Quest Hapkido Kids Program Benefits
Confidence
At Quest Martial Arts, we help students build confidence in a number of ways. First, we provide an encouraging, supportive environment. Our students are expected to be supportive of one another both in- and outside the dojang. Put-downs and discouraging comments are not permitted, nor are the words, "I can't." Our instructors use positive reinforcement instructional methods and are always looking for ways to praise students both privately and publicly in class. When a correction is made in class, rather than focusing on the flaw of a technique or kick, our instructors point out the things the student is doing well followed by suggestions on how to make it even better. Through positive reinforcement, our students quickly learn that they can always do better than they think they can!
We also offer leadership opportunities to our students, which also help them develop confidence. For our child and youth programs, we provide positive reinforcement of behavior at home and at school through rewards and public recognition of their achievements.
Perhaps the most effective way to build confidence is through success. By taking risks and succeeding, our comfort zones are expanded and our confidence grows. Our program encourages our students to take on progressively larger challenges and helps them learn to overcome obstacles along the way. Confidence continues to build as they work their way through the belt system.
Confidence comes from excelling at something. Being a little good at a lot of things doesn't have nearly the same impact on confidence as becoming an expert in a specific area. Martial arts is not a seasonal or limited time endeavor. It's a year-round activity and one our students can spend their entire lives pursuing if they choose.
Focus
In our fast-paced modern world in which we are bombarded with over 16,000 messages each day, it is both more important and more challenging than ever to develop focus. Everyone is capable of focusing. Watch a child play with Legos or get tuned into a video game. In those sorts of scenarios, it can often be a challenge to pull their focus away from such activities! So the trick isn’t learning how to focus so much as learning how to direct our focus to where it should be.
At Quest Martial Arts, we teach our students the Four Rules of Concentration as a way of reminding them how to focus.
- Focus your eyes!
- Eye contact is a vital component of concentration. If a person’s eyes are elsewhere, chances are his thoughts are as well. With that in mind, we train our students to look other people in the eye when conversing with them or while listening to directions. It is also a vital social skill because by keeping your eyes on the other person, you show them that you respect them enough to give them your full attention. Focusing your eyes goes beyond conversation, however. It is a vital component of success in any endeavor. It is far more challenging to write, hit a ball, or kick a target without keeping your eyes on what you are doing, and almost all of the activities we do at Quest Martial Arts involve focusing your eyes.
- Focus your ears!
- Often, people hear each other, but aren’t necessarily focused on what they’re saying. At Quest Martial Arts, we teach our students the difference between hearing and listening.
- Focus your mind!
- Focus your mind means to actively think about what you are focused on. People’s minds are prone to wander, even if they keep their eyes and ears on the subject. People may even physically interact with something, but leave their mind a million miles away. We teach students to intentionally engage their minds on the matter at hand.
- Focus your body!
- Focus your body means to physically do what you should be doing. Even if your eyes, ears and mind are all focused on a subject, it is vital to control your body. It’s obvious how your body should be focused while playing sports or practicing martial arts techniques, but you must also control your body while conversing or sitting at your desk at school.
Respect
Everyone wants respect, including kids, but often people misunderstand how to earn it. At Quest Martial Arts, we teach our students that you earn as much respect as you give, and that you should be proactive by demonstrating respect first. Through the martial arts traditions such as bowing and using polite language, we teach that respect is shown through appropriate conduct and good manners. By showing respect, our students learn the importance of showing a sincere appreciation of the value and rights of other people.
In addition to teaching respectful behavior, our instructors set the example by showing respect to our students and to each other. The consistent reinforcement of rules and behavior, however, is also vital for the development of respect, and thus we have structured consequences for breaches. By having consistent consequences for both positive and negative behavior, we teach that privileges are earned by respectful behavior and forfeited by disrespectful behavior.
At Quest Martial Arts, we don’t just expect respect; we teach it. And we don’t just teach it; we expect it.
Tenacity
A vital element of learning tenacity is by making a commitment to an activity for a specific amount of time and then sticking to that commitment. At Quest Martial Arts, we teach that all commitments must be honored, even if you get discouraged along the way. This is one reason all our membership options are for a specific length of time with the option to make a new commitment at the end of the current one.
Unlike most sports and activities which are seasonal and get people tin the habit of quitting at the end of the season, martial arts training is available year round. This allows us to teach our students tenacity by allowing them to make a gradually lengthening commitment to their training. Without commitment, there can be no achievement!
On the road to Black Belt and beyond, our students are faced with numerous small challenges which build up to larger achievements. Mastering new techniques and skills add up to reaching the next rank. Ranks then add up to reaching Black Belt level and beyond. At Quest Martial Arts, we recognize each achievement along the way, either privately or publicly. Our instructors and other students support and help each other reach their objectives.
Since most of our classes have students of multiple ranks, students can look to the more advanced students to see what exciting techniques await those who stick it out. We teach that the only way to get to Black Belt and beyond is to keep coming to the next class and working hard.