In addition to being an outstanding way to exercise, martial arts can help teach individuals values essential for finding success throughout life. Not only must an individual possess the physicality necessary to execute the moves, they must maintain a high level of mental fortitude. As such, martial arts can help foster positive traits in an individual. Here are a few values martial arts helps impart to its athletes:
Hard work and determination
These qualities, which are necessary for excelling at anything in life, are core values of martial arts. In Atlanta, a Taekwondo instructor demonstrated these values to his students on a daily basis. Guillermo Cesario is a teacher at and the owner of Warriors of Taekwondo Martial Arts studio. What’s more, he’s blind! According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he recognized the power in his own story and tries to inspire the values of hard work and determination in his students constantly.
“I want to transform people’s lives,” Cesario told the source. “Through the sport of Taekwondo I want to inspire people to fight for their dreams.”
Charity
With the holidays right around the corner, it’s the time of year when people start looking for ways to give back to their communities. In the martial arts world, however, charity comes second nature to students and practitioners. One of the things martial arts students learn early on is to respect their community members. For instance, Martial Arts instructor Brian Higgins has taken his students to a Salvation Army shop to hand out items to the less fortunate every Black Friday for the last decade, according to Twin Falls NBC affiliate KSVT.
Intuition
Another benefit of learning martial arts is that the continued practice can help you think outside the box. For example, experienced martial artists can take everyday items and use them to their advantage in a confrontational situation. In fact, martial arts schools in Russia took this idea a step further by teaching tourists how to use a selfie stick to defend themselves against muggers and assailants, as reported by PhoneArena.
Bravery
Bullying is a problem in schools all over the world. In recent years, however, constructive activities like martial arts have taken steps to help prevent and fight back against instances of bullying, especially among younger kids. It teaches children to use courage to stand up to mean classmates and protect themselves and others from harm.