There is almost nothing that cannot be taught online these days. It is so advanced now that you can do complete BA, BS, or even MA and MS university and grad school degrees completely over the internet. With the right instruction, martial arts is no different. Believe me, most of the instructors in your area learned and were certified through seminars that lasted very short amounts of time and the rest was distance learning.
What is a martial arts home study course? It is a style or system of martial arts taught either by pre-recorded video or by live interactive streaming online. The best of these types of courses offers live classes with recorded videos available of each lesson for further study.
Though most ages two and up can enjoy these types of classes, the tone and techniques in the class will be dramatically different depending on the age of the students. These classes can be either private one on one sessions, or group lessons where multiple students tune if for the same class from various locations.
Contents
- Home Study Martial Arts Courses Are Convenient
- Martial Arts Home Study Courses Are Much Less Expensive
- Good Character Can Be Taught Through Live Martial Arts Home Study Courses
- The Majority of Belt Testings Can Be Done Right Online
- Good Courses Have Recorded Videos Of The Classes For Further Study
- How Much Does Master Booe’s Kids Karate Home Study Course Cost?
- How Does This Live Online Martial Arts Class For Kids Work?
- The Martial Arts Home Study Course Takeaway…
Home Study Martial Arts Courses Are Convenient
You can imagine the rush hour traffic that you won’t have to sit in trying to get your Little Ninja to their on site martial arts class. We are all affected by the traffic we must endure every day. Adding more to that travel time has negative effects on our health.
Traffic Is A Major Concern When Traveling To A Karate Class Location
In a study done by researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of Washington, traffic stress was directly linked to depression and lower heath across the board. The results are so decisive that it is imperative that we reduce our time in traffic any chance we get.
So, not only is traffic outwardly annoying and unpleasant, it could be shortening our lives, or at the least affecting our quality of life. Though at first this issue may have seemed trivial, now you can see that this is no small matter. Reducing our time in traffic, being home with our families, and utilizing technology can affect us in many ways.
Inconvenience on Other Family Members Makes Location Based Martial Arts Less Desirable
Now picture the uncomfortable seating, the outdated magazines, and the not so ventilated waiting room at a local martial arts studio. Some are better than others for sure, but your favorite spot at home is much better in every case. This is not just about comfort, but there are other family members to consider as well.
There are spouses and their limited time at home with your kids to consider. Many times one or both parents work long hours. If an entire evening is spent out of the home pursuing martial arts instruction at a physical location, one or both parents miss out on quality time with their children.
Then there are other siblings to consider. If the bulk of an evening is spent in a waiting room of a physical location, that time is not utilized in the best manner for younger or older brothers and sisters. They are put in a situation that could be completely avoided by online instruction.
Not to mention, most well run programs online will allow for included or deeply discounted siblings to train as well. More on this later.
A Sanitary Environment Is Definitely An Issue With Many Martial Arts Studios
You know who cleans your house, when it was cleaned, and whose mess and germs are on everything. Some martial arts studios do an adequate job of cleaning the mats, surfaces, and seating, but some do not. I have been at a great many that do not.
It is hard to know which one you are in and if it is the same from week to week. Unless you are familiar with the shortcuts some take where cleanliness is concerned, you may not even know that the workout environment you are in is germ ridden or even dangerous.
I have, on more than one occasion caught skin rashes and lesions from dirty mats and workout spaces. These are no joke. I was on high doses of penicillin for a while for one odd one on my arm. I still carry the scar.
These and many others aren’t just issues that can just be shrugged off. (The traffic one is making me old before my time.) They build up and cause us stress and other health concerns every day.
When we can alleviate some of them, our work and family lives become easier. The people around us notice and the antidote against stress becomes contagious.
Martial Arts Home Study Courses Are Much Less Expensive
If you haven’t done the contract ‘sit down to help you find out how to save money’ in a martial arts school yet, I would suggest you read my article on school contracts here. It is eye opening to see behind the curtain for many parents who are under the impression that everything is in the open.
