5 Secrets To Raising Better Behaved Children

The 5 Secrets To Raising

Better Behaved Children,

Who Get Great Grades,
Are Physically Fit,

Have Super Confidence &

Become The Most Popular In Their Class!

If you're a parent, listen this is important stuff. You may have already thought that I am going to check out this school, but hold on, just a little more info. (The trouble with me is once I start, I cannot stop, this is what you get for being passionate about what you do.) Anyway, I'm going to get right down to business here and deliver the information your family needs ...information that can literally transform the life of your child or children and dramatically increase their chances for success in school and in life.

I guess we should begin with the key motivation or reason why you are reading this right now. In my many years of dealing with parents I have uncovered one simple need or desire in all of them ...to somehow change the everyday behavior of their child.

Parents love their children with all their heart and soul-however, the child they have isn't necessarily the type of child they dreamed of when they were planning their family. That's not to suggest that you don't love your child but is to suggest this simple idea:

"Children don't always behave in the correct fashion."

You are obviously looking for something ...a change maybe? Maybe your child is misbehaving at school or maybe your child is dressing or acting in a way that is embarrassing and makes you uncomfortable to be out with them in public.

Think about it ...you know what I'm talking about ...the baggy black clothes, nail polish and makeup, the desire for tattoos and body piercing and a generally bad attitude and lack of respect for other people and their property.

But this phenomenon can be stopped dead in its tracks and your child can be set on a track to success within weeks. I'll tell you exactly how to make it happen for your child in a moment.

Would You Like To Improve Your Child's Grades?

Parents often confess to me that their child is not as smart as they wished and know that he or she could be smarter. But what they don't realize is most of the time it has nothing to do with their child's intelligence ...but rather their lack of focus and concentration.

• Does a rustling tree outside your son's window take his mind off his homework the minute he sits down to start working?
• After 2 minutes of homework does he drift off into a daydream?
• Grab a drink, get some food or use the bathroom every 5 or 10 minutes?
• Can she not sit still long enough to finish a single task?
• Is she being punished for talking too much in class?

These are all indications that your child is having a problem concentrating and focusing which can make his grades suffer, cause his self-confidence to waiver and his moral character to crack. You may have even been told he has a learning problem.

According to Sam Goldstein, PHD, a child psychologist, most young children are naturally active and may be unable to pay attention to a single task for a long period of time. However, some children who are consistently hyperactive should be evaluated by a mental health professional for possible Attention Deficit Disorder.

Dr. Goldstein knows what he is talking about ...but in my personal experience I have found that quite often your child's lack of focus is due to boredom, lack of challenge, motivation and physical activity.

Are You Concerned About Your Child's Health?

Do you sometimes feel like you are raising a couch potato?

You might not be able to handle what I am about to tell you especially if you have an inactive or un-fit child, but I always like thing told, Black and White, it keeps messages clear.

Research by Dr. Richard Saphir, a pediatrician and a member of the editorial advisory board at Child magazine, reveals that in the last 30 years the amount of overweight children ages 6 to 11 has doubled. More terrifying is that the amount of overweight children in the 12 to 17 year age group has tripled over the same period.

What used to only be adult diseases are now showing up in our innocent children. Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, which are not normally diseases children face, are now becoming more commonplace.

• Are you worried about your child's health because you can't get them off the sofa?
• Would your child rather play video games than run around outside?
• Does your child's diet consist of coke, crisps and M&Ms?
• Does your child walk for five minutes and say their legs hurt?

Being inactive and unhealthy puts your child at risk for major health problems like cardiac, kidney and eyesight complications.

Many experts believe if our current child health issues are left to sort themselves out we could be facing an epidemic that for the first time in our history creates a generation of children who live shorter lives than their parents.

Think about your little one facing major health crises at an early age. Imagine your child not being able to enjoy their children's lives as long as you enjoy yours. This is a terrible and serious problem.

In the short term there are many challenges your children will have to go through as well.

• An unhealthy and overweight child is more likely to get teased and ridiculed at school.
• Many find it hard to keep up with friends on the playground which leads to them quitting physical activity all together and causes poor self-esteem.
• Being overweight can make them feel embarrassed, sad, or even angry when they feel bad, they may eat more because they turn to food for comfort.

This creates a vicious cycle, which can lead to mental, and eating disorders that can continue for life.

Later, I will show you a way you can help your child become healthy and physically fit in a way that doesn't take up a lot of time and at the same time makes them super-confident ...something they'll love to do.

Is Your Child Mixing With The Wrong Crowd?

Judith Eagle of Junior magazine asks, "Should you be trying to influence-or even control-your child's choice of friends?"

The answer to that question is NO-well not directly anyway. Follow me on this ... if you try to control your child's behavior your child will feel like you are trying to run their life and rebel. What you need to do is subtly steer them in the right direction.

Dr Linda Bolton, a clinical psychologist and mother of two small boys tells us that, "Young children need to learn social skills, negotiation and diplomacy and if you block this from happening it could affect their ability to relate to people later on."

The key to successfully steering them to make positive choices you agree with is to help her develop a high level of self-confidence and esteem. For many children, confidence and esteem problems are common and can cause unpredictable and destructive behavior.

