The Awesome Alternative

The Awesome Alternative

Martial arts training may help AD/HD children improve their overall behavior and lead to better school performance (i.e., higher grades). AD/HD manifests itself through short attention spans, excess energy, and inability to control impulsive behavior. Together, these symptoms adversely affect the performance of children with AD/HD in schools. Their inability to adequately concentrate on school tasks translates into poor academic performance, which results in frustration, on part of children, parents, and educators, compounding the original problem. Martial arts training emphasizes concentration in a number of ways, not the least of which is the necessity to perform one technique or set of techniques over and over again in order to perfect it. This increased ability to concentrate is developed gradually, just as young practitioners learn to learn in small increments and rejoice at small accomplishments.

These "mental" benefits are the "icing" on the more general benefits of regular physical exercises, which helps children burn off the sugars they eat, resulting in improved mood, health and oxygenated brain. Research is now being also done into the impact of martial arts practice on treating and reducing adolescent violence (Twemlow & Sacco, 1998). Taken together, the physical and mental benefits of the martial arts have the potential to treat the symptoms of AD/HD and other behavioral problems, without resort to medication and its harmful side-effects.