CHILDREN AND MOO SOOL DO

The martial arts offer a multitude of benefits to children. The areas of Martial Arts promote excellent physical conditioning, mental and emotional development and the child’s awareness of his/her spiritual self. And for those whose dream is to someday compete in the World Olympic Games, Tae Kwon Do is a means of fulfilling that dream.

Good Physical conditioning is extremely important for children, providing a good foundation for future health. Martial Arts practice involves vigorous exercise, conditioning the heart, lungs, muscles and ligaments, and strengthening the bones. The techniques require precision and speed, increasing fine and gross motor control, eye-hand (and foot) coordination and sharpening the reflexes. Martial Arts also stresses proper breathing and relaxation techniques that will benefit the child throughout his lifetime.

The mental and spiritual benefits are more difficult to categorize, but we will attempt to do so here for the purpose of illustration, realizing that they overlap to a great degree. Mental development includes mental discipline, increased knowledge, and self-control. Mental discipline involves the ability to concentrate on the objective, to focus completely on the execution of a technique or task, and to block our irrelevant or distracting perceptions. Increased knowledge is gained by absorbing information, applying it in carious ways, experiencing the ways the body and mind can work, and understanding his/her own capabilities. (The testing requirements for rank include written and/or oral responses to questions concerning various aspects of the martial arts and applications to his/her life.) Much of the codes of behavior and the philosophy of the martial arts is applicable to life in general, whether or not one becomes a martial artist.

Self-control is developed in several areas. The child learns to control his/her body and mind in the ways described above. He also learns to control his emotions. He is taught how and when it is appropriate to express anger, disappointment, resentment or fear, and how to control himself until that time. By obeying the rules and regulations, and following the class protocol he learns to respect others and to respect himself, how to earn respect and how to respond to it. When the child behaves in a way that is inappropriate he/she is corrected. Disciplinary measures range from verbal correction to physical exercise (push-ups, etc.) or as a last resort, suspension. The child learns to accept discipline from others and to discipline himself.

Other emotional benefits include self-confidence, pride in his/her ability to learn and perform the techniques and the feeling of accomplishment that comes with achieving the next belt level. There is also the comfort the child gains from knowing how to defend him/herself against attack. The world can be a frightening place for children and they frequently feel helpless to control what happens to them. Children trained in the martial arts are less intimidated by schoolyard bullies, less frightened of strangers and more confident in their relationships with others. A confident child is less apt to be a target for abuse from other children or from those maladjusted adults who prey on children to begin with.

This brings us to the area of spiritual development. Spiritual is not meant in a religious sense, but in the sense of the child’s relationship to his world, both inner and outer. Children learn that they are more than a mind in a body, that they can reach into themselves and bring our resources they didn’t know they had. They learn that fighting skill is not meant to give them the power to destroy, but to avoid destruction, that with power comes the responsibility for its use. They learn to view those who offend them with compassion, to respond to physical attack in ways that do as little harm to the attacker as possible and that the highest goal is not to outfight an opponent, but to avoid fighting at all. All of these benefits, physical, mental and spiritual are to be desired by anyone, in any lifestyle. Revolutionary Martial Arts is one system that encompasses them all.

WHY CHILDREN SHOULD OBEY THEIR PARENTS

First of all, parents gave you life and without them you would not be here. Children should obey their parents because they are trying to teach you lessons that will make you more capable of taking care of yourself. Sometime parent may have you do things that don’t seem to be helping you, but you are only thinking of what you are doing, not what you are learning. In order to learn all that you can from your parents, you must obey them without hesitation, without question. Your parents are older and wiser than you because they have experienced most of life. Obey your parents, listen to them because they care about you and want the best for you.