On the weekend one of my 9 year old juniors was kicked in the face while sparring. His immediate reaction was to become instantly immobilized, clutch his face, and start crying.<\/p>\n
I didn’t see the kick so I can’t validate how hard it hit him, but from his past reactions to pain (sorry, make that perceived pain) I leaned towards the side of “it wasn’t very hard”. There was no swelling, no mark and no blood.<\/p>\n
In this instance like many before, I believe he was being overly dramatic, and seeking attention.<\/p>\n
I took a quick look at it and said, “You’ll be ok. If this was a real fight you wouldn’t be able to stop and continue it later, so unless you’re really hurt badly and can’t continue, put your hands up and continue the fight.”<\/p>\n
He sobbed and stood there in the same place making a mediocre attempt to raise his hands.<\/p>\n
Clearly this wasn’t the reaction he wanted from me. He wanted me to console him some more, ask him if he’d like to take a seat, apply some ice and probably give him a hug for good measure.<\/p>\n
Sorry, but that’s not going to happen.<\/p>\n
With superficial injuries (and non-injuries) it’s extremely important as instructors that we don’t make them something they’re not. Martial arts (even for kids) is about toughening up mentally, emotionally and physically.<\/p>\n
And every time a non injury is validated as an injury, the child (or adult) concerned is reinforced with, “it was a big deal”. This teaches students that next time they get hit, to subconsciously act the same way for reward (attention and coddling).<\/p>\n
But when that reward ceases to be given, the behaviour will change.<\/p>\n
After my student finished his fight I told him, “Good job. I’m proud of you for keeping your hands up and continuing the fight.”<\/p>\n
This now became his reward (recognition for being tougher) and teaches him for the future, that’s what we do (complete what we begin).<\/p>\n
Do you have any students who could toughen up a little?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On the weekend one of my 9 year old juniors was kicked in the face while sparring. His immediate reaction was to become instantly immobilized, clutch his face, and start crying. I didn’t see the kick so I can’t validate how hard it hit him, but from his past reactions to pain (sorry, make that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}