In my 35 years of teaching martial arts I've had the privilege of working with literally thousands of children. I continue to be impressed with the positive impact martial arts can have on them.
In recent years however, I have become aware of a trend that concerns me. Today's children seem to be way less fit than the children of a decade ago. They also seem to be more prone to injury than in years past.
I ask a doctor friend of mine about this recently and his comment was that there seems to be an increasing number of fluke injuries among children. His observation is that the sedentary lifestyle of today's child is causing major issues with the way their bodies are developing. I asked him what he felt we could do about. His answer was that kids just need to be more physically active. They need more unstructured play time.
No I'm not a doctor, but I have had years of experience working with young children and I couldn’t agree more with my friend. For children to develop properly, they need to run, jump, crawl, climb, and somersault on a regular basis.
As parents, there is nothing more important than working time into your child’s busy schedule for unstructured, physical play. So the next chance you have, turn off the tv, unplug the phone and get your kids outside for some good old fashioned fun.
ABOUT DAVE KOVAR
Mr. Kovar has been teaching Martial Arts professionally since 1978. Dave is a multi-style Black Belt who has been committed to ever-improving his Martial Arts skills. He updates this blog to provide tips and insights to martial arts instructors around the country. To learn more, click here.
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