5 Tips for Parents – How to Choose the best Martial Arts School for Your child?
If you have come to the opinion that your child would benefit from martial arts training to increase his or her confidence, concentration, respect, discipline and self-defense…that is fantastic.
Let me just say that I agree with you 100%! There is nothing… that elevates a child’s self – esteem, helps them uncover who they are, and gives them the courage to chase their dreams more, than martial arts training!
Out of all the physical activities that can benefit your child, martial arts above all translates into real life habits. Habits that can have a profound effect on their academic performance, social confidence as well as mental and emotional well-being. It is the demand between mental focus, emotional control and physical prowess that leads to self-mastery and lends itself to these real life benefits!
If you want to load the cards, so to speak, in your child’s favor towards a bright future filled with success and happiness…then look no further than your local martial arts school!
But, how do you choose the right or best martial arts school for your child? 
As you will see…the only way to find the best school for your child is not by what is said over the phone, but by what you, the parent, experience when you visit the school and see it in action!
Here are 5 tips or questions that You should be asking yourself, if you want to choose the best martial arts school for your child.
- What is the general attitude of the School, Instructor and Students? As soon as you walk into the school; what is the atmosphere of the school…focused and disciplined or chaotic and unruly? Are you greeted with kindness or ignored? Are the students well behaved, courteous and respectful? Is the instructor firm but kind, attentive, compassionate, competent, and disciplined…or arrogant, distracted, passive, incompetent or intimidating? What is the engagement level of the instructor and what is the presence level of the students? A good instructor will be 100% engaged with the kids, a great instructor will be 100% engaged and command 100% of their attention without demanding it!
- Who exactly is influencing your child? The head instructor should be doing more than 90% of the teaching of the classes. While it is great for advanced students to learn how to teach by working with other students, that should be less than 10% of the instruction. Your child will only be as good as the instruction they receive. Is the head instructor teaching or are junior ranked students teaching most of the time? Is the head instructor a great communicator and technically excellent or not? (by the time you go to your third school, you will see the difference). Is the instructor fit, healthy, positive and humble…in essence is he/she a good role model for your child? A high rank in martial arts does not for a second mean that that person will be a good teacher. Great teachers are few and far between.
- What is the teaching Philosophy of the school? While I have talked about teaching philosophy in another post, here I want to talk about it differently. Rather than the general philosophy that drives the instruction, I want to point out what you may see in different teaching styles. Your child will learn from hearing, seeing and doing (practicing) martial art technique. So a precondition to quality instruction for your child is that the instructor is a great communicator (hearing). That the instructor has a lot of energy and demonstrates all the time (seeing). And then “doing”…again requiring high energy from the instructor and attention to detail…so your child is receiving constant positive constructive feedback. Instructors that communicate or instruct very little, hardly demonstrate and basically let class run itself with little to no feedback to your child may not be where you want your child to be.
- What is the School’s Focus and Intention for your child? Is the school focused on self defense, self mastery and self improvement…or…is it focused on competition or sport. There are no rules in self defense… training for a sport blinds you to the reality of real life self defense. An example would be some sports oriented martial arts, because of their rules, don’t teach their students how to avoid a punch to the face, which is the most common attack in real life. Far beyond that, self-mastery is lost when you no longer are focused on daily improvements in mental focus, coordination, concentration, respect, discipline, balance and personal growth but instead are worried about beating someone else. If you want to add another sport to the many available for your child, then pick a sport oriented school that focuses on competition and tournaments, just know you might be limiting their ultimate growth and setting them up for aggressive behavior. If you want your child to maximize this opportunity; feel safe and confident, as well as grow in character and self-mastery, choose a martial arts school that is more traditional and focuses on self-defense, contribution and self-improvement.
- What are you comfortable with, year Contracts or Month by month? Martial arts is not something your child should be thinking about doing for a few months, it is a long term endeavor. The reason martial arts translates into real life success habits and benefits is because just like life, martial arts is a longer term, infinite journey. Let me explain, all sports are finite….they are all played with a defined end; 18 rounds of golf, 9 innings in baseball, 90 minutes in soccer. Martial arts is infinite, it is something your child can do for a life-time; it continually challenges, motivates, and provides personal breakthroughs! With that being said… back to Yearly VS. Monthly contracts? You could say that contracts are congruent with a long term commitment. But I find, being locked into a yearly contract feels uncomfortable for most parents. In essence, it is forcing your hand and of course ultimately, benefits the Martial arts school. I personally don’t like contracts and don’t want to be paid for classes that a child is not receiving because they are being forced to pay out the contract. You never know when life or interests can move you in a different direction and I believe a month to month arrangement provides that flexibility.I hopes this feedback and these 5 tips helps to give you the clarity to pick the best martial arts school for you child!
Read more on the benefits of Martial Arts Training for Children here!