There are three major categories in martial arts training: sport martial arts such as Olympic Taekwondo, self defense martial arts such as Krav Maga and movie martial arts such as XMA. They all have positive aspects and a special appeal to its students.
The Positive Aspects of Sport Martial Arts, Self Defense Martial Arts and Movie Martial Arts
Martial arts has been around for several thousands of years. And during it’s beginning all the way up to modern day, martial arts was developed not simply as a means of self defense but as a means of maintaining good health.
In today’s society, we know that the thought of martial arts conjures up The Karate Kid, Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Jet Li, or Jackie Chan. It conjures up the movement of modern day MMA (mixed martial arts). It also conjures up the notion of learning how to fight, or rather, defend one’s self. This is the obvious positive of learning martial arts. The other positives attained from martial arts training, whether sport martial arts (Tae Kwon Do), self defense (Krav Maga), or movie style martial arts (XMA) is the sense of accomplishment. In today’s society, feeling that you have accomplished something is value that may not have be able to have a value placed on it. With martial arts, a sense of accomplishment doesn’t necessarily mean you reached the rank of black belt or beyond. That is an accomplishment. Many people come and go in martial arts training without reaching that level. So to be able to put in the years of time to reach black belt is an accomplishment and positive feeling to have. However, as I said, reach black belt is not the only positivity in martial arts. With martial arts training at Shin’s, whether it be our Tae Kwon Do, XMA, Kick & Flip, or our Krav Maga/MMA programs, you create accomplishments throughout your entire duration of training from one class to the next. What we try to do is have you understand that accomplishments are not just earning a new belt, but little accomplishments throughout. For example, you are working on improving your kicking technique. By the end of the class, through the Shin’s method of positive reinforcement, you not only drilled the kick, but because the instructor took a few extra minutes just with you and really focused on helping, you were able to increase power to your kick or perhaps footwork to a more complex kick or combination, hence accomplishing something that may seem miniscule to others but important to you. Another example: a child is getting ready to break their first piece of wood during belt testing. We encourage and walk them through the process and with one solid strike, the board breaks and that child is so elated you would think that world peace finally happened. These small accomplishments, in essence, is the same as having short term goals to achieve a long term goal. These accomplishments create positive feelings with training. The positivity creates a domino effect throughout the years as you pursue your long term goals, such as earning your black belt. Martial arts creates mental toughness and positivity within. It is our hope that you can take this and incorporate it in your every day lives.
