For parents, putting your child or children into a martial arts program might seem challenging because there are many things that one might need to consider.

Are you placing him into the correct martial arts environment? Is a particular martial art good for children? Is the gym where you are considering putting your child in reputable? Here we will help explain what may be best in choosing the correct martial arts gym for your child or children.

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The environment where you are considering putting your child in plays a big factor in if it is a good gym to train in.

Sometimes gyms do not have the proper instructors for their martial art and as a result most of the time your child spends in the gym is possibly the kids goofing off or not really focused on the instruction being given. This is a common problem because it takes a little more than the average instructor to be able to have the patience to instruct children in a martial arts class. The best environment for a child to be training in martial arts would be a well-disciplined one but not to the point that they do not have any fun. It is important that the kids have fun, they are kids after all, but also be disciplined because what is worse than kids goofing off in a martial arts class is if someone gets injured because of it. Martial arts can be dangerous and that is where the discipline comes in.

 

Depending on what a parent or child wants some martial arts can be better than some others.

 If bullying is a potential problem then striking is probably not the best choice for anti-bullying. Not only will it send the wrong message in school but it will also result in trouble for the defending child. It would be a great thing that the bully didn’t bully someone but in the end it might not be worth it. Some martial arts can be dangerous and powerful but not focus on striking. Grappling martial arts such as jiu jitsu have been proven useful in bully or self-defense situations. The key here is that jiu jitsu does not have any striking involved and is very controlled. An individual would be able to successfully subdue an assailant without causing them much harm if executed properly. If necessary jiu jitsu can be taken to further steps but most of the time it is not. When picking out a gym its good to keep in mind what kind of martial art is being offered, they are not all the same.

 

Lately this has become a problem of a martial arts gym popping up and the owner not being a sufficient ranking to properly run the establishment.

For example in jiu jitsu the belt rankings go from: white, blue, purple, brown, black, red/black, and finally red. Throughout blue belt ranking and up there are varying degrees of a belt usually noted by stripes on their belt.  Most people only go up to black belt at a varying degree and anything higher is usually reserved for creators of Jiu Jitsu. According to some organizations rules only brown and higher belt rank are allowed to promote. That being said, if say a purple belt opens up a gym then technically he is not allowed to promote anyone and the training offered may be much lesser than those gyms who have masters at black belt level with much more experience in the martial art community.  This is something to be considered because there are gyms popping up that believe they can just skip things and do as they like. That is not the proper way to a martial arts gym.