This week is anti bullying week a topic we strongly believe in here at Serenity Jiu Jitsu. Bullying at its core is one of the largest problems children face at schools today and almost every child at some point will face these issues. Bullying can take two forms physical or psychological and these can also be combined, at this point in time the bullying children face is as bad as it has ever been in large part due to social media and the ability to cause emotional harm to another person without being present.
I worked in education for 10 years and one of the main areas of training all teachers constantly work on is safe guarding children. Good teaching should not only motivate a student to learn but should encourage skills which are essential to bullying, most importantly working with and respecting others.
At Serenity Jiu Jitsu a core belief I hold is that we work, struggle and overcome as a team. The people you train with are essential to your development as they are allowing you to practice techniques on themselves, fundamentally there must be a level of trust and respect for this to work safely and successfully.
A common issue parents come to me with is that there child is being bullied and they hope Jiu Jitsu will fix this problem. The reality is simple if you train Jiu Jitsu for the long term you will considerably improve your ability to defend yourself physically, therefore you are now bully proof? Not so fast, the issue with bullying is that it often diminishes an individuals self worth and thus a person will remain vulnerable until they change the way they view themselves.
At Serenity Jiu Jitsu we accept we cannot change every child so that we have a bully free world, humans are by nature tribal and unfortunately this can sometimes manifest in exclusion or outright hostility towards some individuals. However we do believe we can help children improve their fundamental belief in themselves and this is a powerful tool for a developing child or indeed an adult. I believe through learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu we can significantly improve a child's self belief but this must be reinforced by teachers and parents if a child is truly going to develop an iron clad belief in themselves, this will in turn allow these individual to project kindness and thus benefit the people around them.
If you have a child interested in training Jiu Jitsu or alternatively if you would like more information please contact us or check out our Facebook page. If you would like to know more about anti bullying week please click here.