Does Your Child Know How to Swim?

As parents, most of us recognize the importance of teaching our kids how to swim.  The ability to survive in the water is obviously a crucial life skill.  If you fall into the water without having that ability, you are not likely to survive.

Guess what?  The same is true with learning self-defense!  In today’s chaotic & often violent world, having the physical capacity & the mentality to defend yourself is an absolute must!  Bullying, including episodes of physical violence, in our schools are at an all-time high.  Of course, we all want our kids to avoid the fight if at all possible.  But the reality is, sometimes it is simply not avoidable.  Many parents, rightfully, tell their child that they can “fight back” & “stand up for themselves”…..and while I 100% agree with that sentiment, if you don't give your child the tools to know HOW to do that effectively, and they haven’t TRAINED CONSISTENTLY to deal with these types of situations, they are just being setup for failure.  

This is why I believe that learning Jiu-jitsu is an absolute MUST, especially for kids.  It gives them the physical skills & the confidence to be able to deal with a potentially violent encounter & effectively protect themselves.  And, Jiu-jitsu is the PERFECT self-defense art for kids! There are several reasons for this.  Because Jiu-jitsu is a grappling based art, students can SAFELY train with realistic resistance, so that they learn to develop more comfort in actual physical confrontations.  They are used to close contact in training, so they're more comfortable if someone puts their hands on them in a real-life encounter.  Additionally, unlike many other striking-based arts, Jiu-jitsu relies on utilizing positional control & leverage-based techniques, that gives students the ability to effectively defend themselves, even against a larger, stronger adversary, in a rational way, that doesn’t necessitate injuring the aggressor!  

Imagine this scenario:  Your child gets in a fight with the school bully….What is better….your child punching the bully in the nose--likely to only escalate the situation, particularly if the aggressor is larger;  Even if it is effective, there is likely to be blood everywhere & even in a justifiable self-defense situation, it just looks really bad.…OR, your child is able to take the bully down, use positional control to hold them down, and verbally negotiate with them, keeping themselves safe, until a teacher or other adult can intervene.  I think we would all agree the later is the better option.

And remember, bullies typically seek out the weakest targets.  So, the reality is, once your child has the physical skills & the confidence that goes along with it, they are much LESS likely to be targeted and ever have to physically defend themselves in the first place!

The self confidence that accompanies the development of realistic self defense skills is on of the greatest gifts that you can give your kids, equally important for their survival & well-being as learning how to swim. Invest in your child's future & give them skills that will be with them for a lifetime!