What Modern Children Need (in my opinion),
In my 35 years of teaching martial arts I’ve had the privilege of working with literally thousands of children. I continue to be impressed with the positive impact martial arts can have on them.
In recent years however, I have become aware of a trend that concerns me. Today’s children seem to be way less fit than the children of a decade ago. They also seem to be more prone to injury than in years past.
I ask a doctor friend of mine about this recently and his comment was that there seems to be an increasing number of fluke injuries among children. His observation is that the sedentary lifestyle of today’s child is causing major issues with the way their bodies are developing. I asked him what he felt we could do about. His answer was that kids just need to be more physically active. They need more unstructured play time.
No I’m not a doctor, but I have had years of experience with young children and I couldn’t agree more with my friend. For children to develop properly, they need to run, jump, crawl, climb, and somersault on a regular basis. (By the way, I might be a bit biased, but martial arts does all these things and more.)
As parents, there is nothing more important than working time into your child’s busy schedule for unstructured, physical play. So the next chance you have, turn off the TV, unplug the phone and get your kids outside for some good old fashioned fun. Or better yet, get the whole family involved in Martial Arts. You will be glad that you did.
