How Martial Arts Evolves You
The definitive guide to how martial arts changes you and improves your personality
On of the questions we get most often is “How do the martial arts change you?”. This is quite a broad question, which usually means “how does martial arts make you a better person”, “how do the martial arts increase your focus and discipline?” etc, etc. The bottom line is that the martial arts can change anyone who is willing to put in the work, but most importantly, it EVOLVES you. It evolves your built-in sense of confidence, focus and discipline.
Here are some of the ways in which martial arts can achieve that:
How Martial Arts Improves your confidence
A long time ago a student came to our school wanting to start Martial Arts at our Mission Viejo facility. She was looking for training for her kids and possibly herself. Sarah, our student, is a mother of 2, who had practiced Martial Arts at another Mission Viejo school as a child, a facility that later closed, and wanted to have her kids train at our school.
Her goal was for them to develop more confidence and discipline.
The majority of families that come to our academy usually want their kids to develop these specific traits.
you are never too old to start
As the kids started to train, Sarah would sit at the lobby watching the classes, smiling and commenting on the kids’ progress.
At our Mission Viejo school, our teachers are taught to not only follow up with the kids on their training, but also to check up on the parents. The full family dynamic is important to evolve in the martial arts. So it was in the case of Sarah. Often the senseis would stop by to check in on her, follow up about her kids’ behavior at home and would end the conversation with “how come you are not training?”. A soft smile will follow, she would avert her gaze and would answer with a quick “nah, it’s not for me”.
To us, martial artists, that phrase is very interesting. If you like coffee and someone offers you matcha green tea, I can understand that not being ” for you”. If you enjoy white wine, we can understand you saying that bourbon is “not for you”. If you play tennis, we see how football is “not for you”.
But what about an activity that builds confidence and discipline not “be for you”. We see the martial arts can help anyone evolve, regardless of age, discipline, respect and focus are purely beneficial.
And so we continued to leave an open invitation to Sarah to join the martial arts, until one day she finally said, “sure. I’ll take a class”. Fast forward 4 years, and she had already been training past Blue Belt. She enjoyes the classes, the sparring, the grappling and event the basic movements of Martial Arts, but what truly filled us with joy was her newly found inner strength.
She is definitely more confident, she is powerful, and she will be a wonderful black belt. We can truly see how she has evolved.
How the Martial arts develop Discipline
A long time ago I had a student who was very strong, very skilled, but also very short of stature. She is a wonderful mom, and a very sweet human being but because of her size she is easily dismissed.
When she started training at our studio she felt a lot like the martial arts was one of the very few sports a short person could do without any issues.
She shared with us a situation in which she was traveling to another state with a friend for work. They were coming out of the convention center where they had been asked to meet for a conference. After they got out, and being late at night, they decided to walk down to a nearby shop. As they kept on walking they noticed someone was following them. They began to walk faster away from this individual until he disappeared. Out of sight, out of mind, until all of a sudden he jumped out at Suzy’s friend trying to pry away her laptop. Suzy, being there fought back trying to help her friend. The attacker was hurt and realized there might be more trouble than what he bargained for, and so he left hastily.
Suzy came back from her trip to tell us the story. She realized after some quick thinking that both she and her friend are about the same height, they are both female, they were both wearing similar clothing, they had the same build, and they both were caring laptops, but the assailant chose to attack her friend only because of her demeanor. Suzy had trained in Martial Arts for many years, she stood up tall, she felt good about herself, she was in good shape and kept her head high – noticeable signs of confidence.
Concluding thoughts
Although it is hard to teach these skills, it is not hard to obtain after training in the Martial Arts for a while. There is a saying in the Martial Arts that goes “the more you learn, the less you have to use it”. This was truly Suzy’s situation, she did not need to beat the guy to a pulp; but her extensive training gave her the confidence she needed not to look like a victim.
To learn more about our programs, click here to get started on your own journey.