If your child trains at Empower Martial Arts Academy, or might do in the future, you’re as much a part of our academy as all our other students. We see the relationship between coach/instructor and parent as a team at Empower and we want to work with you to ensure your child gets the best from their martial arts in Lincoln training with us – whether they are with us for a session, a week, a month, a year, or black belt and beyond!
Imagine your child went to school and did 1 hour of Maths a week, or one hour of English. How quickly would they progress and get quick at their times table, or speed reading? Now imagine they did 2 hours a week of Math and English at school and you did an additional 2 hours at home with them during the week. Their progress would surely massively excel as they are putting in the work, and you are supporting them to do this – you’re working as a team to improve their skills.
We see martial arts as the same thing. One hour a week of training martial arts in Lincoln is great, sure, but you will literally double your mat time and progression when you train for just one more session a week. You then add in a little half hour session at home hitting the pads or going through drills and suddenly your weekly and monthly training time has increased loads!
This is why we recommend kids train at least twice a week with us to really see the benefits you hope to get from bringing your child to us. Are they realistically going to lose weight and get fitter if they train for just 1 hour the entire week? Are they going to make new friends and a new social group if they come for their session, then just leave immediately? Or are they more likely to increase their fitness by training with us for 2 sessions then doing a little workout once a week at home? Are they more likely to make friends by training more often and seeing people more regularly at the gym, or getting involved in our social events like the Arcade Warehouse this month just for Empower Members?
What you and your child put in to training, is often what you get out.
We have an amazing culture at Empower Martial Arts Academy, and I’m proud of the fact that many of our parents are also now our students, and some have even developed even further and become instructors! However, you don’t need to go this far in order to support your child. Sure we’d love you to come and see us for an adult session and get involved too, maybe you’ll love it, but even if you can’t commit to that, there are some things you can do…
1. Take an interest in your child’s training with us
Sometimes it can be handy to drop your child off at the academy for a session with us while you go and get the shopping done, or get some other errands sorted – we totally get and respect this. However, we also appreciate when you keep in touch with us, dropping in to say hello, or watching a few sessions a month to see what they’re getting up to.
If you do stay with us at the academy and watch the session, you’ll pick things up, you’ll know what a jab is, what a cross or rear round kick is and as a result, you can work on these skills at home with your kid if they seem to be struggling – which all kids will at some point. If you use the session as an opportunity to scroll Facebook, or catch up with emails every session, you’re missing out on a great opportunity to observe what your kid is learning and then help them at home, keeping them motivated and making sure you get the most for your money in our martial arts in Lincoln classes.
2. Use our online resources
We’ve been developing our online resources recently and will continue to do so for the foreseeable. There are plenty of videos now available on our YouTube channel, as well as videos in the members group with grading requirements. Plus we have paid courses on our website from workshops we’ve filmed, as well as content from other top level instructors. Use these free resources with your kid. I guarantee they’ll love the chance to stick YouTube on, watch some Empower videos and smash some pads one night after school when they aren’t training physically with us.
2024 will see all our grading syllabus recorded for both kids and adults and available for purchase by year so look out for these coming in the next few months at our online store.
One of the best things about the year that will not be named (2020) was the fact that so many parents and carers got involved in training online with us, doing workouts and joining in on classes with their kids. However, lots dropped off when it came back to physical sessions. With our online resources, there’s a great opportunity to really drill the fundamentals of our kickboxing, boxing and self defence programs in. We’ll notice a difference in your child’s ability and they’ll be motivated and wanting to learn more.
3. Talk to us
Talk to the instructor and coaching staff and see how your kid is getting on. Are they enjoying the sessions? Are they progressing or struggling with anything? If you can’t be there in person to see the sessions, please ask us for some feedback in terms of anything they need to work on or are struggling with. As said, we see this as a team thing and we want your support in supporting your kids.
Most kids will stop martial arts training in Lincoln between 3 and 6 months of training. The initial buzz of classes has worn off, maybe they’ve earned their first grade, maybe the weather has got colder, or they’ve started a new school, or are tired after school. These are all common reasons we hear when parents ask to end their membership with us.
We never want to keep students who don’t want to be there, but we also get quite a lot of students then coming back a few months later because they miss the training. So we now encourage parents to teach their kids to push through when it gets tough, keep going when they don’t fancy it and earn that eventual black belt through regular, consistent training with us. We always encourage anyone wishing to leave to come and see us for at least one more session, so at least they finish on a high with a great session, rather than quitting on a low when they don’t feel like going.
This also works for you parents – sometimes it’s hard to drive out to the academy when it’s cold, wet and windy and it can be easier to stay in and stick the TV on, but give us an hour of your time and we’ll do everything we can to ensure you’re child is reaching their goals with us.
4. Set goals with your kids
We encourage goal setting for our adults at Empower and have recently started our accountability groups where we set goals, then hold each other accountable to them. Do the same with your kids if you can. Set a goal together, and make sure they are motivated to earn that goal. Then let us know what that goal is and how we can help! Maybe it’s something as simple as earning their next grade by attending classes, working hard with a good attitude, and showing their stuff on grading day. Maybe it’s to increase their fitness by managing 10 perfect press ups, nose to floor and with great technique? Maybe it’s to memorise our 1-11 numbering system both as a striker and as a pad feeder. Let us know these goals and if we know them, we can keep an eye out, and guess what, if they achieve them, we’ll make a huge deal of it too!
Adults like goals to work towards in their personal and work life, so do kids, so set some goals with your kids, or ask us if you need some inspiration to help with your martial arts in Lincoln training.
5. Show up and care
All these points say to us as instructors that you are willing to show up and care. You’ve taken the first step by enrolling your kid with us in our Empower Martial Arts classes, now it’s time to take the next step and help us to help you and your child achieve what you want us to achieve with them. If you work with us, we’ll do everything we can to ensure your child succeeds in whatever they wish to inside the academy, whether it’s reaching black belt, making new friends, getting fitter or simply coming and having a good time and blowing off some steam!
We do need that feedback however and really encourage it in terms of things we can do at the academy, things you’d like to see improved, or even things we are doing well! You can drop us an email, text, message us on Facebook, or have a chat to us face to face at the academy.