While some kids are perfect for traditional team sports like soccer and baseball, others are not well suited or do not like the atmosphere
that team sports presents. Let’s look at some aspects of team sports that isn’t all that appealing or not good at all.
- Comparison to others on the team or other teams; This is a huge aspect of team sports. If you are the best you are told and get more play time, especially in the highly competitive leagues. As an individual, your skill will constantly be rated against everybody else on the team and against some standard. While this is not necessarily a bad thing if it is handled correctly it can be detrimental to optimal development if not handled in the right way. In my experience with coaches, they very seldom handle it in the correct way.
- Competition: While heathy competition is great for development, how often do team sports in todays world nurture healthy competition? Very seldom. Maybe your child just doesn’t like how it feels or how they feel in this environment.
- Don’t fit in: This tends to lead to bullying and bad behavior. Some kids wether they are athletic or not may not feel like they belong in a team sport environment.
- Complete athleticism is not taught: A coach will always train the team to win in the sport they are competing in. By doing this there will be areas of athleticism that will be missed and not developed. For example runners, do not develop eye to hand coordinations. Soccer players will not learn how to use their hands. Football players will miss certain development depending on what position they play. All sports do not develop asymmetrical learning and coordination because if you are left handed, the coach is not going to tell you to play right handed.
- Flexibility is missed: While some stretching is encouraged in all sports, very seldom do the coaches understand how to stretch properly and what to stretch for optimum performance. Also many times stretching for young kids is skipped altogether because they are perceived to be “already flexible”. While that statement is mostly true, they still need to stretch.
Now let’s look at Martial Arts Training at Total Ryu and how it can fill the void and help with the things that sports training misses or is lacking.
- Compared only to one’s self: We do not compare students to other students, only to what the individual student is capable of achieving and accomplishing. This helps the student develop self worth and a self improvement attitude. Positive reenforcement and encouragement help the student move forward.
- Welcoming environment: At Total Ryu we do what we can to help the child feel like they belong and fit in. We have all types of children in our classes. The best thing is the leaders in the class help and encourage and befriend the students that need a little help. They are true friends. This is an awesome thing to watch and it truly inspiring to watch a young student go and help a newer one learn a technique.
- Athleticism and coordination: We strongly encourage learning how to do all techniques with both strong and less strong sides of the body. We also include drills to develop coordination, endurance, eye to hand, strength and balance. Martial Arts Training at Total Ryu is truly the best athletic activity that can be done.
Above all we want to help empower our students to live powerful and confident lives at what ever stage of living they are in. Whether in preschool, grade school, junior high, high school or beyond, we can help teach your child how to achieve and be the best that they can be.