Here are some of the problems confidence and esteem issues can cause:

• Picking the wrong crowd to partner up with
• Hanging out with friends who are a bad influence
• Being persuaded by negative peer pressure
• Experimenting with drugs, sex and gangs
• Lashing out
• Trying to fit in by doing things she wouldn't normally do
• Inability to say no and make smart choices
• Plummeting grades

Confidence and esteem problems must be addressed and curbed immediately to avoid the negative behaviors that can pop up because of it.

Later I will show you how to give your child "bullet-proof" self-esteem. With this new found level of personal confidence your child will be armed with all the tools necessary to ward off bad decisions and troublemakers.

Maybe Your Child Isn't Doing Any Of These Things...YET!

So your child isn't necessarily exhibiting any of these behaviors yet. Maybe you don't think your child will be affected by anything like this. Maybe you are saying to yourself, "It can't happen to my child." I understand you've raised a good child. You are an upstanding citizen and you made it through all right-right?

But here's, maybe, what we need to think about, today, life for a child is completely different then what we experienced growing up ...there's more social pressure, more distractions and less time for good instruction. Maybe this hasn't happened to your child yet, but let’s be prepared, remember prevention is so much better than cure.

• Maybe you've seen it happen to a neighbor's child or a friend's child or a family member?
• Maybe your child just met a new friend who is starting to influence him in a negative way and you are worried about the possibilities of what is to come?
• Maybe you just want to keep your child from having to go though any of this at all?

If that is the case then I am going to show you how you can shield your child and give them all the tools necessary to help them make better decisions. I am going to reveal to you the 5 secrets to raising better behaved children who get great grades, are physically fit, have super confidence & become the most popular in their class!

The Root Cause Of All Your Child's Problems-UNCOVERED

There is a reason why bad grades, lack of focus, poor esteem and confidence, being unhealthy, bad peer group choices, experimentation with drugs, alcohol and sex and many other problems happen to good children.

Granted, sometimes it's a chemical or mental disorder that needs professional treatment.

But in many cases it's not a pre-existing medical condition that causes these problems in your child. Actually the real reason is quite simple-they haven't seen enough good examples they can copy.

Doctor Greene says,

"One of the most powerful ways that children learn is through imitation."

Now Dr. Greene is not new to this topic. He is the Pediatric Expert for Yahoo! Dr. Greene has also authored many books on the topic of child development.

IMPORTANT FACT: In a study appearing in the January 2002 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine it was suggested that children who report having role models get higher grades and have greater self-esteem than their peers.

BUT...Here's the kicker.

Only about half of the children surveyed reported that they had role models-people they wanted to be like. Does it matter who they choose? Role models are most powerful if they are someone that the child knows and spends time with.

Parents and other relatives were named as role models more often than anyone else, but almost as many identified media figures (actors, musicians, athletes or politicians, even scarier, cartoons!) as their role models. That is a RED FLAG and I'll tell you why later.

Here's The Powerful Solution You Should Consider

Are there many solutions to the challenges you face as a parent and your children face as adolescents in today's world?

Absolutely

And I am going to share the one I have found to have the most profound impact on children.

This is the only solution I have found that has a powerful, long lasting and residual effect on a child. It impacts their mental focus, their inner strength and confidence, their scholastic achievement, their physicality, their lifetime health and fitness and helps them choose better peer groups and ultimately become more socially accepted.

I have seen it happen again and again in so many children’s lives. Many times it works so well for the child that his parents frequently join in. It becomes a complete bonding and positive life-changing experience for the whole family. This little known and almost secret solution is Martial Arts and Life Skills (Maarlisk). This form of Martial Arts has been developed by Master Stephen Thompson.

Now you may be thinking ...Martial Arts? Like the Karate Kid ...Wax on, wax off ...or Jackie Chan?

Maarlisk is more than teaching children how to do a bunch of punches and kicks. I believe the biggest impact that Maarlisk can have on the lives of children is to show them a simple example of how to behave that they can emulate.

What's so common about common courtesy? Well, here's the answer: It's uncommon! It's not that people deliberately decide to be less courteous. They simply don't know how to be courteous because there is not enough examples of it around. Sure, you as parents are doing what you can, I am a parent, but with school, social events, sports, our children are surrounded by others that may not have the same values that you are trying to instill in your child.

So, one of the simple things that the Maarlisk curriculum is able to give a child is an example of how to be courteous. Like how to properly say hello and goodbye, how to say simple words like "thank you" or "yes or no" with an added "Sir or Miss."

I believe one of the biggest impacts that Maarlisk has on any child is simply this ...the opportunity to see a model example and to be rewarded for copying that set example.

We heard it when we were children right? "Birds of a feather flock together." "Like attracts like." But in our society how often are we able to control or orchestrate our child's interaction with other people, other children-their peer group-and have control over the type of example they follow?

You know what frustrates me most about what I see in our society today?

It's this ...the kind of people who are actually influencing our children and changing their behavior. Think about it. Think about whom your child is imitating, trying to be like?

