There is an increasing body of knowledge, and many professionals working with autistic people promoting the benefits of enrolling neuro-diverse children and adolescents into martial arts classes.
We have previously published a blog article promoting some of the benefits of martial arts training to neuro-diverse people, which can be found at the following link:
This article aims to address some of those common misconceptions preventing parents from enrolling their neuro-diverse child(ren) into a martial arts program.
Misconception 1: My child/adolescent sometimes acts out violently and the martial arts training will only help them to injure me/the family more.
Answer 1: Contrary to this belief, we find that training in martial arts helps our neuro-diverse and even neuro-typical students to develop better emotional self-regulation strategies and skills.
Additionally, through our martial arts program we teach a very specific context outlining the environments and circumstances in which it is appropriate to apply such martial arts techniques.
Bag work (i.e., striking a punching bag, focus mitt or target) is a much healthier and far less destructive manner into which our students can appropriately channel their frustrations and excess emotional energy.
Misconception 2: My child is too disruptive, will take up too much of the instructor’s time and/or disadvantage other students
Answer 2: At Balance Martial Arts we have an excellent ratio of instructors to students and typically smaller class sizes. Our instructors are experienced in working with neuro-diverse people. We enroll neuro-diverse and neuro-typical students alike into our regular classes as this helps break down the barriers and many of the misconceptions surrounding neuro-diversity and in particular, Autism.
Many parents enrolling their neuro-diverse child into martial arts classes are often surprised at just how capable their child is, given the appropriate instruction and environment in which to learn.
Misconception 3: My child is not very sporty or coordinated and will not do well in martial arts.
Answer 3: Many of our very talented Black Belt students and Instructors embarked upon their martial arts journey with similar misgivings. Our training process breaks down each individual action into a myriad of different steps, making many of the martial arts techniques we teach pretty straight forward to learn.
There is no minimum fitness level or ability required to commence martial arts training.
We find that people with Dyspraxia in particular do very well in martial arts training as the movements which make up the martial arts curriculum are very deliberated and practiced repetitively.
The martial arts training process has an intellectual component as well as a physical component and is often a more attractive activity to neuro-diverse people than are more traditional sports.
If you have any further questions about enrolling your child into a martial arts program, it is always worthwhile speaking with the instructor of the class to see what supports or assistance may be available to help your child succeed and gain the many rewards and benefits of martial arts training.
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