Kid Logic—Chaos, Confidence, and Cartwheels: Life Lessons from the Mat

You are not raising a trophy. You are raising a person.After 27 years of teaching martial arts to more than 10,000 children, Jill Cross realized something unexpected: she wasn’t just teaching kids—they were teaching her.Kid Logic is a collection of real stories from the mat—hilarious, heartfelt, and surprisingly profound moments that reveal how children actually see the world. Through the adventures of unforgettable characters like Cameron (who transforms every instruction into something wonderfully wrong), Levi (whose helpfulness is occasionally dangerous), and Hank the Tank (a nine-year-old who once tried to buy his instructor’s house for $200), this book offers hard-won wisdom for anyone who is raising kids, coaching kids, teaching kids, or simply trying to understand them better.This isn’t a martial arts book. It’s a book about what happens when you spend nearly three decades listening to kids and finally write down what they’ve been teaching you all along.Inside, you’ll discover why kids hear exactly what you say (not what you mean) and why that matters. You will learn the truth about building confidence (hint: it is not built by shielding kids from struggle), why imagination isn’t distraction but problem-solving, what children actually need to hear after they fail, and so much more.Whether you’re a parent holding your breath in the bleachers, a teacher wondering if you’re making a difference, or a coach trying to build strong kids without breaking their spirits, this book will make you laugh, make you think, and remind you that the work you’re doing matters more than you realize. Because sometimes the best lessons in life don’t come from lectures—they come from kids.