Celebrities!

Do you realize that more children copy the example represented by Eminem, Britney Spears and 50 Cent as the type of men and women they aspire to become? And why is that? Well, one simple notion is the fact that by copying that particular lifestyle they'll be more readily accepted.

In other words, it comes down to this simple idea, "Children will behave and act in accordance to what support they receive from their family, friends, classmates, teachers etc."

However, in order to control someone's behavior, to modify it, they have to see an example that's divorced from everything else, away from TV and celebrities.

And what happens in a Karate World is this - although we only see a student maybe two hours out of a total of a 168 hour week-those two hours are in fact so full of impact and so insightful they're able to carry that good example into their everyday life.

So, good behavior is something simple to talk about ...however, to impact a child we have to remind them that this is how you act and this is how you are rewarded for acting that way.

You see in Karate World we only support good behavior. That's it.

If you think about most organizations, structured schools and educators your child interacts with you realize that they only correct bad behavior and as you know, whatever you focus on is in fact what's going to show up in your life. You focus on the bad behavior ...bad behavior is guaranteed to show up.

So to change a child's behavior what we have to do is be the example. Allow them to copy the example, support their copy regardless of how good it is at the moment.

And that support is how we change and modify a child's behavior in our school, by constant positive support of them copying the desired example.

But here's the point ...that doesn't happen just because the school teaches Martial Arts.

That happens because the core benefit of our Maarlisk programme is teaching someone how to act.

Secret #1

It's Not What You Get To Do ...It's What You Get To Become

Forget about the fact that your child will get to break boards, do kicks and punches and learn self-defense. What really matters is what will happen to them as a result of their involvement. What matters is what they will silently, unknowingly, without obvious influence from you, become.

As a Maarlisk student your child becomes a role model. They become a self-confident, up-standing young person with respect for his leaders, parents, and elders. A physically fit, health conscious child who exudes an air of power and self-respect. Someone who is trained in Maarlisk learns to focus and concentrate and understands how to use their life skills to achieve their desired goals. They become a self disciplined adolescent who can handle themselves ethically and morally in any situation and can avoid confrontation, unhealthy situations and peer groups.

All this comes from the support that they gain from the instructor and the protocol and etiquette that we have in our professional martial art schools. We help our education system, and make a triad between, Great Parents, Great Schools and now, a Personal Development School that focuses on helping children to achieve.

Do These Behavioral Improvements Happen At All Martial Arts Academies?

Unfortunately, it's not as common as we would like to see. And the reason is most instructors focus and concentrate on the athleticism of Martial Arts.

A great example would be a professional athlete. Unfortunately, their lifestyle, attitude and behavior don’t always mirror the image you would like for your child to emulate.

What I'm putting out here to you is this ...if an instructor focuses on things like competition or a youngster's ability to perform Martial Arts then they're overlooking the most essential ingredients of what makes a good person and that is how they feel about themselves, how they interact with other people.

Translation: How they behave.

In my school, what we focus on is not your child's ability to perform Martial Arts but the accomplishments they gain, how they treat one another and how they gain self-respect for themselves.

How Many Activities Is Your Child Involved In That Are Actually Positive?

THE TRUTH: Some, but very few.

Think about it for a moment. If they are into sports and are not the best then there are considered losers, if it's an academic activity the smart children are at the front of the class. Do you understand what I mean?

At our academy the Instructors control the environment to allow every child an experience where they recognize how to gain the support of the instructor and are rewarded for everything they do and accomplish. What happens as a result is that you get a high degree of compliance and participation and here's what we know:

When a child participates and they are rewarded for their good compliance it creates a habit. And that habit grows.

Here's another little secret ...children want to be recognized. And unfortunately if we're not able to recognize them for good they'll certainly gain attention with bad. You have to agree with that!

So the way it is orchestrated in our academy is this ...we give them an example, we give them a safe forum, a safe activity, a safe class structure where they can do no wrong if they simply follow our example.

In a moment, I’m going to tell you how your child can experience this without paying a penny – but first, check out secret #2!

Secret #2

It's Not Just About Improving A Child's Behavior...You Must Improve Their Performance

I want to talk a little bit about how Maarlisk can impact a child academically. It is a common question among many parents. I believe when a parent brings their child in to investigate Martial Arts one of the motivational reasons behind it is not just to improve his behavior but to improve his performance and there is a close correlation there.

Let me answer the question you're asking in your mind directly.

How can your child get better grades?

It's simple. Number one, she needs to become a better listener and in order to do that it's necessary to have a higher degree of what?

Focus and concentration, it is the key ingredient for success.

When you learn how to focus and concentrate on whatever task is at hand, regardless of what it is creating, a model airplane, learning a math formula or taking Martial Arts - when you learn how to actually learn, that carries over into every area of your life.

But in order to be a better student academically there has to be a higher degree of cooperation with the learning experience, which requires discipline. Discipline is focused effort with increased concentration.

Studying Maarlisk improves your child's academic achievement as their focus is increased, as their concentration is improved and as their degree of self-worth shifts. By participating in our programme she is much more willing to put forth her best effort in all areas of her life and in many cases that's the key.

