Dateline May 09, 2008

Burnaby, Canada

There will be moments in every human’s life when they will face trials and tribulations of both a physical and emotional nature, when they will need to dig down deep inside themselves to find the strength, skill and confidence to face life’s battles.

Sean-Douglas is one such individual, a young man of a modest nine years of age, this martial artist with five years training with Jim Hanger, chief instructor at Red Tiger Martial Arts in Vancouver, recently faced his first challenge to his control.

Recently, he was attacked from behind by a complete strange as he walked with his brother to a friend’s house, reacting with his five years of martial arts training to his attackers attempt to choke him, this young man was able to disable his attacker with a crushing blow.

Sean’s father says he originally enrolled his two sons, Sean and his eleven year old sibling Connery, in martial arts for the structure is brings to their daily lives, not to help save him from an assailant attempting to harm him, but to keep them away from the television and the video games most kids spend hours playing every day.

Martial art is a good form of recreation, physical training for the body, emotional control for the mind, and socializing with people of the same frame of mind and goals. Starting a child at an early age, around eight or nine is fine for modern kids, is a good way to allow them to develop confidence in their physical and mental abilities to cope with the challenges life will put before them.

The focus the training can give an individual is useful in all walks of life, not just to defend oneself from physical attack, in fact, martial arts isn’t about fighting, it’s about learning respect, self confidence and emotional control to help individuals deal with the tense and stressful situations we all find ourselves in.

Sean-Douglas discovered the strength, confidence and will power to stand up for himself when confronted and this is exactly what martial arts training was created for, to allow common people to protect themselves.