Benefits of taking martial arts as a family

Now, if you as a family have made an informed decision together to pursue the martial arts as a family, we thought it would be useful to cover just a few of the benefits you’re going to receive by following this path. And talk about some of the ways in which you’re going to enjoy the art in a way that others might not fully themselves.
The first and probably most beneficial is mutual support and bonding. A family that trains together experiences the same struggles, and challenges, and can celebrate and enjoy the same victories and successes together. And they’re able to support each other through these struggles and challenges. In order to advance through the martial arts there ranks and belts that one must obtain, from white belt to black. These can take years, even decades to achieve and one has to listen closely to instruction, learn the things the instructor is teaching, then demonstrate that they have mastered them and advance to the next rank. As the rank goes higher a person has to learn more, and even a single rank advancement can begin to take years to achieve. So when a family is training in the martial arts together they have a far greater appreciation for what each other is experiencing because they’re experiencing it also. And because of that they can develop an intuitive understanding of each other’s challenges and provide a better range of help and support based on that. This is something that a person going through it alone, or without their family obviously wouldn’t be able to avail themselves of.
The bonding a family experiences as a result of training together makes them even stronger still as a family because they share so much on a regular and consistent basis. It provides a vehicle for a greater range of understanding each person’s strengths and weaknesses, it reveals virtues that might otherwise have been hidden and gives everyone a greater appreciation for each other. It allows for the building of character individually, but also together as a whole because each member grows in maturity, wisdom, and internal strength. And because every member of the family experiences this they are able to create an interlocking sense of maturity and wisdom and strength.
There are so many benefits to training as a family that we can’t possibly list them all here, but we’re focusing on those that we think are most evident, and most effectual in terms of what the family experiences and benefits from as a whole. Like celebrating victories and the overcoming of challenges and obstacles. A celebration is always more enjoyable when it is with those with whom you struggled with in the first place. Everyone knows what you went through to achieve that new belt or rank. And they know what you are facing to achieve this next one.
This appreciation of mutual support and bonding creates a greater empathy for one another.
Self defense is another major benefit to the whole family training in martial arts together. The martial arts is perhaps one of the most effective systems to teach fighting skills and self defense, and naturally a whole family that is trained in it become skilled fighters as a group. And thus they can provide a far greater measure of defense for the family together. What is more, everyone understands the value of what they have, and the importance of why they train, and train together. Thus they can work seamlessly together as a team, and not just as a family of individuals. They are able to enjoy life to a greater degree because they have this framework around them in a sense that they’re all capable of spotting trouble before it starts, and understanding how to effectively deal with it if it does arrive. And thus the family as a whole enjoys a greater degree of safety, and quality of life.
Trust is yet another benefit. An entire family that trains in the martial arts together develops a far greater bond of trust because they know what they’ve experienced, and struggled with, they have a greater appreciation for each other’s characteristics and so on. And this provides them with a much greater degree of trust than otherwise might be found in a family that hasn’t trained together.
Ultimately what happens here is that a family which trains together only enhances what they already enjoy, and provides a foundation upon which to build even greater family bonds and sense of kinship, devotion and family.
It should also be noted that a family doesn’t obviously have to fully train together in the sense of sharing the same goals. One family member might simply be enjoying the benefits of enhanced and strengthened health and activity, while others might be more inclined to train for fighting skills and competition, and that’s perfectly fine. Again, there are no right or wrong answers here.
But even with this being the case the family still retains all of these benefits that we’ve covered, because they are present with one another, they enjoy and participate in the same class, share the same instructor, and train in the same areas, if only to different degrees.
So it doesn’t matter if everyone is advancing or achieving ranks at different rates or times. It’s only important that they are together and experiencing the benefits as a family, and the value of that time spent together.
And in our opinion, we believe a family can only profit from training in the martial arts together for their own enjoyment and quality of life, and that that quality of life will certainly be enhanced no matter what their ultimate goals or desires are for doing so.
Just the time spent, and the enjoyment, and the experience as a family are what truly matters.
So if your family is able, perhaps you might give it some measure of thought, and see what you think.