How much time each day do you consciously spend learning? It’s ok, we’re all busy with work and families and life is crazy. Your child, on the other hand, is constantly learning about the world. Learning new things is very healthy for a young mind,but we know that everyone does not learn at the same rate. To get better at it, a child must practise learning. In martial arts class, future black belts learn new techniques every week! The structured curriculum taught at Columbus Martial Arts Academy is designed to keep your child’s young mind constantly learning and growing. Learning is its own art, no different from Karate, Taekwondo, or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu . Every new move a student learns not only makes them stronger and more able to defend themselves, but it also helps expand their developing minds. The mind of a young person is uniquely designed to learn and it is important to train this ability so that it goes with a child their whole life through. Start teaching your child today to exercise their mind! Do you work with someone who is unable to learn new things? Learning is a skill that, if not practised, stagnates and degrades over our lifetime. We all know people who struggle with learning new tasks. How does your child child do when learning a new subject at school? What about at home when they need to take on a new chore or new responsibility with their siblings? At Columbus Martial Arts Academy all of our students practice the martial arts, but even more importantly, they study the Art of Learning.
Kids are built from the top down to learn. Because of a concept psychologists call brain plasticity, a young brain is able to reform and repurpose synapses much faster than an older one. This means that young children absorb knowledge at a greater rate than they will in their teenage years and adult life. Are any of your friends bilingual? Chances are that they learned to speak these languages when they were young, when the brain is best suited to learn them. How about when you went to Spanish class in High School, do you remember learning a language to be difficult? This is why practising the Art of Learning at a young age is so important: it is a significant force-multiplier! Every time a child practices the Art of Learning, it will make them better able to learn new things in the future. The effect is exponential! During adolescence, a student’s ability to grasp new concepts is very high. You can either try to teach your child everything that they will need to know for the rest of their lives before their 12th birthday, or you can help them master the Art of Learning and make them better learners!
At Columbus martial arts academy, our students experience success on the mat, at home, and in school. To be a black belt, it is not enough to be physically gifted. A black belt must be disciplined and excel in all areas of life! All of our martial arts instructors care deeply about our students academic success. So much so, that we know many of their teachers and principals! Why do we do this? Because we know that our students aren’t training martial arts to become strong fighters: they are training to become strong people. While all of our future black belts do great in school now, they did not all start out that way. How many young people in Columbus do you know that struggle at school? Its sad that it has become so common that young people simply don’t connect with school. Whether they’d rather be goofing off with their friends or playing Fortnite, some kids are simply going through the motions in their classes and never perfecting the Art of Learning. This does not leave them prepared to be high achievers. What becomes of these students when they go off to college? Nationwide, almost half of students that enroll in college will not finish with a degree. That means that the average student has the same odds at finishing college as he would betting on red at the roulette wheel! At Columbus Martial Arts Academy, we don’t like these odds! Instead, we strive to ensure that our future black belts are well above average in the Art of Learning.
Every child learns differently and some benefit from different learning environments. What happens when you jumpstart your car? The car takes in energy from a new source and it uses this energy to roar to life. What if I told you that martial arts class can do the same thing for a student struggling with learning at school? Future black belts experience the joy of learning and the feeling of a job well done on the mat. This makes them want to experience this same feeling at school. Learning is a skill that takes practise, but as everyone whose exercise bike is growing cobwebs in the guest room knows, people struggle to practise things that aren’t engaging. Karate class is fun! Future black belts will study on the mat and with each punch and kick will evolve their minds to be better students in school. Through learning in a fun and engaging environment, martial arts students practice the Art of Learning and become high achievers in school, better siblings at home, and outstanding stewards of their community!
Any muscle that doesn’t get a regular workout will atrophy and shrink away. This is the same for the brain as it is for the bicep. By practising the Art of Learning on the mat, martial arts students develop brain-power and set themselves up for a lifetime of success. Whether your child is already crushing it at school or they are still looking to improve in the Art of Learning, martial arts class at Columbus Martial Arts Academy will prepare them for lifelong success. Jump start your child’s mind! Call today to schedule a consultation with one of our professional martial arts instructors!
– Coach Graham Johnson