by John Szymusiak

Although I am only 14, I have been taking Karate from the Bloomfield Hills Karate Institute for 7 years. Over this time, which spans half of my life, I have gotten a great deal out of Karate. I am physically in better shape now because of karate. I have gained stamina and strength. Mentally, I am confident, have high self esteem, am mentally tough, and am comfortable talking to adults. All of these can be directly related to taking karate. Now that I am finally nearing the point in my karate career where I can get my blackbelt, I thought it would be appropriate to share everything I have gained out of my experiences with karate. I hope that this will help show young people a reason to stick with karate, even when they have lots of homework or other commitments they must attend to. In most martial arts schools around the country, 60 percent of the students are youngsters, and this number is rising. Unfortunately many young people who could excel at the Martial Arts are never really able to give it their all. Karate takes such dedication and many students don't have the time which needs to be invested in karate, especially students in middle and high school. And, more importantly, in this paper I want to show my instructors how important their guidance and time has been to me. Without karate I think I would be a completely different person, and I doubt I would be different for the better.

Obviously the Martial Arts is great exercise. It is a very good cardiovascular workout and all of the body's muscles are being used. Karate is an excellent way to develop power and strength. This growth of strength varies depending on the student's age and sex. Up until puberty, there is not much difference in the strength of males and females. Both are equally strong and neither's bodies have started to develop yet. However, during puberty, males start to grow much stronger than females. This appears to be related to the growth in upper body strength. Having been in karate so long, I have witnessed all of these changes. Up until a few years ago, my technique was never really improving that much. I would learn new techniques and perform them, but technically, they never got any better. Then, around the age of 12 or 13 it all started to come together. I began to grow much stronger. I was able to attain better focus. I could punch where I wanted to when I wanted to. I no longer "cheated" and changed techniques and stances to what I thought would get more power. I finally understood why techniques should be done the way they should be done. This process is still occurring in me, and hopefully my skills in the martial arts will grow accordingly.

Speed is another factor which is improved by karate. Not so much speed as in running, but speed as in striking speed and speed of reflexes. Research has shown that after the age of 3, the speed which nerves transfer information does not increase. Instead, if reflex speed is increased, it is because of the brain's development. As one's brain starts to send signals to the rest of the body quicker and quicker, one's reflexes also increase. This increase in brain rate appears to be related to body co-ordination. Like with strength, co-ordination starts off being fairly equal in males and females until puberty hits, at which time males start to become more coordinated than females. I have noticed the change in my level of coordination since puberty. I used to have trouble if I would have to get multiple strikes to the same place at the same time. Now, however, that is not so much of a problem.

In the above paragraph, I also mentioned striking speed. This is controlled by the rate at which the muscles in a student's arms contract and the muscles' range of movement. Like most other physical characteristics, any improvement in this field doesn't occur until puberty. Until puberty there are no fast contracting muscle fibers in our muscles. There is also little muscle strength to influence striking speed. The development of pre-pubescent children's skeleton has not really started yet, there are no long levers which can increase striking speed.

The final important part of gaining speed is perception time. Although young students react quickly, they lack experience. They are not used to noticing and reacting to others' movements and actions, and because of this often they perform the wrong technique. This skill of recognizing and reacting can only be developed over long periods of time.

Once again I have experienced all of these changes. Puberty ushered in a great increase in strength and speed for me, and because of this my techniques have become greatly improved. Unfortunately I still have a lot of developing to do before my techniques can reach their true potential.

The final factor which I think karate has helped me gain is endurance. Although children are very good at aerobic activity, there muscle fibers have not yet developed the ability to withstand fatigue. Children need to have shorter workouts, and need more recovery time so that their bodies can remove the waste caused by intense workouts. Thus, when children are involved, it is better to have short, low intensity workouts. This is why practicing at home becomes so important, especially in clubs where we only meet twice a week. Since younger students can't practice for long or intense periods of time, they must do low intensity workouts and workout more often. In children especially skill can be directly related to out of class practice time. I have seen this in myself. I am able to work hard for long periods of time, before I would kind of die out after about an hour. Luckily, I had started to develop endurance before my test for red belt!!

As I'm sure you can see, karate is a great physical workout. However, martial arts can often be very frustrating for younger students who have not yet reached puberty. That, combined with more and more extra curricular activities, is why many young martial artist often quit. I believe there are several factors which helped me, and help other younger students, stick out karate. The way our class is run, it is more of a fun activity which is also a good source of exercise. Most young people don't do it because they are interested in getting a good workout or even because they are all that concerned with defending themselves. They take it because it is fun. Because of the way our class is taught, with humor and fun competitions, it is much easier for kids to stick with the program.