Here's what I want you to realize...

Children don't go to school to bring home bad grades. Students go to school to do their best but unfortunately sometimes they don't have the skill sets necessary to bring home good grades.

If a child doesn't have the natural inclination to do well in a particular area we don't throw them in-sink or swim. You would be setting them up for failure. So what we do instead is encourage him through one simple idea:

Any degree of improvement is rewarded!

And academically here's how we help parents. We request to see all students' reports. I want to see his school report not to pass judgment on whether or not he has an 'A', a 'B' or a 'C.' I want to see the school report to let the student know that I'm interested in their progress.

That's a very simple way of doing what? - Encouraging a higher degree of motivation.

And listen, regardless of what the report looks like - I'm going to find something good and that might be that he only missed three days of school. The key is rewarding any degree of good behavior.

Guess what will happen?

They will in fact strive a little harder. Not just in that area but it can't help but affect other areas. So any level of improvement is rewarded and as a result of that we actually form an alliance. Almost like a triangle with the teacher at school and with you who obviously supports him by bringing him to my class.

Your child then realizes that all three of these important people in his life - the teacher, you the parent and me the instructor are there to assist him and celebrate and reward any degree of accomplishment or victory he has.

By encouraging any degree of improvement we've increased your youngster's ability to focus at the task at hand and actually perform at their absolute best. This is how together we help your child get great grades!

The Incredible Power Of Repetition

Many people are resistant to the idea of repetition in education but I learned years ago that repetition is the mother of skill. To explain this further let's use a math’s example.

If you want to improve at addition you've got to add, if you want to improve at subtraction you've got to practice subtracting. Now, the repetition of developing any new skill is kind of awkward at first and most children are a little uneasy with this because they simply haven't learned that repetition actually is fun once you get a better result.

In our Maarlisk programme we use repetition as a means of training. By doing the same thing over and over again we teach the students how to enjoy the learning curve of doing what? Doing the same thing time and time again and getting better at it.

They're able to take that experience and realize, "Oh, just like Martial Arts ...if I want to be good at side kicking ...I have to practice my side kick. Well if I want to improve at addition ...I have to practice adding."

And that is just one simple element in the class experience that a child is able to bring to school and use to improve their performance.

How Can You Tell That Other Martial Art Schools Are Not Interested In Helping Children Get Better Grades?

It is actually very easy to tell. You just need to find out what desired outcome the school's instructor has for his or her students?

Some of the warning signs that you're in the wrong academy are if the instructor is focused on building champions or winning trophies or allowing one child to advance to a higher degree based on physical athleticism. Now, let me be clear about this - there is so much misunderstanding about Martial Arts. As a child progresses through the ranks it does not mean that they'll ever gain the capacity to be able to walk through walls and jump over tall buildings.

It's not about athleticism.

If you focus on athleticism, the moment a child is physically injured or ill you've discounted whatever they've accomplished up to that point in their training.

WARNING: : If a high degree of focus is put on the physical nature of Martial Arts in the class we're not helping children develop at an intellectual and emotional level.

Not all schools are equal and what makes our school different is simply this ...that a child doesn't have to be the best, he just has to do his best at that time.

Let me give you a parallel for the adult world. If you want to maintain a high degree of physical fitness you have to work out, but it doesn't mean that you have to kill yourself each and every time you go to the gym. You simply have to do your best while you're at the gym and we do the same thing at our academy, that's how a student is rewarded.

"If Schools Ran Like Most Martial Arts Academies, I'd Still Be In The First Year!"

To help you realise how our academy is different I want you to understand this. You did not need an 'A' in all your subjects to go from first to second year. However, that's what most Martial Arts Schools do with their rank system. Unless you're a perfect orange belt (which is a degree of rank in a Martial Arts system) you don't get promoted to the next level.

Let me explain it another way. Unless your child does things exactly right in a certain and specific way they don't move up to the next belt level-THEY FAIL. That's ridiculous.

If I needed to get straight 'A's to go from first year to second year, I'd still be in the first year and so would you most likely. At our academy it's not about being a perfect student but a student who is performing at their best.

And isn't that perfection for a child?

In my personal opinion I think perfection is way over rated. I think it gets in the way of progress. So most schools place such a high degree of emphasis on the physical ability of students and they overlook the fact that that's only part of it.

I'm going to explain how you can check all of this out-for free-but first you should read secret #3...

Secret #3

Physical Fitness Is The Result Of Creating Good Habits

I know that some parents are looking for a way to increase their child's level of physical fitness and overall health.

The question is ...when we talk about physical fitness, what in fact are we talking about? What is the true benefit of physical fitness? Well the answer in my mind, my experience and what I've accomplished in my life is not whether or not you look like an "Baywatch beauty" when you go poolside, but the real key benefit of physical fitness is a higher degree of health.

It's all about health.

Physical fitness is a component of good health and good health is a result of great habits and by influencing a youngster across the board in all areas of life to have better habits you in turn create a healthier and more physically fit child, but let me go back to the original question. We now know that a parent who is looking for the physical benefits is in fact looking for the health benefits and what health benefits are we talking about?

