Why kids quit martial arts?

Hey, parents. I want to talk to you about a subject about why kids quit martial arts. So, there’s a lot of reasons why it happens. But I also want to talk to you about how the systems we have in place at our studio here, how we figure that out and then what’s the best solution for the child to continue or not to continue.

So basically, there’s lots of different reasons why kids quit martial arts. It could be maybe something happened to them but they’re not telling you. Maybe they’re just getting bored when they’re doing the same thing over and over. Maybe they’re afraid of something, maybe they’re afraid of quitting, afraid of losing or not getting what they want. Maybe they want things easier. So, there’s a lot of reasons.

The main thing is we want to support the kids in what they do, but we also want to find out the reason, because sometimes if kids can learn the perseverance skillset, which is not to quit even if things are tough, it’s going to leverage them when they’re in college, university, to not give up when that gets hard, and in real-life when it gets hard, right?

So, it’s easier to take kids when there in something simple as an activity, and teach them not to quit, because that’s just… the pain threshold is not that much, it’s just an activity. It’s not like they’re coming and they’re getting hurt or anything, they’re just enjoying it, right?

So, what we do is we figure out different ways to do that, and we have really good retention systems where we send kids postcards in the mail, we do boosters. A booster is basically a one-on-one lesson we do which is for free, we do that any time someone needs our help

But basically we want to teach kids to push through and achieve their goal, because like I’ve said, when they go to university and then the real- world with a job, that’s going to be more impacted, because if you quit university, all that tuition you lost and also your education. If you quit in the real-life or if you’re like you don’t want to go to work, that could have an impact on your income. So, it’s better to teach children at a young age these life skills of not to give up and quit.

And like I say, here at Richmond Martial Arts we have a lot of different retention systems we do where it helps students to stay longer and learn that perseverance, so that when they do decide to move on they’ve achieved something either like… mostly a black belt.

A lot of our kids will at least achieve the black belt, and then that’s something they can put in their resumes, if they move on after that. We have a lot of students who joined us when they were like three years old, and then now they’re like 15, 16, 17, 18, and now they’re black belts but they’re also working at the studio.

Another great thing about martial arts, compared to other the activities is we have the belts system. And kids love achieving things like points or awards, that’s why video gaming is such a popular thing because they get to the next level. So, we have the same thing here in martial arts different levels in our belts, but we also have different programs where there might be a uniform first, and they can move to the black uniform.

It’s the same thing with me in my martial arts. My uniform started off with white, and then eventually my goal was to get to the fourth degree black belt, then I got the stripes. And now my next goal is to be a master and then get the double stripes.

So, things like that. It drives people, right? So, martial arts is great because the belts system allows them, so even if they are thinking, “Oh, maybe I don’t want to do, maybe I want to quit.” But then they know they’re only a month away to their next belt. When they get their belt they’re re-motivated again, and then this cycle starts again.

And a great thing too about the belts system, is it teaches the three types of goals settings. So, it’s the short-term goals, the mid-term goals, and the long-term goals. And that’s really important, because whatever you do in life you need short-term, mid-term, long-term goals to achieve anything.

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