What if my child’s a bully?

There are so many stories about children and teens being bullied all over the news.  What about the ones doing the bullying?  It has been documented time and time again about how great martial arts are for self-defense.  The bullying issue needs to be looked at from the other side.  Respect, Discipline, Confidence, Courage and humility are all things these children are missing.  Lucky for them they’re also things learned in a martial arts program.  I was never bullied, nor did I bully, but I guess you could have called me the bully’s bully.  As a student of the martial arts I had the courage to stand up for those who didn’t, and more importantly the respect and confidence to try to teach the bullies right from wrong.

Children who train in martial arts learn respect.  They either learn the hard way or the easy way.  Bullies on the mats of a Jiu Jitsu school don’t stay bullies for too long.  They learn what it’s like to be on the other end of the rough play.  This is a valuable lesson under the expert supervision of Black Belt Instructors like Wil Horneff, who have years of experience instructing children in the art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  They learn how to respect senior ranking students who are smaller, younger and maybe not as strong as them.  People these bullies would look at as a target now get a new sense of respect shown to them.

Let’s speak about confidence.  Learning in school is a classroom full of students with all different types of abilities can crush a child’s confidence.  This may lead to the child looking to take out his frustration on other children.  This is why “nerds” have always been picked on.  All children truly want to do well, some just learn at a different pace. Instructors like the ones at The Training Grounds MMA Academy offer a type of authority figure, much like their school teachers.  With a  “praise – correct – praise”  style of teaching the student feels a sense of accomplishment even while being corrected.  Exercise can also help children, and teens, focus.  This focus carries over to their school day.

Some of the children come from a home where a “father figure” or “authority figure” may be missing.  This can put a huge burden on a single parent.  An athlete’s coach many times is that figure for the athlete.  The instructors at Training Grounds care.  All some children need is someone to show them how to do the right thing.  As long as someone cares enough to put them in their place they will begin to learn to do the right thing even when no one is watching.

If you feel your child may be the bully and you don’t know how to handle it, please feel free to contact me at nick@buddhasport.com or even stop down to Training Grounds and speak to one of our instructors. We will gladly give you some advice.

About the author

Nick Mirabella owns and operates Buddhasport.com an actions sports website.  He’s been training in martial arts for over 20 years and is a student of Training Ground’s BJJ program.