How Martial Arts Helps Kids Grow

First off – what is martial arts form? No, it is not a piece of paper that kids fill out! Let us start with a simple definition.

Martial Arts Form (noun):
a system of individual training exercises for practitioners of karate and other martial arts.

The movements of a form are very specific and often (but not always) have names in Japanese like Heian Shodan or Jitte. Beginner forms involve simple movements like a punch followed by a step forward, then a kick and another step and so on. Kata (a long series of defined forms) gets more and more complex as students move through the ranks. Katas can become quite complex and can involve weapons like the bo staff or nunchucks.

Forms involve hard work to get them right. It takes time to train in martial arts forms, which form a backbone of most martial arts training and create a foundation for many of the other skills that come later. This is an area that many dojos focus on quite a lot, and it is not unusual to see forms being practiced consistently in your child dojo.

How Forms Help Kids Grow

When kids learn a martial arts form, they are really learning more than kicking and punching. Here are a few benefits of forms for kids:

Physical Control

During a form, the movements are very precise and detailed. Of course they do not start that way - general movements are learned first, followed by the practitioner refining those movements until they are exactly what they should be. Forms are where martial arts students learn to really control their bodies, and how they learn to execute the defensive and offensive movements that will serve them later.

Mental Focus

While doing a form, there has to be intense mental focus in order to stay on point. The great thing about this focus is that it incorporates both brain power and physical discipline, and using both is really the key to unlocking the mental focus for kids.

Memory Training

There is a great deal of memory involved in doing martial arts forms. In fact memory is one of the biggest hurdles for beginners in forms training, because putting the moves in the right order is no simple task. Kids have to learn to get everything in the right order, one step to the next to the next. This really involves training the body to get it right, utilizing muscle memory as well as mental memory.

Learning forms is an essential part of martial arts training, helping kids to grow tremendously in all kinds of areas! These are areas that are important not just for martial arts, but that will transfer out of the dojo.