It's OK to Struggle

It’s OK to Struggle

We have a saying in class: “Pain is weakness leaving the body.” Our after school karate instructors use this saying to teach our students about struggle, more specifically, struggling is a good thing. When you struggle or something isn’t easy, you tend to work harder. You have more drive and motivation.

Our curriculum involves physical contact which can be a struggle for student’s not use feeling pain. We teach our students self-defense and that with that, students will get knocked down. There might be some tears, but we’ll be there to help them get back up and try again.

Our students really notice the struggle before we have tournaments. The week of a tournament, we focus on sparing. Students with sparing gear have practice matches. Those without (who don’t participate in tournaments) learn MMA techniques. During these classes, we pair kids by size, but also varying skill. Lower belts will be paired with upper belts.  As our Dustin says, “If you don’t fight kids who are better than you, you won’t learn.”  What we see happening is lower belts getting knocked down a few times, but then they get back up. They get this look of determination in their eyes, and they get fierce and often times beat our upper belts. It’s really awesome to see. Sometimes, not always, we’ll pair a smaller student with a larger student. The same thing happens. After getting knocked down a few times, they come back better.

As parents, we’re so quick to try and eliminate struggles for our kids, but that’s not always the best thing for them. If your child has been bullied, you know how little your child feels when they can’t fight back. We teach kids to defend themselves. In the process, they’ll struggle until the master appropriate technique so when that bully comes back, they won’t feel so little or helpless anymore.  

When we let our kids struggle, they grow. We see them grown intellectually and developmentally. After a few bad grades, we’ll see them work harder. Kids who struggle also build independence and confidence after working hard (increased “grit”). Kids realize that if they work hard, they can do anything. We also notice that kids who struggle have are emotionally stronger and they persevere. They’re not afraid of pain. They know that “pain is weakness leaving the body.” More importantly, these kids also have better problem-solving skills.

So as you watch your kiddo in class and you worry about them struggling, be there to wipe away the tears, but encourage them to keep going. It’s this mindset that sets Legacy MMA students apart from other kids. It’s also what makes Legacy MMA different and better than other martial arts programs or after school programs for that matter.