How about the way a child looks?

As we discussed earlier obesity is getting out of hand. Obesity is defined as being 20% or more above your optimum weight for their size and age group.

Based on the way an average household conducts itself as far as diet, nutrition and exercise, of course it's no wonder why we have such a weight problem in children and adults, fast food is well, fast, and life now is run at an incredible pace.

But, what I've found is this ...if you encourage a child's interest in being more physically active then in most cases that will help them pursue a healthier lifestyle.

CONSIDER THIS: Children continue to do things they are rewarded for, but what rewards work best? Maybe a star on their report, a pat on the back or perhaps a special gift would? The real answer is none of those. Everything I just listed is "a thing" but the power behind why this concept works are feelings. As humans we do things for the feelings we get as a result of something we do. It's all about better feelings.

Why are children so enamored by video games? It's because they get a great feeling of accomplishment when they play them. I know a little boy who always comes up to me and tells me what level he is on a certain video game. He says, "Hey I'm a level 99 now!" He is proud of his accomplishment.

What if we were able create that same type of experience not by being sedentary and physically inactive with a video game but physically active with a Martial Arts experience?

If a child gets a feeling of accomplishment doing anything ...if they sense they're getting better and they're being rewarded for that improvement they will certainly become more ambitious and enthusiastic.

That's how you can actually encourage them to maintain a higher degree of physical activity which will lend itself to being more physically fit and healthier overall.

And that's the goal isn't it?

The Most Overlooked Element Of Health And Physical Fitness

Whenever I ask a group of children, "Who here loves going to bed on time?" Not a single hand goes up, but then I ask, "Why do your parents want you to go to bed on time?" Not surprisingly they give you wretched answers like:

• They don't want me to watch TV
• Mum wants quiet time with Dad
• I'm not old enough to stay up

The real reason why children need to go to bed on time is because when they are sleeping that's when their body gets bigger and stronger.

What if every child knew that?

And what if every parent was able to instill that appreciation about sleep? Make them truly understand that sleep isn't a punishment. Sleep is actually the reward of good behavior, good diet, good nutrition, good exercise and good Martial Arts.

Do you think that if a child was convinced that when they sleep their bones are growing, their muscles are getting stronger & they're becoming healthier that they would feel differently about it? - understand it better?

Okay, I Have Some Bad News

Here it is ...if a youngster walks into a Martial Arts Academy and is physically capable of Martial Arts from day one, the instructor had nothing to do with it - that's genetics.

Some people have the physical predisposition of maintaining a high degree of flexibility, good hand-eye coordination and overall agility. Listen, God gifted them with that. The bad news for us average Joes is most of us weren't blessed like that. We simply weren't.

But here's the silver lining. I want you to realize that although this may sound like bad news the great news is this ...Time fixes all.

As you become involved in a physical-minded activity such as the Martial Arts that we teach, time is the great equalizer. Although you might not walk in the class in the first experience and do physically well, through a degree of repetition and showing up to class you will start to catch on.

You can't help but enhance your degree of physical athleticism and your ability to perform Martial Arts. So the key is not to place emphasis on one's ability but to place the emphasis on our understanding of progress.

"Do I Have To Be Good At Karate To Get The Benefits Out Of Martial Arts?"

Absolutely not! And perhaps what's most upsetting to me is that so many people believe they do because of bad Martial Arts instructors and academies.

In the grand scheme of things 10% of an academy's student body is physically gifted. 20% have some real challenge and the remaining 70% are average, everyday children and adults.

Most Martial Arts academies only focus on the 10%. They only want to claim the students who are good. It's almost as though the instructor allows his ego to get in the way and only wants to teach the really physical children.

This is very unfortunate for our industry because it misrepresents our true ambition-to help children overcome their challenges. Let me tell you something ...whether your child is athletically gifted or not, it makes no difference and should not make a difference. What I want you to realize is that my job, my goal as a professional Martial Arts instructor is to simply provide a forum where, regardless of one's physical abilities, they are granted the opportunity to excel and do well and they are all treated the same.

KEY POINT: There are no first places in a well run academy. 'First Place' means that you are splitting your attention as an instructor between those who can and those who can't and our obligation is to serve both needs equally.

Coming up, I will show you how to take a – “test drive" for yourself without spending any money, but in the meantime, read about how to improve your child's confidence in secret #4.

Secret #4

Confidence Cannot Be Taught!

Okay, before you panic, listen closely to what I'm about to tell you. Confidence cannot be taught. Well, hold on now, I know you were hoping it could be, but it can't be taught.

Confidence must be learned

Just because you understand what confidence is doesn't mean you have it. It's not enough to just learn what it is - you actually have to experience it to become it.

So you can't teach it but you can provide a class experience where the child can experience a feeling of confidence.

Listen To This Real Life Encounter I Had With A Mum Who Was Unsure Of Her Child's Ability To Succeed

One time I had a conversation with a mum and she said, "I don't think that my child is ready for this next level. I don't think he's ready to get the next belt." (In our academy it's called a graduation where a child goes from one belt color to the next.) I said, "Why is that?" "Well he just doesn't look as though he's doing as well as the other children," she said.

