1. Self-Defense and Practicality

"When it comes to self-defense, it is better to have the power and not need it than to need it and not have it."
--Kevin B. Shearer

The main reason most people begin training within the world of martial arts in the first place, is because they want to learn how to prevent and/or defend themselves in dangerous situations.

This pull of learning to develop the capability to deliver effectiveness when encountering real life problems often affects many adults' decision to start practicing. Seeing as how they are taking time out of their already busy lives to start a new hobby, it tends to be comforting to know they'll be attaining practical knowledge.

This is a huge factor to parents when enrolling their children as well. The fact that training martial arts offers the ability to learn and utilize skills that are just as helpful on the mats as they are off of them, is where the difference of skill set acquired between training martial arts and team sports becomes obvious.

2. Discipline

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit."
--Aristotle

Also a major pull for parents considering enrolling their children in "Karate," discipline is extremely hyped amongst the parental community, when speaking to the benefits of martial arts. It's true, that depending on the efficiency of your instructor's discipline towards kids, that can be a majorly helpful tool for parents.

Though, along with this pre-conceived notion of the definition of "classic discipline" as strictly taking disciplinary actions, there is another side to this: self-cultivated discipline-- which is often overlooked/unknown. Martial arts training produces a sense of self-discipline that proves itself in the results.

Martial arts training is the literal embodiment of the saying, "practice makes perfect."

In my school, we personally tell our students that they should be able to execute techniques properly "in their sleep." Martial arts training consists of much time dedicated to training and retraining the same moves hundreds of times, constantly critiquing, shifting, and perfecting technique.

This alone teaches children how to identify problems within their own actions and how to correct them, proving in a tangible, easily understandable, and applicable way that improvement will come through hard work and repetition.

3. Self-Efficacy

" The very essence of martial arts is the thirst for knowledge and the truth about ourselves. "
--Frank Shamrock

Self-confidence, a sense of self, extraversion, etc., are all words and phrases associated with going through a martial arts program. None are particularly incorrect, as it's incredibly common to see a child's self-confidence and assurance skyrocket, and their personality shift to being more conventionally "outgoing," at some point during their training.

There is much to be said about the confidence they develop in their personal capabilities, and not just in their general "selves" as they walk down their school hallways.

Self-efficacy is "an individual's belief in his or her innate ability to achieve goals." The importance of knowing how to set goals and knowing whether or not you can achieve them, in addition to having this generalized self-confidence everyone is chasing after, will be just as-- if not more-- influential in their adult life.

4. Non-Discrimitory  

"Martial Arts is a vehicle for developing your human potential."
--Joe Rogan

Martial Arts is one of the few sports that truly does not discriminate. Anyone can practice: the young, the old, tall, short, thin, heavy, all genders, all ethnicities-- it doesn't matter. There is something everyone can take way from it, even when different individual's goals vary in their training.

There's much to appreciate from a sport that helps intermingle boys and girls of all ages, teaching them the importance of being able to have conversations with people outside of their grade.

We have many clinics, seminars, and social events that are all inclusive to the entirety of our school, and though our classes are separated by age, they vary quite widely. This teaches kids to know how to help other children who younger than them, greet new people politely, and how to carry on conversations with adults they aren't related to. These are life skills often underdeveloped within the school system, as kids tend to be taught and facilitated to only correspond with their same-age peer group.

5. Individual Goals and Achievements

"Heroism is endurance for one moment more."
--George F. Kennan

The belts and rankings system plays a major role in this, establishing a capability/knowledge hierarchy. Team sports are great, but at a high school level, you'll find that there are always some kids sitting on the bench, because by that age, coaches tend to know who their more talented players are.

There's nothing particularly wrong with that, but it takes away some of the wiggle room for those lacking the skills required to improve. With martial arts being a self-practicing sport, this opens up a wide range of time and progression, often helping kids accelerate or slow down depending on their needs, constructing an individualized plan for success. Not everyone will be flexible, so those who need that extra time focusing on their stretching can take that time. Some kids may be super flexible, but lack speed or precision. It's a matter of identifying weaknesses and coming up with a plan to strengthen them.

This individualist view of improvement is where kids are set up to personally excel; when they are given the chance to focus on what they need help with the most, rather than being forced to operate under the generalized idea that everyone should be progressing at the same pace, and developing the same ideas at the same time.

6. Infinite Season

"Long term consistency trumps short term intensity."
--Bruce Lee

There is no "Taekwondo Season" or "Krav Maga Season." Training martial arts is a year-round, enduring lifestyle that easily integrates into your everyday routine, often with schedules constructed to help cultivate flexibility in your class options.

This constant training proves to result in much more consistent, continuous improvement physically and mentally, which sets it apart from the time-limited seasons of most team sports, where inconsistent training proves to lack potency.

7. Athletic and Physical Development 

"All martial arts is simply an honest expression of one's body with a lot of deception in between."
--Bruce Lee

Many world class athletes are advised to take up practices such as martial arts and ballet in their off-seasons as cross-training.

Martial arts is hard work; with classes that keep you moving, with much focus on body weight exercises, endurance, and fluidity, it's no easy feat to accomplish when training correctly. Training is often seen to help improve fine motor skills, gracefulness, and physical aptitude.

8. Mental Training

"In martial arts, the biggest enemy is the self. Inside you struggle because you want to prove something."
--Jet Li

Combat arts obviously focus on physical warfare, but equally as much, it's about recognizing that we are our own worst enemy.

Learning how to focus on and analyze the self; practicing self-control, anger-repression, harnessing an indomitable spirit, and tempering ourselves into a healthy state of mind and being, are merely a few of the tools that-- especially when learned and harnessed at a young age-- really change student's lives.

9. Universality in Participation/Action

"There is no comfort in the growth zone and no growth in the comfort zone."
--Unknown

In the Dojang, there is never a multitude of kids lining the benches.

Everyone is on the mats, all equally participating in engaging and entertaining forms of training. Classes are action packed, moving quickly from warm ups, to stretching, to plyometric exercise, forms training, sparring, target drills, and conditioning.

Classes tend to be universal and evolving, never getting old if you're truly paying attention. One class may seem to move slower, focusing on fundamentals, precision of technique, and stance training. Whereas another class may be more fast-paced, circulating cardio drills, sparring training, and endurance. This sense of an everchanging form of training reveals that there is always something to learn, do differently, and improve on.

This is a inclusive participation that you can also take home and practice in your personal time, no matter where you are. Missing practice one night isn't that big of a deal, seeing as how you can take your knowledge home with you, not needing an entire team in order to train effectively on your own.

10. An Art as Reality

"Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own."
--Bruce Lee

The word "Taekwondo," when translated, literally means: "the art of the hand and foot."

Martial arts were passed down from generation to generation, slowly being changed by individuals over time. Even now, if you visit a Taekwondo school in one city, and then another school 100 miles away, they will most likely have slight stylistic differences, even within the same style and organization.

Often people dismiss martial arts as coercing brutality or aggression, focusing on the physical practice, and not ever truly realizing the room left for the inner aspects of training.

Everyone recognizes the "martial" side, which is the war-like definitive, and tend to view that strictness of the "martial" as an overshadow-er of the "art." The "art" takes something rigid, and disciplined, and makes it also beautiful and creative, producing much room for self-expression and mental/emotional growth.