Families and Martial Arts Training
I have a friend who’s a kick-boxer in Australia and is working his way up through local and state super heavyweight championships. He and his wife have been over to Korea to train under a martial arts master, and kick-boxing a big hobby of his.
Anyway, his whole family have been learning martial arts as a group for years, and it’s a big family! They’re Polynesian, and all came over to live in Australia together, including grandkids, nieces and nephews, Uncles & Aunts. And they’re all really busy and into different things – website design, a Polynesian band, study etc.
They all train together though, and sometimes I ring my friend up and am told “sorry I can’t talk now – its training time”. The whole/entire family has made a set time, most days of the week to train in martial arts together. They occasionally have a martial arts master come across from New Zealand to Sydney, specially to give family lessons .
I think that this is really great, and shows how an entire family can be involved in a sport and have it keep them together, active and involved. There are so many distractions today ( particularly in large cities ) with places to go and computer games and movies that it can be really hard finding an activity that everyone in a family is happy to do together .
Martial arts always have always had the self-defense and discipline aspects, and more and more lately they’ve developed a recreational/tournament aspect. But it should be promoted far more, that learning Karate, or Tai Kwonda or Kick-boxing or most martial arts can provide the family with a common activity that so many are looking for.
Another product of learning a martial art is the self-assurance that it gives people. It’s so good to see this in kids, even more so than seeing it in adults . When you’re a kid, situations and other people can often look a lot more forbidding and overwhelming, and being confident that they CAN be in control of an environment and look after themselves ( and friends ) can extravert a young person an incredible amount. This is really important and can also keep them from searching for other self-confidence boosters and escapism – like drugs.
There are lots of dojos that accept a full range of ages and are happy to have the whole family. I highly recommend family martial arts.
John Assaraf the Spiritual Entrepreneur