If you have made it out of one of those sales pitch meetings without chaining your child to a multi year contract, you can attest to the enormous sums that many ‘brick and mortar’ Karate, TaeKwonDo, or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu schools charge. If you signed on the dotted line and are saddled with that enormous sum each month, on behalf of all of us more honorable martial arts instructors, I am sorry.
Much of what you are paying for with one of those locations is the rent on the building and the advertising monster that is associated with locations such as these. I am not taking away from the stress and expense that goes into running one of those locations. I did it for many years.
What I am saying is this. The model is broken. You should not be footing the bill for the money pits these instructors feel they have to create in order to make a living teaching martial arts. There is a cheaper and better solution.
Online martial arts instruction is now with current technologies so superior to a physical location, that many running these locations have to be vehemently opposed to the option. They will decry things like quality of instruction, when they themselves learned through seminars combined with distance education to become certified to teach their trade marked named style or system.
Most people getting university masters degrees today do most if not all of it online. Most udergrads are doing more and more of their studies online as well. Corporations are moving from in house training and education programs to online learning in droves.
The delivery is simpler, cheaper, and with modern advances proving to be much more effective.
For example, how many martial arts schools do you think video record all of their classes and offer them online for their students to view throughout the week when not in class. Nearly zero, let me tell you. This is a given with online instruction through a quality instructor.
All of this saves you time and most definitely money. Both of these are the things we spend most of our efforts on to make the most of. Why would we then turn around and waste it on outdated modes of martial arts instruction.
Good Character Can Be Taught Through Live Martial Arts Home Study Courses
With the direct access through technology, screen shares, videos, music, and pictures can all be used to help develop well rounded character development instruction. Incentives through visual and audio cues are easily displayed for the children which makes them more invested in the process.
In my Online Karate Classes from my Home Dojo, I use a service to show points for the kids in each class. They earn points that they can turn in for special times of fun with me at the end of the week. In the beginning I give out the points liberally, but after a week or so, I hold them to respect, cleaning up after themselves, listening to parents, etc.
This is an immediate program unlike paper booklets and lectures after a class that they aren’t usually listening to anyway. The colorful visuals and sounds stimulate them and motivate them to earn the points. Then the added fun time is something that develops their long term goal setting ability.
Parents can be present for the talks and join in with their kids. This takes the instructor out of the parents role and allows them to aid parents instead of be the primary direction in the virtue instruction. When instructors have a group of kids away from parents on the mat, they are seen as a separate influence and not the support role they should be.
This type of visual and immediate feedback is a great advantage that online classes can have over traditional ‘store front’ professional martial arts studios. The integration of character based instruction with the martial arts techniques all under the direct supervision of parents is the optimal situation for smaller children.
With children growing up with ‘screen only’ time for a large portion of the day, it is a great alternative to have these screens blended with action and exercise. To make the best of the culture we are in, many times techniques in teaching need to adapt to the culture around.
Character based education is one of those topics that can easily adjust itself to the prevailing methods of delivery. Children will come out in the end with a better quality education that could actually make their lives better and by proxy, a better culture and world.
The Majority of Belt Testings Can Be Done Right Online
With the exception of resistance type drills which include sparring, all portions of most all martial arts style belt rank testings can be done alone online with modern technologies. With a partner though, there is literally nothing that can’t be done if the instructor is tech savvy.
There are written quiz and test options, video streaming, video recording, essay file transfers, picture display and download, ebook creation and reading, and the list goes on and on. Many instructors learn the very curriculum they teach at location based schools in this very way.
If they tell you they learned in person from this or that master instructor, I would be willing to bet large sums of money they didn’t pick up their families and move across the country to train with them like I did. We moved from the East Coast to Los Angeles so I could train with several world famous instructors.
Most do it today with short seminars and online instruction. Both are viable options, but I would have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of my life if I could have done it with today’s technology back then. Online instruction is now the way to go. Brick and mortar universities, schools, and martial arts studios will soon be stories we tell our kids of how it used to be.