Another thing that helped me a lot, and something which many kids have no control over, is that my parents also took karate. If I didn't feel like going one night, my parents could usually convince me to go anyway. We practiced at home together and could always help each other. This was especially good for me. Sometimes if I needed special help with a technique, my parent could help me out. And this isn't only good for kids, but it is also good for parents. Here are 6 reasons why parents should train with their kids, from the parents perspective, which were in a recent issue of Inside Karate magazine.

"1. You'll spend quality time bonding with your child.
2. You'll share in the important experience of learning self protection.3. It'll increase your child's respect for you.
4. You'll see you kid's learning environment with other kids and gain insight into their behavior.
5. They'll see you in a new and different light as well.
6. You might find an activity you enjoy and even keep training longer than your child."

As you can see, I am a very big advocate of families training together. I think it greatly helps both the child and the adult.

Now that I have talked about the physical benefits of karate that I have experienced, I am going to touch on the mental aspects of karate. Karate is probably about 75 or 80 percent mental and 25 to 20 percent physical. The Martial Arts is as much about anticipating what your opponent is going to do and coming up with a way to counter that move than it is actually pulling off the technique. Karate stresses avoiding conflict, not finding it. Thus, the Martial Arts develops many different qualities in its practitioners, especially the youth.

Karate can raise self esteem. Many children who study martial arts have self esteem problems. They may get picked on at school or feel bad about themselves and want to do something to help them stand up to their bullies and get away from thinking about their own problems. Some are kind of shy and withdrawn and many have learning disorders. They often dwell upon themselves too much. But by learning karate and making friends through the class, these kids can overcome these problems. Karate teaches kids to focus on something external as opposed to their internal problems and insecurities. Most karate teachers stress positive reinforcement and try not to embarrass their students. Kids also learn to strive to reach their goals, and when they reach them they start to gain confidence and feel good about themselves.

I am lucky. I have no learning disorders, have an outgoing personality, and don't have too many inner demons. And, despite the fact I am a healthy, normal, kid, karate has raised my self esteem greatly. I find I have more confidence than the majority of the kids I know. I am not afraid to get up in front of the class and talk. Personally I think this comes from performing my karate in front of others, especially others that are older than I am. I recently went on an expedition to Peru. In Peru we did 5 live broadcasts everyday which were broadcast to school children all around the world. Although I was performing in front of millions of kids, I didn't feel at all nervous. It's amazing what performing a few simple karate techniques in front of some people who you respect and want to respect you back can do for your self esteem.

In the above paragraph I mentioned how karate had helped me become able to talk to adults. This may sound strange, but many kids don't feel comfortable talking to grownups. I have observed this in my friends quite often. Kids freeze up. They hunch their shoulders up and lower their head as if they are trying to hide from the adult. They answer in mumbled, monosyllabic words. You can tell they feel scared and miserable inside. There is no need for this. Most adults are understanding, nice people. But the majority of young people are at least somewhat afraid to talk with adults. I think karate has helped me to avoid this problem. As I said, I am a very outgoing person and have no problems or reservations about conversing with adults. In karate I was one of the only kids, so I had to talk to people older than me. I trusted my instructors and didn't mind talking to them. They became my friends. Because of this, I have no trouble at all talking to adults.

Karate builds mental toughness and puts you in pressure situations. In my opinion, the only way to build mental toughness is to push yourself. If you always try to avoid situations where you don't feel completely confident, or where you think you might make a mistake, you will never build mental toughness. Karate has a way of putting you in high pressure situations in which you have to be mentally tough if you want to avoid failure. This is especially true for kids. As a kid, especially when I was younger, I couldn't think of anything scarier than having to perform in front of a big group of adults. They are bigger and older and smarter than you are. It is a truly intimidating feeling.

I don't know how many times Mr. Swartz has said the reason we go to tournaments is because he isn't allowed to take you to a bar and get into a real fight. Tournaments really put on the pressure, but do so in a safe environment. We all know the feelings you get at these competitions. You get butterflies in your stomach, your knees feel kind of weak, and you find your throat getting dry. These are all signs your body is experiencing stress. In order to perform well, you have to overcome this stress, and that is where mental toughness comes in. If you are mentally tough you will suck it up and give it your best shot, even though deep down inside your body is saying "Don't do it!" By doing this you are overcoming your fears and becoming a better person, and that is part of what karate is about. That is really the point of putting on a demonstration for your Black Belt. The presentation aspect doesn't demonstrate anything that you couldn't just as easily show in a room with just you and the panel of judges, but it makes you nervous. It is the most important part of your karate career, and if you can overcome your worries and perform, then you are truly worthy of a black belt.

The final mental aspect of karate that I would like to talk about is learning self control and learning to avoid conflicts. Learning self control is a big part of avoiding conflicts. You need to learn to master your anger and fear and to think rationally. And that is really what karate is all about, mastering your inner demons. By stressing nonaggressive attitudes and teaching children that their first priority is to run, not fight, karate can help to give young people self control and help them avoid conflicts.

