We have many options for after-school activities and classes: contact sports, dancing lessons, and much more. While martial arts might not seem like a good option, classes such as kids’ jiu-jitsu offer incredible benefits for students.
The truth is, jiu-jitsu is a great activity for children and offers an array of benefits. Some have nothing to do with self-defense skills.
Below, we’ve outlined five of the most profound ones:
1. Body Control, Coordination, And Awareness
While it may seem easy at first glance, mastering various jiu-jitsu moves and techniques requires attention to detail and good body control.
Learning how to perform the various activities in jiu-jitsu helps children improve their motor control and teaches them valuable lessons of balance, body awareness, and coordination.
Improved body control, coordination, and awareness are incredibly valuable physical traits that help children master other types of activities much more easily later on.
2. Respect For Others
Our kids’ jiu-jitsu classes teach our students one valuable life lesson: having respect for others.
We emphasize humility, self-control, and resolving conflicts without the use of physical strength. More importantly, we teach our students that respect is a two-way street: you have to give it to earn it.
3. Discipline and Self-Control
With the rapid digitalization of our world, discipline and self-control are becoming less and less common. This is even more prevalent among kids as attention deficit disorder, and other similar ailments are becoming more common.
Jiu-jitsu is a fantastic way to help kids remain grounded, disciplined, and with superior self-control.
Like the muscles in the body, discipline and self-control also need to be trained regularly. When left to chance, they remain weak, and that leads to a whole host of problems down the road.
Mastering jiu-jitsu is a fun and rewarding experience, but it’s also challenging and requires grit. This is great because it teaches children the power of discipline and self-control and how small actions add up to tremendous improvements down the line.
4. Strength And Endurance
Two other benefits of kids’ jiu-jitsu classes are more on the physical side but are just as valuable. While the sport of jiu-jitsu isn’t as dynamic as other popular alternatives such as karate and taekwondo, mastering the art helps children become stronger and more endurant.
What’s interesting about Jiu-jitsu is that it allows people to defeat their opponents even if they are smaller. This is achieved through technique, body mechanics, and physical strength. But, because defeating an opponent often takes time, the practice is excellent for making kids more endurant.
Both of these things are incredibly beneficial and can translate to better sports performance and more.
5. Valuable Self-Defense Skills
Last but not least, we have this benefit: valuable self-defense skills.
The truth is, kids’ jiu-jitsu is one of the most beneficial ways for children to spend some of their after-school time because the benefits are incredible.
Plus, learning self-defense is incredibly valuable because we never know when we might need it. Having the ability to defend ourselves and our loved ones is priceless.
While we never encourage solving problems through physical measures, self-defense can be valuable for kids as they might have to deal with bullies in school.