KICKCO Life-Defense

 In the last decade, suicide has become increasingly


common among young people. In an article posted by USA Today, experts reported that “The rate of suicide among those aged 10 to 24 increased nearly 60% between 2007 and 2018.” More recent research done by the National Institute of Mental health agrees that “Suicide is a major public health concern. Suicide is among the leading causes of death in the United States. Based on recent nationwide surveys, suicide in some populations is on the rise.”

Building our martial arts program we wanted to identify dangers in young people’s lives and develop defense tactics that would help them stay safe and protect others around them. We couldn’t just teach them physical defense strategies and not empower them with mental, emotional, and spiritual defense as well. To us, it was like locking all the doors in the house to keep our family safe and then ignoring faulty wiring which could cause a fire. 

So, building our program we looked at the holistic ways we could address some of the dangers that plague our youth today and train them to be well-rounded martial arts athletes. One of these was the risk of self-harm and suicide. So we started developing Life-Defense strategies to help youth “at risk” stay safe from self-harm and death. 

Each level of Life-Defense builds on the prior. It teaches kids and youth to recognize that something might be wrong, to listen to the needs and concerns, and to get help immediately when there is danger... as athletes level-up in their training they are taught to listen for “life” clues and later to help build a safety plan. 


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