Children in Martial Arts

In The Karate Kid (1984), Daniel, the main character moves to a new city with his mom, and gets into trouble with a bully and is beat up in front of his crush, his potential friends, and publically humiliated.

This is a very relatable situation that most parents would never want their children to experience.

In the movie, Daniel wants to learn Karate to defend himself and fight the bullies. His solution is to go to the local karate dojo and become a student. However, his bully and the gang that follows him are not only students at the dojo, but skilled and respected members of the dojo.

The reality is that many children have external forces that weigh on them emotionally. This can be a bully. It can also be poor performance in school, lack of friends, emotional or mental overload, or any combination of stressors. Lots of children have stresses, but the goal of parents should be to have them learn to handle that. LIFE is full of stress. But the diffrence between and successful and rewarding life and a miserable one full of failure is managing and understanding how to handle any forms of stress. Running away from problems is not the answer, but learning to tackle something head on is what separates good from bad.

Daniel, didn't throw away the idea of self-defense when he learned bullies also know how to fight. He sought out a teacher to help him with his problems and dedicated his time and attention to the solution: in this case, learn karate.

As a lifelong martial artist and parent, I make it my life's work to engage with children at their level, to solve their problems. Their problems are personal and specific. But so are everyone's. This means that we can extract general solutions to target specific issues. Confidence and self-mastery is a great tool for winning friends and fostering relationships. Kindness and empathy are great ways to avoid physical altercations. Having skills that apply generally to many problems are the same skills that it takes to become a black belt.

Ultimately, if a skinny, bullied, loner, with only his mother and teacher for support can achieve success, your child can too! They just need your support and their own dedication.