Children’s Martial Arts as a Way to Resist Peer Pressure

Children’s Martial Arts as a Way to Resist Peer Pressure

                                               Bruce McCorry's Martial Arts Center

220 Newbury St

Peabody MA 01960

 (978) 535-7878

 info@brucemccorrys.com

 www.brucemccorrys.com

According to a survey by Parent Further, almost 90% of American teenagers said yes to being influenced by peer pressure. This number should shock us, because peer pressure is admittedly the major reason why a large number of American students try out alcohol, cigarette, and drugs. Half of the children interviewed in the Parent Further survey said that they will not bully another person unless a friend does it first. Studies also point out that why many teenagers venture into potentially risky behavior is because friends think it to be cool. These stats make peer pressure one of the most common concerns in an everyday American school scenario.

Resisting Peer Pressure: The Martial Art Solution

Although any solution to the question of peer pressure will have to be eventually figured out by the child herself or himself, the only external activity that can possibly help him/her in battling peer pressure is martial arts. Here are the five ways in which martial arts help kids with peer pressure:

1. Confidence: Martial arts make children and teenagers confident and assertive so that it becomes possible for them to stand up to others and vocalize their personal opinion or belief.
2. Emotional Stability: Challenges like peer pressure break less assertive children because they lack the emotional strength to stably take on the challenges, and succumb to the demands to fit in and not stand out. Martial arts make kids emotionally strong enough to take on challenges
3. Values: Resisting peer pressure requires that each child adheres to a system of values and principles that he or she holds in high regard. Most of the martial arts are based on an inherited value system, which helps kids to develop a framework of values for themselves.
4. Resolve: Kids who succumb to peer pressure are usually the ones most susceptible to the influences of others. By principle, martial arts can instill the kind of unwavering resolve that help children to stay rooted to what they believe is right.
5. Positivity: Peer pressure brings in its wake a spiral of negativity that may manifest as anger, guilt, discontent, and unhappiness in the child who faces this. Martial arts teaches children the strength to overcome this negativity and stay positive.
6. Social Skills: One major benefit of martial art lessons is that it offers social spaces that improve communicative and social skills. Children with good people skills manage to stay popular in spite of resisting influences from the part of peers.

Bruce McCorry’s Academy: Perfecting the Anti-Peer Pressure Formula for Four Decades

Bruce McCorry’s Academy of martial arts (Peabody, MA) has been at the forefront of pioneering child-friendly martial art lessons since its inception in the late 1970s. Children’s martial arts lessons at the academy focuses on developing the six above aspects in children in addition to the other advantages of health, fitness and self-defense that every martial art lesson offers by default. The programs at the academy foregrounds the need to mold children who are comfortable in their own skins and never feel the need to mimic ‘cool’ and potentially risky practices in the name of peer pressure. 

To present your child with a stress-free school life, 

Bruce McCorry’s should be your choice!

                                              Bruce McCorry's Martial Arts Center

220 Newbury St

Peabody MA 01960

 (978) 535-7878

 info@brucemccorrys.com

 www.brucemccorrys.com