CKD Benefits for Children

Unique martial arts program teaches values, relives stress

Parents: Discover how your child can pick up true, wholesome values from learning to block, kick, and punch. Watch as your child increases in confidence, energy, and spirit. Stand and be dazzled as your child becomes unstoppable with GREATER ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, UNSHAKEABLE SELF-RESPECT AND INCREASED STRENGTH AND FITNESS IN BOTH BODY AND MIND. Yes, all of this comes from learning to block, kick, and punch.

Developed and introduced by Grandmaster Kwang Jo Choi, a 9^th Degree Black Belt, Choi Kwang Do (CKD) martial arts recently celebrated its fifteenth anniversary at the Georgia International Convention Center. Active in self-defense and health related research since the age of 12, Grandmaster Choi oversees a network of more than 300 schools worldwide from his headquarters in Atlanta.

Choi Kwang Do's training methods and concepts are unique in the fitness industry. Recent research helps explain how CKD movement directly benefits the nervous system. In fact, we could say that coordinated movement is learning. Muscular activities, particularly coordinated movements such as those found in CKD, appear to stimulate the production of neurotrophins, natural substances that stimulate the growth of nerve cells and increase the number of neural connections in the brain. Unlike traditional martial arts that employ homolateral movements which are harmful to the human body and stressful to the brain, CKD movements are cross lateral like a baby's crawl.

The CKD techniques work both sides of the body evenly: hands and feet, left and right side, all this in coordination with the eyes. As a result, the corpus collosum (the "nerve" that connects the left and right side of the brain) becomes more fully developed. The coordinated movements activate both hemispheres of the brain, which heightens cognitive function and increases the ease of learning.

Though modern science is helping us appreciate the role of the body and the need for movement in learning, modern life may be making it harder than ever to benefit from this discovery. Today, children tend to spend large amounts of time with televisions, computers, and video games, developing lifestyles that preempt regular exercise. When we do move in our modern society, it tends to be competitive or compulsive, increasing the risk of early injuries.

In Choi Kwang Do, personal development rather than sports competition is paramount. Living in today's world is highly stressful; society is plagued by a fear of personal violence, amplified in the media. Too often, the available alternatives to stress and peer pressure are negative coping mechanisms such as drug use. Combined, these factors decrease the ability to learn, to be creative and to reach a full potential as a human being. Enrolling in a program such as Choi Kwang Do counters these harmful trends of stress and violence. Participants immediately discover that Choi Kwang Do movement profoundly improves learning, health, and creative stress management.

Stress is the root cause of many of the learning problems found in people labeled hyperactive, ADD, ADHD, and emotionally handicapped. In America today, all age groups experience stress. Research at the University of Akron in Ohio has shown that martial arts may be an effective treatment to combat ADD, rather than Ritalin. Over a 10-week period, researchers studying a small group of clinically hyperactive children found that those who took martial arts lessons, for unexplained reasons, learned to control their impulsive behavior better than children of the same age who did not receive training.

Choi Kwang Do teaches students to reduce the effects of stress. Strategies found only at Choi Kwang Do include learning to use more exercise, particularly integrated movement requiring balance and coordination that assists nervous system development and function. Physical movement from earliest infancy through adulthood plays a vital role in the creation of nerve cell networks that are the essence of learning.

Choi Kwang Do is a highly refined and scientific martial arts form, distinctively different from all classical martial arts in concept and movement. It should not be put into the same category with many of hundreds of sub styles of existing martial arts systems.

To take advantage of a free trial course and to schedule a first lesson for yourself or your child, please contact one of our many international locations. This offer is good at all participating CKD schools worldwide. Also, mention this article to find our how to receive a free official uniform.

"The instructors at Choi Kwang Do have contributed significantly to my son's self confidence and self-discipline he displays in his daily activities."
Charles Spence, Lithonia, Georgia, USA

"My experience at Choi Kwang Do has been one of the most important of my life!"
Marie Lopez, Lilburn, Georgia, USA