Although it sounds funny, karate is all about NOT fighting. When many people hear this they can't help but laugh. "Learning to fight so that you don't fight!! What a joke!!" is what most people think when they hear this. But those people don't understand karate. Just about every kind of karate stresses avoiding conflict, and this is not as easy as it sounds.

The first step to avoiding conflicts is recognizing when a conflict might occur. The main way people do this is by their "gut feeling". Everyone has felt that something bad is going to happen at one time or another. And, as often as not, they are right. Some people believe that when you get this feeling you are sensing "vibrations". Vibrations are disturbances in others that haven't yet come to the surface as physical actions. These vibrations are sometimes also expressed by body language. Squirming around, tapping your fingers, distant gazes, and rubbing your hands are all signs that you are nervous, angry, or sad.

Once you have recognized a conflict, you need to find a way to avoid a fight. One way to do this is to cause a distraction. There are many ways to do this. These ways include; changing the subject, making a joke, leaving before the conflict can occur, and trying to make friends with the person you are in conflict with. All of these are good ways to avoid conflict. But these don't always work. Sometimes someone is just so mad and irrational that they won't listen to anything you say or do. You then must decide: fight, flight, or freeze. Freeze is the worst of these options, but it has probably happened to all of us at times. You become paralyzed by fear. You can't move or do anything, you just stand there. This is a very dangerous reaction. By doing this, you are leaving yourself in a dangerous position with no way to defend yourself. By taking karate, you can learn to avoid "freezing up". Fight is the next worse result. Violence is hardly ever the answer.

When you fight there are three things that can happen: you beat him, he beats you, or you both beat each other. Nothing good can come out of this. Someone ends up getting hurt, and hopefully it is not you. By taking karate, you can help to change the odds so that it is less likely that you are the one who gets hurt, but there is no sure fire way to avoid this. Whenever you fight you are taking a risk. And you never know. If you beat your adversary he may come back later with his friends and try to fight you again. The only time you should fight is if you can't get away and you are afraid for your life.

Flight is the best answer, and in most situations is the way to go. You don't always have to leave looking like a coward either. By talking to your opponent, using humor, or explaining to him that you don't feel like fighting and then walking confidently away you can maintain your self respect.

As you can see, deciding between fight, flight, or freeze can be a very difficult thing to do. Hopefully if you can recognize conflict before it happens and diffuse it using a non violent method you can avoid having to make that decision.

Avoiding conflict is especially important for young people. We have all been bullied before, and it is not fun. Although adults bully too, it is usually worst when you are a kid. It is hurtful and can make you feel really bad. Karate can help you to avoid bullying without resorting to violence.

In order to avoid bullying you first have to understand what a bully is. Bullies are people with problems. The bullies don't know how to handle their problems and take it out on others. Just like we have all been bullied, I am sure we have all bullied others at times too. Karate can teach you how to avoid bullying and how to keep from bullying others.

Their are 3 steps you can take to stop bullying. The first is to take an interest in stopping it. If you have been bullied, then you may take an interest in stopping it. You may feel tired of being picked on and feeling bad and want to put an end to it. The second step is to understand why people are bullies. Once you understand that bullies are really just people with problems they don't know how to handle, you will find that you don't want to fight the bully anymore. You may even find yourself feeling bad for the bully. The final step is to develop nonviolent skills to deal with bullies. These include making friends with the bully, using humor, tricking the bully, walking away, agreeing with the bully, refusing to fight, standing up to the bully, ignoring the bully, reasoning and talking it out. Many karate schools actively teach these steps so that they can help their kids be conflict free.

As you can see, karate has really shaped my life. Because of it I am in better shape, I have more confidence, I am mentally tough, I have self control, and I can avoid conflicts. I am no longer a victim of bullying. I would hate to think how my life would be or where I would have learned these skills if I hadn't started karate 7 years ago. Karate is a great thing for kids to do and I highly recommend it to anyone who is at all interested in it.

Bibliography

Books

1) Goedecke, Christopher J. and Rosmarie Hausherr, Smart Moves: A Kid's Guide to Self-Defense, Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, New York, NY, 1995
2) Gummerson, Tony, Junior Martial Arts, A & C Black, London, 1990
3) Gummerson, Tony, Teaching Martial Arts, A & C Black, London, 1992
4) Webster-Doyle, Terrence, Why Is Everybody Always Picking on Me: A Guide to Handling Bullies, Atrium Soceity, Middlebury, VT, 1991
5) Webster-Doyle, Terrence, Facing the Double-Edged Sword: The Art of Karate for Young People, Atrium Soceity, Middlebury, VT, 1988

Magazines

1) Caputo, Pat, "The Importance of Teaching Children", Black Belt Yearbook, Fall, 1996, pp. 62-65
2) Yates, Keith D., "Reasons to Take Up Training with Your Kids", Inside Karate, January 1999, p. 3