Martial arts and anti-bullying
Bullying can happen anywhere – at school, in the neighborhood, or online. While there are certain risk factors associated with those who are most likely to be bullied, it can still happen to anyone, anywhere. As wonderful of a community Katy is, bullying still occurs here. That’s why Tiger-Rock Martial Arts of Katy has an extensive anti-bullying curriculum as part of our kids’ martial arts programs.
Bullying can be a traumatic experience that can cause your child to be filled with anxiety. It can destroy a child’s self-esteem and self-concept and lead to an overall poor self-assessment. Your child may lose self-confidence; they may try to avoid being around others. Your child may even withdraw themselves from family. This could lead to issues such as decreased academic performance, poor social skills, depression, or even concerns over self-harm. Bullying is a life-altering, soul-shattering problem that must be addressed with compassion and clarity.
However, your child can overcome bullying. By enrolling in a martial arts program that promotes anti-bullying education, your child will learn what they will need to know to best counter a bullying situation. Moreover, your child will build confidence, improve their self-image, and develop critical life skills such as perseverance and resilience.
A key point about martial arts and anti-bullying
Parents, you should be rest assured that our martial arts anti-bullying program does not promote violence. There are many effective anti-bullying tactics that we teach in martial arts that are not physical, such as using stances, tone, and diction to convey confidence.
However, your child will learn key self-defense skills and techniques on the mat. So, if bully tries to escalate the situation, your child will know how to properly respond and defend themselves.
What anti-bullying tactics do we teach at Tiger-Rock Martial Arts?
In martial arts, we teach three key things when it comes to anti-bullying: awareness, communication, and self-defense.
Awareness
Awareness is the best form of bullying prevention. With awareness, we teach the prevalence of bullying as well as what to do when being bullied. Some of the tips we provide include:
- Encouraging students to avoid being alone in areas that they could be targeted by a bully.
- Recommending students walk in groups with their friends.
- Resist escalating the situation and do not engage with the bully. Walk away, ignore, and do not try to exact revenge.
- Do not keep the bullying a secret. This only makes things worse. We encourage students to tell an adult, friends, or other family members about the bullying.
We also strive to promote good citizenship and leadership. We also teach students what to do when they see others being bullied.
- Don’t be a bystander. Speak up! Bullies will continue to go after others if no one speaks up.
- Don’t join in.
- Report the bullying to administrators or other adults.
Communication
It is important that bullying victims communicate with family and friends about being bullied. Bullying should not be kept a secret – whether it is a classmate doing it at school, another child in the neighborhood, or someone cyberbullying.
Communication can also be an effective anti-bullying tactic. We teach students to use stances, tone, poise, and diction to build self-confidence and communicate that confidence to the bully.
Self-Defense
In the unfortunate event that the bully chooses to escalate the situation, your child needs to know how to react. We teach real world self-defense on the Tiger-Rock mat. While we do not promote violence, we do believe that your child needs to be able to defend themselves.
By practicing and honing self-defense skills on the mat, your child will be able to apply those skills instinctively in a real-world situation. These skills provide another layer of safety for your child. Learning these skills also helps your child build self-confidence, boost self-esteem, and encourage positive self-assessment.
Tiger-Rock Martial Arts of Katy teaches valuable bullying prevention tips anti-bullying techniques. We encourage you to enroll your child in our kids’ martial arts program.
Learn more about anti-bullying and bullying prevention methods at StopBullying.gov.