Stages of Development for 10 to 14-Year Olds! 💥

Ten to fourteen-year-olds, for the most part, are the smartest students in the school. Yes, they are smarter than most adults! They are also physically competent and can excel in most physical challenges that are presented to them. The problem we discovered is they are so focused on what is socially acceptable that they have a hard time keeping themselves emotionally driven to the task at hand. The solution we found is to provide them with their own program that targets their stage of development in a manner that nurtures their social and emotional instability while at the same time building skills that set them up for success. With that said a structured program introducing extreme skill-based training in martial arts has proven to be very successful.

Here’s an overview for the stages of development of children ages 10 to 14:

Physically – they typically have great technique and agility, but they can be lazy which leads to sloppiness.

  • We expect them to initially be sloppy on things that are easy physically.
  • The goal for our program is to get them to understand their potential if they pay attention the intricate details. We normally bypass the basics elements of physical development and jump right into the complicated details.

Intellectually – they are extremely smart. Their critical thinking skills are top-notch, but their decision making skills are typically the exact opposite, and that is why most adults treat them like a child.

  • We expect them to initially make choices that are easy as compared to applying thought and effort.
  • The goal for our program is to get them to see the bigger picture and apply their intellect.

Emotionally – thanks to science, they are typically all over the emotional spectrum. This is more prominent in boys than girls.

  • We expect their efforts to be based on what they think is cool.
  • The goal for our program is to help them apply intrinsic motivation and realize their true potential. Our goal is to also help them improve their decision making skills with drills that challenge their reaction time.

Socially – they care about what their peers think. If something is cool, then they will put more effort into it.

  • We expect them to initially hold back if they are uncomfortable as a defense mechanism.
  • The goal for our program is to help them excel at everything they do, especially in front of a crowd.

By understanding the stages of development of 10 and 14-year olds, we were able to select 8 age-appropriate skills that make up the Extreme SKILLZ Program.

Check out our Extreme SKILLZ Bronze membership for age-specific warm-ups, stretched, drills, and game that target this age group!

Check out our Extreme SKILLZ Silver membership for age-specific class planners, a 9-belt level testing curriculum, and licensed branding tools for this age group!