If a style requires board breaking for a test, no problem. You can have ready made breaking boards like the ones here on Amazon delivered right to your door and ready for you test over streaming or recorded video. If you are wanting to save the forests and save money in the long run, you can also get rebreakable boards like these on Amazon as well. These too are delivered right to your front door.
With a partner you can do Judo, BJJ, Japanese Jujitsu, and many other grappling style tests. At lower ranks you can even use throwing and grappling dummies instead of a partner.
With many other styles, you don’t need a partner until much higher belt ranks. These partners are not hard to find a couple of times in over a several year period.
Testings for new belts online are far less expensive, nerve wracking, and time consuming than the all day wait fests that many testing times are. This can be streamlined to your particular requirements you must show and you are done.
If you are wondering about your child being able to have the full experience of the martial arts online, don’t give it a second thought. Technology has grown to the point, that even surgeries are done remotely with robots online. Teaching fun, fitness oriented, and highly functional martial arts classes and tests online are not a problem in today’s world.
Good Courses Have Recorded Videos Of The Classes For Further Study
There is nothing that can replace a good instructor directly engaging with students. Yet, a close second to that is a recording of an instructor doing just that. I am not talking about a recording of someone teaching someone else. I am referring to recorded classes that can be viewed again by the students that experienced them in the first place.
In grad-school, I record all my lectures. This audio I play while driving, working out, or even playing games. The first experience of a curriculum set is invaluable. Yet the second and third time that is relived is what makes it stick. I do classes online for grad school though I have done a couple in person. This technology is amazing when compared.
Having video recordings of martial arts classes are akin to a library of information right at your finger tips. This is a reliving of an experience and not just mindlessly watching or listening.
If the martial arts online course is set up properly, you can have access to all the classes live. Then throughout the testing cycle for the next belt, you should have access to your child’s recorded classes online. If there is only one or the other, the instructor has not kept up with technology and the students may not get what they need.
More and more martial arts home study courses are going online. A few are doing it with live classes, but for the most part, there is only one good choice for kids that meets all of these requirements. Master Booe’s Online martial arts home study course for kids is the way to go.
How Much Does Master Booe’s Kids Karate Home Study Course Cost?
My classes cost pennies per class with multiple options for training each week. One of the huge barriers to martial arts training in the professional strip mall or ‘hipper’ warehouse locations is the enormous price. Even if you think in the beginning that the price is closer to reasonable, this is only because you haven’t been hit with the back end fees yet.
Many of these programs have reduced their monthly fees (that are still way too high, just lower in comparison with local competition) in order to entice parents. Then once the contract is signed (and usually a multi year version) the mandatory fees, purchases, and membership dues begin to roll in.
With the online option, much of the overhead is gone. Instructors don’t feel the need to sign up children on long term contracts. They don’t feel the need to demand gear purchases and tournament registrations. The price is for the instruction and maybe a good internet connection.
How Does This Live Online Martial Arts Class For Kids Work?
For my classes there are several layers of integration that make the experience fun. The best way to lay it out for you is to make it as simple as possible so you can get an overview.
Here is the structure of how it works…
- Simply pay for the course and include your email so that I can reply with all the information
- You will receive an email with the Class codes to gain access to the sessions as well as a schedule of classes and times.
- Enter the class code into Zoom and you are in
- The recorded classes can be viewed again on a private playlist on YouTube
There is much more to it that you can read all about on the info page for the courses.
Just visit this link to get all the information on my Home Dojo classes.
The Martial Arts Home Study Course Takeaway…
Studying most anything online is fast becoming the way people learn anything. It is predicted that ‘brick and mortar’ style universities, colleges, schools and even martial arts and dance schools will soon go the way of the dinosaurs.
If you would like to be on the cutting edge of martial arts instruction for your child, join me today from my Home Dojo and your Little Ninjas will enjoy all the benefits of a top notch martial arts program, right from the familiar surroundings of your own home.
