Martial Arts is not about fighting, it’s about building character. Bo Bennett
Each week here at WestStar Martial Arts Perth we discuss a Black Belt Attitude topic with the kids in our Warrior Talk. This week is on When to use your Martial Arts.
As part of your martial arts training you learn effective self defence skills. Just how readily you will use these skills is entirely up to you. Within WestStar we build a moral framework of effective living around the self defence skills, enabling the student to disengage the ego and choose the path of avoidance, peace and tolerance to others.
For children, self defence is more complicated. At WestStar we have a bottom line – not to use your self defence skills unless you feel that you are in danger. The skills are not to be used against family members or friends. They are not to be used to attack in any way, only defence. Parents need to reinforce this message and to also take into account their own thoughts and feelings on self defence. On the rare occasion we have a situation where a child starts kicking or punching their friends at kindy or school. This usually just needs a sit down with the child and reinforcing what is appropriate behaviour. This is not a time to remove the child from classes as this is a great opportunity to teach the other lessons of martial arts such as self-control, self-discipline and respect for others
If learning martial arts was just about learning self defence we would be spending a great deal of time and personal resources training for a situation that may never occur. Learning martial arts that addresses the body/mind approach to life will inadvertently take care of the self defence aspect. By heightening your awareness and letting go of the need to be right all conflict will be easier to resolve, this is the true essence of the philosophy of WestStar.
KID’S CLASSES
A reminder that our kid’s classes resume this week at Subiaco and our new Dianella studio. If any current Subiaco students wish to transfer to our Dianella classes please contact the office to organise.