by Crissi Boyer, instructor

For both kids and adults, there are many benefits of training in the martial arts.

Going through and listing them would be easy, but is that really what you’re looking for?

Instead, I’d like to share some of the successes of our dojo family.

We’ve seen students who were too scared to say their name get excited about standing in front of a group of their teammates to have them repeat the Black Belt Principles at the end of class. That pride of remembering and leading the group in those important words makes a child’s eyes shine. Especially when they know they won’t be laughed at or picked on for making a mistake.

We’ve seen a group of adults build friendships and support one another as they train, as they go through health issues, or a death in the family. They’ve celebrated successes and birthdays together. They’ve encouraged each other on a journey they didn’t know they wanted to begin. We’ve seen them challenge each other in a tournament and congratulate each other on their wins.

We’ve seen young children with learning disabilities (is that the PC term?) struggle and find success when they learn how to control themselves and achieve their goals. We’ve seen them support and encourage other kids as they struggle with accepting disappointment or not being first or feeling that they have to be perfect. We have helped them accept who they are and love themselves.

Students who were frightened of others watching them or speaking to others have gained confidence and a new life direction from the confidence they have gained by training.

We’ve seen people become much more healthy and strong through their sweat and determination.

We’ve seen shy and timid young girls become World Champions.

We’ve seen socially awkward little boys become warriors.

We’ve seen several of our students who train to Black Belt go on to be top of their class in academics and receive full scholarships to the university of their choice.

We’ve seen students become friends and grow to become family.

It’s what we do at SCS and our doors are wide open for you and your family to join the journey and become one of the many success stories.