Focus and Self Control in Martial Arts
Martial Arts
A little while ago I recieved a phone call from a concerned mum, she had on of our flyers and wanted to know about how Kids Martial Arts training could help her son improve with his Concentration and Self Control.
She was at her wits end and was thinking about taking her son to the doctors to be "assessed".
Apparently he has a lot of problems with being able to FOCUS, it was effecting home and school.Mum hoped we might be able to help. After listening for a while and asking a few questions we made an appointment to come down for a chat and to watch a class like we always do for someone that’s interested in finding out more.
He was a great kid, lot of energy and questions, but every time I tried to answer one of them straight away he would start to look around the school and fidget in his chair in a really uncontrolled way…….Mum just glanced at me with that “see what I mean” kind of look.
So I said his name a few times until I had his attention and we had a chat about the mind and the body that went something like this….
“Billy” in martial arts we learn lots of amazing things that normal people just can’t do, Awesome Kicks, How to do Somersaults and even for our best students Weapons training and the way that we learn them is by Focusing on each moment that we are at training, by Listening to our teachers and Concentrating on what we are doing when it’s our turn to practice.
In our attention stance, which is our learning stance, there are three things that you need to do
- STOP moving
- LOOK at your teacher &
- LISTEN to what they are saying….. just like at school and at home.
I always link things back to school and home when I can because it’s important for people (kids and parents) to understand that this is not just about kicking and punching, but about life.
If your teacher at school says “Can I have everyone’s attention please “, then you need to Stop moving, Look at your teacher and Listen to what they’re saying so you can learn what to do.
However if you mind is thinking about what’s next or what you did last week then it’s not right here right now with your body in this moment. Your body is here at the table with me but your mind is not, it’s away thinking about other things.
So your Mind and your Body have to become one thing and do one thing at a time, not two things trying to do five things at a time. He nodded his head and then went back to looking around and fidgeting in his chair.
We then did our 10 minutes mini practice to help him get ready for the next time he comes in to do a 45 minute class with all the other students. He had trouble with his Concentration and his Focus but we’re working on it and I’m pretty sure we will see a big improvement over the next few months.
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