When Your Child Wants To Quit…
When students begin a new sport or activity, they typically are very excited! They begin making new friends,
learning new skills, and look forward to every practice with anticipation. In our program, we often see new
white belts attending classes 3-4 times per week as they are beginning their martial arts journey and are so
eager to learn.
As they progress up in rank, the skills required for advanced belts are more challenging, and they often need
to practice the same moves repeatedly in order to master them. It is often at this point that a student may
start to resist coming to their weekly practices, saying they are bored or are no longer interested in practic-
ing because it is “too hard”. Parents sometimes think the student just has lost interest in the activity or con-
cludes that it is just “not for them.”
Most of the time, the student hasn’t really lost interest, they just do not feel confident in their skill yet and
may need some extra practice time or a private lesson to work on a specific area of their training. In team
sports such as football, there are several coaches that work on specific skill sets—such as the head coach,
defensive and offensive coordinators, special teams coach, etc.
In martial arts, we train in a variety of skills—developing proper form and stances, sparring techniques,
board braking techniques, as well as developing our tenets of taekwondo in our character and behavior. It
takes time to develop these skills and consistent training, along with the perseverance to work through the
challenging times, will help students develop the coping skills to work through the challenges they will face
in life, and not be tempted to give up when things get tough. Once they see they can overcome the chal-
lenge, it will build their confidence and independence so that when the next challenge comes along, they
will remember their experience and know that they can do it again.
We offer a free trial class to anyone who would like to join our program, and we offer private lessons with a
membership for those who need some extra practice time to further develop their skills. Complete our
online request form to schedule your free trial class today!
