Kids martial arts and patience
Kids martial arts and patience…for everyone.
Coaches watch as they ask some students to demonstrate for the class
I’ve noticed that I always talk about the benefits of kids martial arts classes and one those benefits is patience. The kids in the class learn patience in the process of learning. In a kids martial arts class patience and focus comes from listening and learning. Another aspect that I neglect to talk about is how patient coaches need also be with the kids.
Kids are temperamental. They can be fussy, distracted, and moody. To work with kids you must have patience. Patience to work with the seemingly insurmountable tragedy of not having a water bottle, or if they have questions about something other than the subject at hand. Keeping the children focused and having direction for them is important for maintaining the kids focus in a kids martial arts class.
Coaches having fun with the kids in martial arts class.
The kids martial arts coach
When you coach children it’s important to guide them. In order to do that they have to be engaged and having fun. Pacing is important and ending on good notes is also important. The pacing helps the kids have a rhythm to the class to keep them invested in what’s happening in the kids martial arts class in the present tense. Ending things on good notes gives the promise that they will continue and come back to class to learn more, a future hope of benefit as well.
Flexibility is essential for coaches, especially when dealing with different kids of different ages and developmental stages. Most kids have a very short attention span and it’s difficult to keep them engaged. When a coach puts a practice or class plan together they know what they’re doing and what they want to accomplish. Working with kids a coach has to keep things flexible to adjust to the group of kids and what their needs are for that group in that kids martial arts class.
Patience comes in with everything else going on in between: water breaks, choosing partners, guiding individual drills, and matches. Coaches are tasked with teaching and putting every child in a position to be challenged. The coach may see something the child can learn from: a situation they can be uncomfortable or familiar with-it depends on the child. The coach is the authority in the kids martial arts class and that’s not to say they aren’t firm. I have often seen my daughters coaches impose “consequences” when there are trespasses in the form of burpees or push ups.
If the coaches are patient, the children see and learn from them in the kids martial arts class. The coaches become the role models of patience. The children emulate that patience with each other in their kids martial arts class and have every opportunity to do so at school and home as well.
Coaches at the end of another great class.