Is violence/fighting back the right solution to bullying?
One of the most important things for me is to get the parents on side. It is so important if you are serious about teaching real self-defence to children to have a good working relationship with parents. I have always strived for this. After all, self-defence is a life skill; its a habit, and who better to monitor this than parents. Instructor/parent groups are being formed in clubs, but this is more to do with instructors covering their backs in line with ‘Child Protection’. I believe they can be really utilized to get the maximum benefit out of the training. Sadly martial arts have become ‘just another club’ in the mind of many parents, chosen to give the child another activity to his weekly schedule. There is also a lot of the crche mentality, where parents just dump their children in a class and instructors, who are trying to run a business, are too scared to tell them whether or not the class is suitable. I have had largely good experiences with parents who take their children to