Mummy Mistake #1:

Stop passing judgment on your child compared to another child and start placing all your attention on your child's improvement and see what happens.

But let me get back to my story. I asked, 'Well, what is your biggest concern about your child going to the next rank?" And she said these words, "Well, I don't want him to have a false sense of confidence." I said, "Oh, don't take offense but allow me to correct you - oh yes you do!

What other kind is there?"

You see, if confidence is only needed when you need it, and the only time confidence needs to be used is when you "think" you can do something, isn't that a false sense of confidence?

So, bring it on. Give me all the false confidence I need to progress from one level of accomplishment to the next and let me provide your child with this idea where all they have to do is act and feel confident.

That's what confidence is.

Here's what confidence is NOT:

Confidence doesn't mean the lack of nervousness, apprehension or tension. Confidence means you do something or don't do something in spite of nervousness or apprehension. So the way you enhance a youngster's confidence is this - you encourage them to do something they feel a little awkward doing.

You know, in most settings you hear talk about going outside your comfort zone. That's really what they're talking about isn't it - doing something that you normally would not feel comfortable doing?

But to do that all you have to do is think you can. Thinking "you can" is in fact a degree of self-confidence, but it's all imaginary. It's false confidence.

What we do is allow a child to have the experience of doing this in a safe environment where there's no jeopardy. No one is going to get hurt. No one is going to be physically or emotionally harmed or embarrassed and as your child is challenged to exercise this idea of self-confidence, they become more confident.

Word Lessons vs.World Lessons

There is "knowing" something because you read about it, saw it on TV, heard about it and can envision it and understand it. Then there is "knowing" something because you experienced it firsthand.

This is the difference between word lessons, the idea of what something is and the world lessons, the experience of that thing which makes the everlasting impression of what it is.

Here's an example:

I know you have explained to your child the danger and what might happen to them if they stick something in the electrical socket - right? You probably learned that when you were a child.

Your parents told you, "Listen this is an electrical socket. Whatever happens, don't put anything in here because you'll get a shock." That is a word lesson.

Your parents were trying to intellectually get you, a child to understand what the consequence would be and you said, "Okay mum, I won't put anything into the electrical socket.", but that type of lesson didn't last very long, did it?

And then what happens?

Curiosity gets the better of you and you grab the safety pin, slowly pry the cap off the socket and then inserted the pin in for just maybe one millisecond but hence the lesson was learned. You got a shock!

Now, that is a world lesson.

Now, we can't put our children in danger, so what we do is we afford the child the experience of learning the world lesson of self-confidence by putting them in a safe environment and having these world lessons actually take place.

Giving them the experience of doing something that required a little confidence, plants the seeds for greater confidence and that is how a well-structured Martial Arts programme serves a parent. That is, in fact, what we do.

"Whether You Think You Can Or Think You Can't, Either Way, You're Absolutely Correct." - Henry Ford

In order to think you can, what you have to do is have the experience of going from where you thought you couldn't to where now you can.

When we help a child have that experience in Martial Arts, it carries over to every area of their life.

Here's what happens when your child walks into a social setting regardless of what it is ...the playground, a new classroom, the cafeteria or perhaps even your neighborhood. The moment he walks into the setting he begins to identify what he thinks he can and can't do within the peer group and based on that he will shuffle himself.

What I mean by shuffle is this ...whether we like to think of it or not it's pretty simple: children create a pecking order within a matter of moments.

And here's the important part ...when a child walks into a new environment they will gravitate in the direction of children who they perceive are equal to and lesser than them.

Most Problems In Our Society Will Disappear If Parents Get This;

Children make decisions about everything based on two things

• How they feel at that moment
• How they feel about themselves

So as a child gains a higher degree of confidence through our Maarlisk experience they begin to filter things differently and they even begin to gravitate in the direction of a healthier peer group based on the fact they feel better about themselves.

Let me share something with you ...I know there are several great fears that a parent has for their children such as the danger of violence, premature sex, drug experimentation, alcohol, etc.

I mean, you know the woes, right? How does a child decide to yield to negative and harmful peer pressure? How do they decide? Well, let me point out it's not a rational decision, it's not logical, they don't measure it and they don't say: "well 'Mum said this, Dad said that, the teacher said", a child will make their decision in a matter of moments based on one simple idea - How they feel about themselves at that exact moment.

No child tomorrow is going to wake up and say, "Today I'm going to try drugs or I'm going to get drunk or today after football practice or after school I'm going to experiment with sex." That's not how they make decisions.

Based on the opportunity, based on the present peer pressure they either say yes or no.

All decisions are based on how they feel about themselves and the way we encourage them to make better decisions is to change how they feel differently about whom and what they are. Just telling them to say yes or no isn't enough.

MAJOR POINT: As a child begins to feel differently about who they are and the degree of self-confidence and esteem they have for themselves they begin to make better decisions based on how they feel about themselves, they connect with a group that will accept them.

Very seldom will a child have a high enough degree of self-worth, esteem and confidence to walk up to a peer group that they believe is more superior whether that's academic, their physical presence, their social status or perhaps their degree of athleticism or proficiency in sports.

