martial arts, kids learn the value of discipline and how to exercise discipline in their lives.

Jiu-Jitsu training is one of the healthiest activities to foster a disciplined spirit. During class there is a structure, technique, drills and of course fun! But kids learn early on if they want to be good at martial arts, they need to be disciplined in their approach to training.

Students who are more disciplined in class, and their attendance are also the ones that advance quicker. This doesn’t mean that Jiu Jitsu is going to take over your child’s life. But spending 2-3 times a week, 1 hour sessions, is a perfect for growth.

Martial arts and discipline go hand-in-hand. One cannot thrive without the other. Kids need martial arts to effectively learn to be disciplined. Conversely, discipline is essential in martial arts training.

Here’s how Jiu-Jitsu is a great a tool for teaching discipline to children.

1) Discipline = Success = Confidence

There is a lesson that you learn fairly quick in jiu-jitsu, whether you’re 5 years old or 50… you must “show up” to be successful. There is sometimes a misconception that students will “get it” right away. That’s not the case in Marital Arts. Martial Arts require disciplined practice that makes the student successful in class and life.

This continued success breeds EARNED confidence. These three elements, discipline, success and confidence are so important to your child self-esteem and mental health. You are giving him / her a powerful gift at such a young age, that many adults will struggle to achieve.

Self-esteem is the #1 key deterrent to bullying. Bullies want weak, shy, and “different”. Kids who don’t fit the norm, or as my mother used to say “Goes to the beat of a different drummer”, have a hard time fitting in with the regular crowd. This sometimes leads to severe bullying, especially if your child isn’t particularly athletic. Jiu-Jitsu empowers children with a healthy and positive self-esteem that will carry on into their future.

2) Learning How To Trust The Process

In our modern age, kids have so much stimulus and their brains are so active! Practice, the art of training, calms the mind, focuses their energy and shows them that there is a path to success. Kids learn to trust the process of training jiu-jitsu.

Training marital arts has a unique way of calming everything down and focusing exclusively on what you’re doing. In Japanese Martial Arts, the call this Mushin “No Mind”. It starts small, un-noticed, but students start getting lost in their practice. It becomes meditative, focused and artistic. Eventually this feeling grows and becomes the goal during training.

Martial artists are always looking to improve on a daily basis, even just 1% each day. By this focus on constant daily improvement, children are taught to remain disciplined so they can maximize their time.

Young martial artists will learn being disciplined in jiu-jitsu class and life will provide them the result they want.

Without discipline, martial artists cannot progress and they will never reach the destination. Discipline is one of the most important aspects of progress.

3) “You Must Focus Daniel-son!” 🙂

Without focus, there is no martial arts… it’s also one of the biggest reasons parents want their kids to learn martial arts. The gain the ability to focus, digest, plan and make good decisions. This is jiu-jitsu.

Jiu-Jitsu is like the best video game in the world, yet it’s real life. In games you’re faced with challenges, decisions, wins, losses, frustration and success. In order to win the game, you need to focus and make good decisions… again, this is Jiu-Jitsu.

There is a huge game element to Jiu-Jitsu training, we call it “rolling”. From the outside looking in, it’s grappling in a uniform, it’s our version of sparring which is one of the cornerstones of Jiu-Jitsu training. This activity is vital for student development, but also becomes a huge playground for kids new Jiu-Jitsu skills. In order to be successful during rolling, they need to focus in class, digest what they have learned, and then apply it during rolls.

Through this training, kids develop a sharp rational mind and learn how to make great choices on the mat and in life.

4) Conquer Fears

Let’s be completely honest here. Sometimes martial arts is scary for the child and parent. Why? Because it’s real.

Students are learning a very power method of defending themselves. Quickly kids get over fears of getting hurt, or being in a fight. They toughen up.

Essentially their training is “fighting”, just a lot funner! They realize that these fears they had around getting hurt or bullied, quickly fade away because they have the power of Jiu-Jitsu.

This mindset sets them up for life. They learn to face their fears and overcome them.

Jiu-Jitsu is one of the best activities a kid or young teen to do. If you are looking to give your kid discipline, confidence, focus and fear-conquering mindset, then I highly suggest that you give Jiu-Jitsu a try. Get 1-Week free intros lessons at the Cage JSA.