By Master Milad
The short answer
No. In almost 30 years, we’ve watched the opposite happen. Kids who train get calmer, not rougher. Taekwondo teaches real combat skills, and that’s exactly why it teaches self-control first. Your first class is free. Book it
It’s one of the first worries we hear, usually from a parent watching a room full of kids kicking and yelling. Fair enough. From the bleachers it looks intense. Here’s what’s going on underneath.
Can isn’t should
Taekwondo is a real combat sport, and kids who stick with it get genuinely capable. So the first lesson isn’t a kick. It’s this: just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Hurt someone and it can change their life, yours and your family’s. We say it out loud, often, at every belt.
Character first, skill second, belts third. That order is the whole answer to this question.
The best are the most humble
Over the years I’ve learned from some of the best martial artists alive, people like Greg Jackson, Mike Winkeljohn and Rickson Gracie. The best of them were the most humble people in the room. Nothing to prove.
We see the same thing in our students. The kids who get really good stop needing to show it.
There’s always someone better
Be the best in your class, and there’s someone better at the next school. Then the provincial champion. Then the national team. All the way up to the Olympics. Kids who train know that. It keeps them humble, and it keeps them working.
Where aggression usually comes from
In our experience, the kids who start trouble usually aren’t the ones training. More often it’s insecurity, fear, or getting pushed around somewhere else and passing it down. It’s a circle. Martial arts runs the other way: confidence that doesn’t need to prove anything, in a room full of people treating each other with respect.
Respect doesn’t stop at the door
Bowing in, listening the first time, “yes, sir” and “yes, ma’am”: that’s the easy part, on the mat. It only counts if it comes home too. Parents, brothers, sisters, friends, teachers. Even the dog.
If your kid’s being rough at home, tell their instructor. That’s what we’re here for.
The rule
If a teacher, a principal or another parent tells us a student used what they learned here to hurt, harass or bully someone, or seriously overreacted, that student can lose their spot. It’s in our policy.
A warrior in a garden
There’s an old saying: it’s better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war. That’s what we’re after. We train to keep the peace, for ourselves and the people we love.
So no, taekwondo won’t make your kid aggressive. It gives them strength, and the self-control to go with it. Come watch a class and see for yourself.
About the author. Master Milad Bahrami opened Endurance in Port Moody in 2014, and today it’s three schools: Port Moody, Burnaby and Port Coquitlam. Read his story
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