What we're able to do through Martial Arts training is to continuously improve their self-concept and they begin to make a better selection in all areas of their life and that's how we achieve that through the Martial Arts programme that we provide in our academy, Maarlisk.

"Does Every Martial Arts Academy Build This Kind Of Confidence Into Their Student Body?"

Not if it's a pass or fail scenario. In nine out of ten Martial Arts schools that's exactly what they do. Pass or fail ...Susan did well, John did badly.

Yes, no. Right, wrong. Left, right. Up, down. Pass or Fail.

Life will naturally serve up success/failure lessons to our children, but in Karate World we have to constantly encourage and give our children the ability to deal with these life lessons. Our job is to encourage and never discourage.

Woody Allen said

"98% of success is just showing up"

A child is not going to show up for the next class if they're discouraged. Most schools have this pass or fail mentality and discount the children that need help the most. Our academy focuses is for every child to succeed.

Of course you want your child to succeed, but perhaps you're worried about risking a lot of money in the process. Not to worry, in a few seconds I will tell you exactly how you can experience this yourself at no charge. First, check out secret #5.

Secret #5

How You Interact With Others Determines The Quality Of Your Life

If you want your child to be more popular and better rounded socially then we need to discuss acceptance. Many people think of acceptance as how someone is looked upon or taken in by a group, but acceptance isn't just whether you are invited into a group but how YOU graciously accept those around you.

If you take it a step further, I think another word we need to use to help us understand how this is accomplished is the word prejudice-which is to prejudge and what the martial experience does in a good Martial Arts academy is allow the student to realize that they have to check those prejudices at the door.

We have to be more accepting of the people around us and we have to be more accepting in terms of what we're able and capable of doing at the time. We have to be judgmental in terms of judging how prejudice we actually are.

Every child has a predisposition of how they think the world works and in many cases, it doesn't work as well as the parent would like. See children, base things on how they feel about themselves will automatically categories whom to bring into to their lives. As a result of this, they begin to make different choices about who to become friends with.

Who you decide to be friends with is quite simple. You decide to become friends with people who are like you.

However, if we measure how alike they are to us, in many cases we will discount a large number of people who could perhaps improve the quality of our lives. So the martial arts experience in our academy is this: We're all in this together.

And regardless of whom your child is in class with or who they're asked to interact with no judgment is passed and our job is to find the good and overlook the bad. Children are taught everything and what we do in our academy is teach them to feel differently about themselves by not only accepting what they do but accepting the differences of others.

Now, that's not to suggest that it's okay to be made to feel bad by the actions of others or to be the target of a bully, but it is to suggest as you feel better about yourself through our Martial Arts class experience you begin to behave differently in the real world and that changes your experience.

You see, as a child's behavior improves, as the grades improve, as his physical fitness and overall health improve, as his self-confidence and self-esteem improve that allows the child to interact with a better group of children.

How To Beat The Bully

Bullies don't happen to randomly pick a child; they select one and the selection process for a bully deciding to choose a youngster, your child, as a victim is simple. Based on how they behave, they act, they interact and based on how they look to a bully determines whether another child is an easy target or not.

So how a person interacts with others determines the quality of your life. Listen, you're never, not communicating to others how to treat you. The social anthropologist Edward T. Hall claims that 60 percent of all communication is nonverbal and that only 7 percent of communication is the words we choose. The rest is our tone and body language.

So the real way you communicate with the world around you is through your body language. Body language represents roughly 60% of the communication experience. Just how a student is taught to handle themselves physically sends off an entirely different message to everyone.

Parents, I can walk into a classroom and in a matter of moments I can tell you who is and who isn't a bully. I can tell you who does well in school and who doesn't. Understand that our bodies speak so loudly people can't hear a word we're saying.

By improving your child's handle on his physical body and changing their body language it allows a child to become a more powerful communicator by being not just more disciplined but perhaps demonstrative in how they express themselves physically. This makes their life easier, them stronger and more powerful in all areas of their life.

Do you know how most children learn a language? Most children simply emulate and follow examples that are given to them through the media and television, movies, how the neighbours talk, what their mum says and unfortunately in many cases that's not going to serve a youngster in every social situation.

So for example, if a child thinks that the words he uses have to be 'hip' that's going to make a different impression than the child who realizes that the words they use are designed to communicate specific ideas.

Today there are so many non-words used. I'm sure you've heard children today use words like "dude", "cool", and “what’s up" - all of which mean nothing.

In our Martial Arts experience we actually use a discipline regiment of verbal etiquette for how we interact with each other that gives our students a great model to copy in terms of words, language and communication.

Teaching voice emulation is important. For example, when a child sees in a class experience how I am commanding the attention of the class by how and what I say to the students, they'll want to copy that. Why is this so important you ask? The danger is that most children don't see a great example and are copying the likes of actors and rap stars. Children are acting, sounding even imitating people such as Eminem and 50 Cent and that's not good.

As a child emulates my example as far as how I physically position myself, how I interact, how I maintain eye contact, how I graciously shake hands they copy that and as a result, they are in fact perceived differently in all areas of their own life.

