Why Taekwondo is GREAT for children.

When I was a child I had weak ankles, I would frequently misstep and injure them resulting in sprains and other injuries. I had to wear supportive shoes and even then sometimes it wasn’t enough. At age 15 I joined Taekwondo at a local dojang. I found after a few months of training my ankles were stronger and not just that, my knees and hips were also feeling better after having to compensate for the ankles for so long.

Training Taekwondo helped me! It can help children in many ways.

Physical Benefits

Martial Arts training promotes physical fitness, strength, flexibility, and overall health.

Do we need to do the full splits? No!

Will we become more flexible? Yes absolutely!

Can we run a marathon with Taekwondo training? Probably not.

Can we climb the stairs more easily? Play with our children and friends more? Yes!

Will children get more in shape and help keep a healthy weight? Yes!

Practicing taekwondo also improves hand-eye and foot-eye coordination along with motor skills (especially for the elementary school children). These skills can be used in all other sports to help improve performance and enjoyment across the board.

Mental and Emotional Benefits

Learning Taekwondo improves discipline and focus. Both of these are parts of an important part of what Angela Duckworth calls GRIT. Discipline and Focus are requirements to becoming successful in Taekwondo, and in life—the earlier we cultivate these traits in our children, the more likely they are to exhibit them!

Confidence and Self-Esteem are also qualities that are highlighted and taught in martial arts. Kids gain confidence and self-esteem through mastering techniques and achieving goals. Taekwondo is full of goals that can be achieved either class by class, like stripes or badges; along with goals over a more extended period, such as belt promotions and blackbelt testing. Students acquire a sense of inner self-reliance as they learn things for themselves and watch their basic skills improve. This is so important for the next generation!

Social Benefits

Taekwondo is an individual endeavour. Unlike soccer teams and basketball teams… we train ourselves and are graded by ourselves. Teamwork has a place in every class, we need partners and groups to perform poomsae (patterns) and to work together to hold targets and train better. This in turn helps develop friendship. A sense of community is important to our youngsters as they grow and become a larger part of society.

Training with partners and friends also helps students learn to respect and show courtesy to their  elders, peers and others. Martial arts positively affects children’s behaviour both on and off the Taekwondo mats.

Practical Self-Defence

Another great aspect of Taekwondo training is Safety Skills; practical self-defence.The skills our children learn will can help them feel safer and more prepared should a bad situation occur.

Not to mention when and if a bad situation occurs, Taekwondo students will also learn conflict resolution. During our training we emphasize non-violent conflict resolution techniques.

We put it this way:

“In a self-defence situation you don’t have to win, you just make sure you don’t lose.”

I don’t take credit for the idea of not losing, but I haven’t heard this put into words like this before!

Academic Improvement

You may think that the benefits of Taekwondo training end as the students leave the mats, but you would be happily mistaken! Better Focus in School comes to those who train martial arts. Students of Taekwondo perform better academically due to improved focus and discipline.

Setting and achieving goals in taekwondo include looking forward to new stripes, new belts, or even a new blackbelt. This can translate to better goal-setting skills in school and other areas of life.

“Being in AOT has been an amazing journey for my son. He looks forward to each session and has gained a lot of confidence . He is inspired and loves being here. Teachers are the best -  they encourage and uplift. They instill values and good principles that kids can apply not only in taekwondo but in their daily life. We are really happy to have found AOT, our second family😊👍”

—A Happy Mother of one of our Taekwondo students.

We invite to a Free Week of Classes. Come see the benefits of Taekwondo firsthand.

You can follow this link to join our Free Week Trial here.

Taekwondo is good for practitioners of all ages. The most benefit will definitely come to children as they begin their martial arts journey. Whether it’s physical, mental, social, safety or academic; the benef are numerous!

We urge you to contact your local martial arts facility to take the next step for your child’s growth and development.

You won’t regret it!