Yes, My Daughter Is Learning to Fight
If you know my husband or me, you know we’re active and into fitness. I’ve written a few pieces here about it as well and always talk about how we keep our daughter active.
The one thing my husband said about us having a daughter is that no matter what she does, she’s learning to fight. It doesn’t matter if she hates it (which some days she does lol), she’s learning self-defense and how to fight to protect herself.
But She’s Too Young!
No she’s not.
She’s not too young to know about “stranger danger.” She’s not too young to know about the people in the world who may try and lie to pick her up from school or say they know Mom and Dad. She’s not too young to know not to go with the UPS or FedEx man. This is exactly the age that she should be learning about these things. Ask your kid what they would do right now if someone came up to them on the playground and said “Hey, do you want to come play with my dog?” You might just be surprised by the answer.
What Is She Learning?
My husband started training her around 4 1/2 in basic things. He works with her on mobility and agility exercises. They do cardio and body weight exercises to warm-up. At this age, it’s learning the basics of movement.
Once she turned 5, he started training her in Muay Thai. He practices Muay Thai a few days a week, so it was natural for him to start teaching her the basics of that form of martial art.
If you don’t know what it is, it’s a Thai martial art and full-contact combat sport that uses stand-up striking, sweeps, and various clinching techniques. The name “Art of Eight Limbs” refers to the combined use of fists, elbows, knees and shins. It sounds dangerous, but despite its intensity, it emphasizes humility, respect, and discipline.
In addition to the warm-up exercises, he’s showing her proper punching technique, using sparring pads, and working on ducking and proper foot stance. I have to say, she’s actually pretty good and has a mean 1-2!
Why Is She Learning It?
I took karate growing up, trained with an ex-professional boxer for a few months when I was in my 20s, and sometimes practice with them in Muay Thai. My husband wanted to make sure that we both knew how to protect ourselves just in case. And, unfortunately with the world we live in, she has to know how to protect herself. You apparently can’t even trust your husband anymore with your nightly tea.
We also teach her that this is not something to show to friends or use on anyone. She knows that this is only for emergencies. It’s our job to teach her when she would need to use this.
When Will She Stop?
Hopefully never! We don’t want her to be a UFC fighter, but we want her to learn as much as she can. At some point we’ll have to enroll her in a gym so she can get training my husband can’t provide.
It’s a great workout though. It can be very high intensity and also great cross training for a lot of the other athletics she does. There no reason she would need to stop unless she got hurt.
Peace of Mind
Hopefully she’ll never experience a time in her life when she needs to use it. I wish the world was a calmer, safer place, but until that happens, she’s learning so that my husband and I have peace of mind that she can handle herself. We can’t go to college with her or on dates or be with her when she’s walking back to her car late at night. With this training, at least we’ll know that we gave her opportunities to learn how to take care of herself.
