“Martial arts or karate may not be a good option for my daughter.”

We live in the 21st century and I still hear this one. This kind of thinking is what has held women back for centuries. This statement is not only made by fathers, but also by mothers. If your daughter wants to try martial arts, let her have a chance. Martial arts classes for girls or women are very rewarding.

Over the years, I have trained successful martial arts competitors who were just as good as their male counterparts. In the past, our children’s karate demonstration team had female captains. At one point, we had more girls on the demonstration team than boys.

Lately, we’ve hit the opposite cycle, with more boys than girls as the kids from our children’s Karate Demonstration Team perform in the Providence, Rhode Island area. However, girls learn faster, understand precision, can easily understand complicated techniques, and are generally better kickers.

Some fighting arts, like jujitsu, are not that popular with girls, but I have also trained good female fighters. There is no reason to stop your daughter from learning martial arts, if she shows interest. All the benefits of life skills, such as goal setting, self-esteem, self-discipline, success, and self-defense, make martial arts training just as important for girls as it is for boys.

“How can I justify the cost of karate?”

When you consider that many karate schools charge less than a babysitter, martial arts training for kids is a “bargain.” Consider this formula based on a fairly high priced Karate study. Most martial arts studies, in the United States, average around $ 70 per month to train a child. Of course, some are more and some are less, but let’s look at your hourly rate, if you paid $ 100 per month.

That works out to just $ 25 per week, and many karate studios have a limit of three classes per week for children. That works out to $ 8.33 per session for your child to learn life skills, self defense, and play with good children in a safe environment. Martial arts, for kids, are a formula for success, and the cost is really “peanut.”

Most of the well behaved kids are allowed to take more karate classes. Children who “mismanage staff” will be reminded of the weekly limit. So the truth is that the actual cost may be less than peanuts, as there are many martial arts schools, including our center in North Providence, Rhode Island, that charge much less than $ 100 per month.

Using the formula mentioned above, the cost of Karate per class for a martial arts school, charging the national average of $ 70 per month, comes to $ 5.83 per session. Did I say martial arts training is a bargain? Maybe he should have said that martial arts training is robbery.

The alternative of connecting children to the television and putting a joystick in their hands is a big mistake. It’s not cheaper, when you consider the cost of ever-changing games and video game formats.

On top of that, this is what video games do for kids: they create anxiety, destroy social skills, teach them a lot about violence, and waste most of their time. All you need to do is put a Big Mac on your lap every night, and within a year, you should have a child who is a nervous wreck, with poor communication skills, and an obesity problem.

In the long term, incorrect extracurricular activities result in very expensive medical and psychological care. Therefore, consider martial arts as preventive medicine, and as a bonus, your child won’t get in trouble.

Lastly, if cost is really an issue and you still can’t justify paying less than what you would pay for a babysitter at $ 5.83 per session, you can still shop around and talk until you find the right karate studio.

A martial arts studio, which is “packed to the brim” with children, may not be as negotiable as a karate studio that is an upstart, or a martial arts center that has a lot of space in your children’s karate classes. .