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their age groups, the physical training grew more and more vigorous. They both grew quite strong and have enjoyed staying active, excellent life-long traits for well after their karate classes ended.

Confidence

Progression through the several colored belt levels indicated more than just attending training classes. The belts also signified achievement. Passing each belt test proved a mastery of more advanced karate moves, techniques, and routines. The positive feedback provided with each new higher level belt helped instill a sense of inner pride in their accomplishments and taught them a powerful work ethic. They gained confidence that hard work, dedication, and perseverance toward a goal paid off in visible ways.

Secondarily, a part of their training and testing required standing alone in front of the class, speaking up to introduce themselves and their individual routines to be performed before the group. Having gained self-confidence to be at ease speaking before groups of people will certainly pay off later in their professional lives.

Crisis Management

Counter to possible public perception, karate does not teach students to go looking for a brawl so they can show off their fighting abilities. To the contrary, karate instruction stresses that avoidance of confrontation is the preferred strategy. "Common sense before self-defense" is a motto. Students are taught to remain calm and simply walk away, or to try to verbally diffuse an unpleasant situation before it can escalate into a confrontation. Only as a last resort were they taught to use their karate skills and fight, and then only in self-defense.

When a kid was harassing one of my girls on her junior high school bus, she wondered whether to punch the kid's lights out, since she figured that she could take him by using her karate. Wisely, however, she chose instead simply to switch to a bus seat up front near the driver, a place that kid dared not further bother her. My daughter successfully used what she'd learned and found an easy, peaceful way out of a potentially bad situation.

Self-Defense

The obvious reason for my girls to learn karate was to be able to defend themselves if necessary. We did hear of rare examples where others in the class or the instructors had to use their karate to quickly end an altercation. It was good to hear that others' karate skills worked when put to the test.

For my girls, particularly by the time they got to high school, their karate training acted as a deterrent to others'

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