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Let’s go over the Guiding Principles of our school together. Our overall objective for our school community is a simple one:  personal development through the martial arts. We seek to recognize, understand and develop our personal strengths of heart, mind and will through the study and practice of martial arts. We’re guided in this endeavor […]

Findings just released from a national survey of parents of kids ages 6-18: Top 5 personal character strengths parents seek to teach their children: Parents further reported that they set a high value on helping their children learn and practice personal Character Strengths. Parents also identified their greatest challenges in teaching their children personal character […]

As an important part of our martial arts training, we’re seeking to understand and develop Assertiveness as our own personal strength. The first step is understanding that being Assertive with others is far different than being Aggressive toward them. Someone who is Aggressive manipulates, bullies and dominates others.  They use intimidation and force to get […]

We’ve looked together at the 4 recognized forms of bullying: physical, verbal, social and cyber. How will karate lessons help your child face and overcome these? Part of the answer is clear — physical bullying can and does happen. In karate, your child learns and practices the physical skills to defend themselves at need. This […]

3) Social Bullying In this form, the bully socially isolates their chosen target. This can be the hardest form of bullying to recognize at first. Social bullying often goes on in the shadows, behind the back of the chosen target. The harmful effects only gradually become clear. Often using malicious gossip and spreading rumors, the […]

There are at present 4 generally recognized forms of bullying: physical, verbal, social and cyber. Some are crude and overt — they’re easy for us to see and understand as bullying. Others are more subtle and harder to spot. But once we know what to look for, see can see them at work. All these […]

For most of us, bullying is an unpleasant, negative subject. It is unpleasant to talk about. It is unpleasant to think about. Given the choice, most of us would prefer not to engage with it at all. Yet sometimes circumstances force us to do just that. When our child is being bullied, this goes far […]

October is National Bullying Prevention Month in the United States. This special month was first observed in our country in 2006. It is a public recognition of the serious, ongoing psychological and social harm caused by bullying. As karate instructors, we’ve been working with this challenge for far longer.  You may remember from years gone […]

Our martial arts practice helps us strengthen our mental acuity as well as our physical fitness. Researchers at Bangor University studied people who regularly practice martial arts. They extensively tested and measured alertness, orienting, and executive types of attention. Alertness is our ability to sustain focused awareness.  Orienting is purposefully shifting our attention from one […]

We’re all aware that regular, consistent exercise — such as karate training — improves our physical fitness. But martial arts lessons provide us with even more than a good workout. Regular, consistent karate training helps boost 5 critical mental strengths. 1)  Greater emotional well-being Our emotional well-being and our physical health are strongly linked. A […]