It’s every parent’s worst fear, their child is in a dangerous situation and doesn’t have the tools they need to protect themselves. Whether from a bully or other attacker you, as a parent, will always want your child to be prepared to overcome these terrifying situations. This is likely one of the reasons you came to our Neutral Ground Martial Arts academy’s kids program. Now we take every chance we get to let you know how honored we are to help your child grow into the confident and strong leader we know they can be but as we say ourselves it takes a village!
Participating in activities your child enjoys is the #1 way to bond and connect with them, leading to an even deeper relationship full of trust, respect, and understanding. By engaging with your child in the sport and activities they love we can better communicate with them about their interests, likes, and dislikes. Taking part in your children’s interests also skyrockets their confidence and strengthens their commitment to those things. When you are playing along with your child in a sport or activity like martial arts, dance, gymnastics or even things like chess or an instrument try to take on an exclusively supportive role, let the Coach or instructor do the corrections. By playing the “Ultimate Cheerleader” for your child’s performance no matter what they are doing.
So, How can we prepare our children for self-defense and take part in their martial arts training? Well, we have made it easy for you! We have put together a 3 part series to present games and techniques perfectly designed to be done with yourself or an older family member and your ninja. We worked hard coming up with and selecting the best our curriculum has to offer to truly make something special. The techniques we are going over in part one put you directly in the role of the bully and you’ll get a chance to work with your child as they practice real self-defense techniques. Can’t wait to see where this goes, so clear space and practice!
Technique #1 Base Battle w/ Grip Breaks
In self-defense being “swept off your feet” isn’t nearly as charming as it sounds. This game is designed to help your child learn how to:
- Keep their balance when being pushed or pulled somewhere they don’t want to go.
- Maintain a strong position to resist
- Break the grip the attacker has on their arm even when grasped with two hands.
This is an amazing opportunity to build connection and the confidence needed to handle one of life’s scariest situations. Make sure while you are playing your child never:
- Over commits to the resistance so they won’t fall over once they break the grip
- Breaks the grip with proper technique and not flailing and yanking
- Know that in real life they should scream for help, run away, and whatever else is necessary if it is an adult.
Technique #2 Fall, Kick, Tackle
When your child gets knocked down by a bully it’s important they know what to do to keep themself safe. With this game, you and your child will practice what to do in order to:
- strike and push from the seated position
- protect the head from strikes while on their back
- get back to the standing position with balance and strength
- set up a powerful double-leg takedown
Technique #3 Headlock defense
A perfect defense against a classic bully strategy! When someone is controlling your Child’s head it can be very difficult to protect yourself. With this simple technique, you can regain control of the situation and bring the bully to the ground!
To play around with this concept the parent will pretend to be a bully wrapping up the child’s head. In this role, you can give “noogies”, mess with their hair, or even simulated strikes. Following the steps in the video your child will be able to:
- Hide their face from damage
- Control the opponent effectively to stop striking from occurring
- Execute a fast and easy take-down to a powerful top position.
Technique #4 Rear Choke Defense
This game teaches your child what to do if a bully or attacker gets their arm around their neck from behind. Using this technique you can make an awesome game of training effective martial arts with your child!
Learn how to:
- Make space when caught in a chokehold
- Reverse the position and execute a powerful take-down
- control the grounded attacker to prevent them from retaliating or getting back up!