By Dale Miller
One of the most rewarding aspects of my job is
seeing the transformation in children, especially
those with low confi dence and self-esteem. Th at
moment when you fi nally see their confi dence
click into place and that child starts to transform
right in front of your eyes is a priceless experience
that I get to see regularly. I have seen shy,
unconfi dent children change in one lesson.
Others over the case of a few months. It’s always
an amazing thing to witness. With that in mind,
here are some of the things we do at my martial
arts classes to build up children’s confi dence.
- We are always positive, patient and
encouraging. We nurture your children’s
confi dence by looking for little wins
initially. Are they standing well and
listening? Are they doing a good kick
or even just putting in good eff ort,
despite not kicking perfectly? We start
off with small wins, and as they progress,
we see their confi dence grow. Our
students usually work with us for many
years, so we can aff ord to be patient.
2. We correct sparingly. Unless they are doing
something dangerous that could hurt or
injure themselves or others, we only try to
make one correction at a time. Before we
correct, we try and fi nd a positive fi rst to
soften the blow and then correct one thing.
Once they correct that one thing, we praise
them for it and have them practice a few
more times before making another correction.
Th at way, they begin to form a habit of the
correction before moving on to another.
3. We believe in your children before they even
believe in themselves. We know unless there is
a serious disability, that whatever we ask your
taekwondotimes.com / January 2018 53