Self-Control – And Why It’s Important!

The Importance of Self-Control

Self-Control is a true requisite of martial arts training, especially as students grow in skill and develop more strength and power! This tenet is another core life skill taught at Kowkabany’s Family Martial Arts and is recited daily in our student oath.

At KFMA, each month we focus on a different life skill, and these rotate throughout the year. Students are provided with an age-appropriate worksheet on the life skill, and these skills are incorporated in our classroom workouts and instructor-led discussions.

What is Self-Control

Just what is self-control? The dictionary defines this as “restraint exercised over one’s own impulses, emotions, or desires.” As emotions are part of being human, learning how we respond when we feel them is an important part of life. As we tell our students, everyone feels happy, sad and even angry at times. These are emotions, and feeling these emotions is normal. However, how we are responsible for how we respond to our emotions.

Self-Control in the Martial Arts

From the standpoint of martial arts, this is imperative, as students develop powerful skills that should only be used under controlled circumstances. This is most frequently seen in sparring, when students are wearing full safety gear, but still must use control not to strike too hard, especially with less skilled or lower rank partners. Getting hit too hard in sparring is going to happen once in a while and is most-often accidental. However, retaliating with a hard strike back is purposeful, and that would be a lack of control and is definitely wrong.

Learning this type of physical control begins from day one of training, when students begin training on specially designed safety targets. As they develop their power over time, they also learn how to pull techniques to strike lighter.

Real Life Examples

The following are excerpts taken from some of the life skill worksheets turned in by our KFMA teens this past month, in which they were asked to ‘tell us one way in which you have used self-control.’ We found the following a bit humorous and wanted to share them. We were amazed by how much self-control our teens must exercise when dealing with siblings and with food!

“When ordering food from Taco Bell, my sister wanted me to save her some fries. I used my self-control not to eat all of the fries.”

“When my sister is being annoying in the car, I fight the urge to yell at her, and I end up keeping quiet.”

“When sparring, I got kicked too hard, but I forgave the person and continued to just spar normally.”

“At my soccer practice, my teammates make bad passes that lead to goals. I use self-control not to put them down.”

“My sister has a bunch of candy in her room, and I like candy but don’t have any of my own. I wanted to take some of hers, but I used self-control and did not steal.”

As with most life skills, developing self-control takes effort and that skill grows over time. However, being able to use self-control in the small things in life, will help us to use it in the big things that could have much greater consequences.

As students train at KFMA, they will develop a number of life skills, including self-control, that will help them to find success not only in the martial arts, but also in their academic fields, in their professions, and perhaps most importantly, in their family relationships.

For more information on the life skills taught at KFMA, please see this article:

https://teamkowkabany.com/kfma-teaches-life-skills/

For more information regarding our family martial arts classes, just give us a call at 813-540-5528. KFMA is located at 13910 Monroes Business Park, just two doors down from the Tampa Bay Brewing Company off Racetrack Road.

Kowkabany’s Family Martial Arts is chartered with the American Taekwondo Association: https://atamartialarts.com/