Kid’s martial arts: knowing things will get better
Kid’s martial arts: knowing things will get better
With anything new, we start out excited and happy to learn. It’s exciting and there’s a vigor to the learning process-you meet teachers/coaches and students. But how many times have we heard the saying “It’s not how you start; it’s how you finish that matters.” I’ve learned that tempering my own expectations when starting something new has helped propel me over a longer period of time and that consistency is the real challenge for getting good at anything.
I see this in my own daughter as she has grown in her kid’s martial arts class of Brazilian jiu jitsu. We all hit these plateaus where we start to have negative self-talk. I see myself in her when she says things like “I can’t do it,” “I’m too small,” or “I’m not strong enough.” It’s really interesting for me, as a parent, to help coach her through some of these tough times because, given the mere fact that I am older and have experienced it, I know things will get better with fortitude and consistency. I read and hear platitudes in Buddhist teachings to accept the suffering, indeed at times to enjoy and revel in the experience itself. The difference for my 7 year old daughter, and an opportunity for me to help her in her kid’s martial arts class, is she doesn’t know what’s on the other side. She’s only 7 and hasn’t had these experiences. I’ve had them and have difficulty getting through it as an adult at times-we all have had them.
Giving instruction in kid’s martial arts class
Kid’s Martial Arts : it’s a group effort
Adult coaches watching the kid’s martial arts class, watching the future.
Obviously, I work towards and am invested in my daughter doing well, but the great thing about her kid’s martial arts class is that her coaches are also very invested in working with her and helping her through the same tough plateaus. They are that way with all the children in the kid’s martial arts class. They meet the kids where they are because the coaches have been there. They understand the suffocating feeling of being in mount bottom or giving up your back when you didn’t want to-they know the feeling. They help teach the kids that it won’t always be that way; they are models themselves that there is a place beyond the frustration they may, and generally will, experience in a kid’s martial arts class.
Kid’s Martial Arts and life skills
“Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention. Be astonished.
Tell about it.”
-Mary Oliver
Demonstrating in kid’s martial arts class
Such is life. We all feel, love, and learn from our experiences. It doesn’t matter if it’s some frustrating politics in the work place, a three-point shot we can’t seem to hit consistently, or not feeling strong enough in a kid’s martial arts class. We have had those frustrations and we’re all still here, moving forward…
by Luis T.