The study of martial arts has a great number of benefits for children that parents have sought for many years. Physical benefits like improved balance, coordination, strength and flexibility and emotional benefits that include increased self-confidence, emotional control, perseverance and determination are top of the list that parents are looking for when they are choosing a martial arts school.

At the heart of martial arts training is the search for the answer to the quintessential question: How do I defend myself against someone physically superior? All of these benefits that are sought after are enhanced by the effectiveness of each particular art. If you are unsure if your techniques would work in a real fight, then how would you have confidence in yourself?

Most traditional martial arts schools focus mostly on the striking aspect of martial arts — which is very limited in its approach. Striking (punching and kicking) is the most common type of physical aggression and the biggest cause of anxiety for children who are facing the possibility of being attacked. If your child is ever in a physical confrontation against a bully who is bigger and stronger and all they have to rely on is striking to cause trauma, then they will have to be in the proper space to do so. If they are close enough to hit their opponent, then they will also be in the same range to get hit back. Even without proper training, an aggressor who is physically superior can easily have an advantage against someone smaller, weaker or slower. Although striking is an important aspect of any martial art, relying on it solely forces the practitioner to be very brutal in their response to self-defense. Causing blunt force trauma to the attacker to incapacitate them by physical pain or unconsciousness is a tall order for adults, let alone children.

Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is the most effective, and at the same time most non-violent, approach to self defense.

We teach children how to neutralize strikes by controlling distance – either positioning themselves too far away to be reached or too close for the strikes to do much damage. Once they gain control of their attacker, they will be able to take them down to the ground, use proper positioning, technique, timing and leverage to gain compliance and negotiate. The positioning and submission holds in jiu-jitsu allow a child to relegate the amount of response necessary to defend themselves in any situation. The better the child gets the more non-violent they will actually have to be in their response. Children develop a true sense of self confidence by training jiu-jitsu because they are able to train with each other at a very high rate of resistance with a very low risk of injury. Training striking techniques does not allow for the same manner of practice at a real-life intensity. One must mimic the actual strike without following through in order not to injure partners during training. Since training partners cannot tap out mid-strike, punches and kicks have to be pulled instead of following through. This does not allow the student to know if their strikes will prove effective when needed. True self confidence can only come from true effectiveness. With a true sense of confidence, all of the other benefits that martial arts training can offer will be enhanced.