Proper Martial Arts training changes everything in terms of how a youngster is perceived.

Think About This...

You know, we talk about the idea of you wanting your child to be more self-assured and more confident in having gained the ability to make better decisions. We all want to have children who are more health-minded, more safety-minded and able to make sound decisions.

Well, how do you accomplish that with your child?

Just by enrolling a child in our Maarlisk programme you actually solidify the idea within that child's mind’s eye that the parent -you- actually believes they can do this.

This is very important to understand. By enrolling the child in a Martial Arts programme you are telling the child, "John, you're going to do well at this."

There is a catch ...in order to use Martial Arts as a vehicle to improve all areas of your child's life you have to recognize that the programme only works as well as that programme is supported. See, as I mentioned earlier, there are 168 hours in a week. My job is to train your child for two of those hours. Your job is to compliment our training the other 166 hours by encouraging your youngster, by reminding him of the lessons that they learned in class, by reiterating to them that a future black belt isn't someone who waits until the last minute to do what they are told. A future black belt is somebody that says yes miss, yes sir the first time they're asked to do something.

So by providing a Martial Arts experience for your child you're able to compliment what the instructor has done on the academies practice floor during the rest of the week will actually help increase the impact of the programme.

Not all Martial Arts academies are equal. The difference between one Martial Arts academy and another is not what they teach. They all teach Martial Arts. The difference is how they teach it. Whatever an instructor decides to teach is what they teach, I call that the content and all Martial Arts content is similar.

Now we know there are many different systems of Martial Arts out there. However, it all boils down to one thing: how you teach what you teach. That's called the context and I want you to realize that although all schools may be equal as far as their knowledge and their ability to appreciate what content they would like to deliver, they are unequal in their ability to actually teach the material and that's the context.

Unfortunately, most Martial Arts instructors worldwide are enamoured with themselves and copy the latest craze or fad in the Martial Arts industry, which has nothing to do with the real world.

For example, if you walk into a Martial Arts academy and the instructor is wearing a colorful uniform and a fad haircut and three or four earrings in their left ear like a professional football player, he's not a leader-he's a follower. He's emulating someone.

If I walk into my academy with a shaved head, within a week four or five children also will have shaved their head.

Why? I am a leader. The children are going to copy my example. That's why I make sure that my example is one that a parent is impressed by.

IMPORTANT POINT: The instructor's job is not to be the student's friend. My job is to train students in the Martial Arts, not entertain them with silly games and a casual atmosphere. The instructor's job is not to be personal with the student and their parents. The instructor's job is to be friendly but not their friend. It is the obligation of a professional instructor to provide an example to emulate. In order to do that you have to project a level of accomplishment above and beyond what the average person has accomplished in their life.

So, to provide a good Martial Arts experience that anyone, a child, an adult, can use to gain a higher degree of accomplishment, the first thing that you have to look for is how professional does this academy and the instructor look.

What Next?

Sometimes we spend so much time doing our best to research before we make a decision, in fear of making the wrong decision; we never make the right decision. The next step is simply this. Walk into my Martial Arts School and measure how graciously you are received and what steps are taken to gain your support and consider a Martial Arts programme.

This step is simple. The step is simply walking through the threshold of my academy with your child in tow and asking this simple question ..."Can you help my child?" Can you help my child improve whatever it is you want for them? In most cases the improvement you want is simply a degree or measured change in some level of behavior.

Simply walk into our academy. Listen, we know that when a parent first walks into the academy sometimes they are a little nervous and apprehensive. Why? Well it's a new experience, but I assure you it will be unlike any experience you have had before, completely positive. I learned a long time ago that no one cares what you know until they know you care. I care about you and your child.

What we are talking about is you experiencing my Maarlisk programme. It is a systematic means of improving children, physically, emotionally & intellectually. A programme that has survived over two thousand years of development without having anything written down until recently.

So, your first visit will give you a chance to see how I will create a connection, a relationship with you-the parent and the most important person in your life, your child, but a relationship doesn't start by fax, phone or email. It starts by you walking in, meeting me, eye to eye, introducing yourself and explaining what your concerns are and what you'd like me to help you with.

Here's The Offer I'm Willing To Make You

I guess to make this even easier perhaps we need to remove all risk. So this is my recommendation. Come in and take advantage of a no obligation, no cost, private "Child Success Analysis" with me. We'll discuss your child and how we can help you achieve your goals.

So here's the offer:

Risk Free, No Obligation, Private, Child Success Analysis

Plus 2 Lessons on me if you decide we can help your child improve all areas of their lives.

To claim your "Child Success Analysis" and your Two Free Lessons register right now and leave your details, a instructor will give you a call.

Don't delay. Give me a chance to personally help you and your child overcome the challenges that are

keeping him or her from true success in all areas of their life.

And just one more thing ...if you do decide to enroll on our programme after your trial then rest assured that you have a 'Cast Iron' guarantee from me personally that if my programme doesn't meet your needs and you haven't seen a measurable change in your child's behavior in the first 30 days

I will give you your money back!