Tips for getting children into your martial arts school

Now is a great time to focus on recruiting children into your school. And even if you do not train children, some of the following ideas will also help you recruit older students.

Today, it is more important than ever before that we find ways to motivate children and other young people to engage in activities like martial arts. We are facing perhaps the worst childhood obesity epidemic in history. Children increasingly become socially isolated through video games and social media. Spectrum disorders also seem to be increasing. One of the best ways to help children avoid the worst effects of these is for them to take up martial arts.

Here are some ideas to help get more children interested in martial arts and joining your school.

Get them interested with demonstrations

If you have a few students at a particular school, arrange for them to take part in a demonstration to demonstrate their skills. If other children have never seen martial arts done outside of the fantasy world of videos and games, they may have no idea that they can learn martial arts as well. You can then show them a few basic techniques and get them to try them themselves. This may get them interested in attending a trial class.

Encourage a group to join

One of the biggest reasons children decide to do anything is because their friends do it. You can use this fact to your advantage when encouraging children to join your school. Ask your existing members if they have any friends interested in taking up your martial art. If they have friends who are, you then ask them to invite these friends to come along and try out a class.

Getting a group of children together makes them feel more secure. This makes it more likely that they will stay together and support each other with the activity they are doing together.

Get the family involved

As you know, the benefits of practising martial arts are not limited to children. Parents will also benefit from the greater fitness and other benefits they develop by practising it. Therefore, it makes perfect sense for parents to take up martial arts training with their children.

Families sharing a positive activity like martial arts make it a bonding tool that will bring the family closer together. You can take advantage of this by encouraging parents to join as well.

In summary, there are many ways to help encourage children to take up a martial art. Sometimes, combining these ideas (and others) will work best. The key is to keep trying until you find something that works. However, always let the child decide to start training without pressure from you or their parents.