Building on Focus

When I look at the many reasons parents enroll their children in Martial Arts a need that comes up time and time again is Focus. Sometimes a counselor or a school administrator has recommended martial arts to acquire help with a child’s focus.We build focus into every part of our curriculum. It starts with our attention stance at the beginning and ending of class and extends to the many drills (disguised as games) that we implement in class like ‘Sensei Says’ – they all help to build focus!Additionally, our class structure is segmented strategically to vary from high activity to being able to quiet the body and listen to an instructor provide a ‘mat’ chat. This variation of activity and direction change exercises the brain and enables children and adults to acquire greater adaptability and concentration when needed.Acquiring focus helps students work for longer periods of time, transition activities easier, and settle more quickly. This one little skill lays the foundation as a building block of even greater benefits like self-control and self-discipline.But it doesn’t stop there, martial arts is equally important during the formative teen years. This is one of the reasons we founded the TNT program for our teen students. TNT stands for teachers in training. You might think it’s for teens who have an interest in teaching martial arts, but that’s not always the motivation.The TNT program teaches its participants leadership, social skills, follow through, and mentoring. Teens actually thrive with direction and responsibility. There are many challenges teens face today that require good thinking and decision making and the TNT program helps them exercise those decisions so they can apply their experience from the dojo to their home and school environments.We are truly honored when parents choose Kovar’s Martial Arts to help them guide their children to adulthood.