Good MA for children

[Josef]

The child is approaching her sixth birthday and I'm starting to think what martial art should she do.

Maybe six is still a bit young to start, but I certainly intend to enrol her within the next couple of years and there's no harm preparing ahead.

I suppose the main concerns are teaching her something to protect herself if attacked in later life and something to give her the confidence not to be bullied at school in the near future.

I'm not too well versed in the unarmed arts myself so would welcome some advice on a good one for a child to do.

[gabro]

I always recommend judo for children. It is great training for developing general skills, great fun and can give kids a bit of a confidence boost.
Most kids enjoy rolling around on the mats with other kids.

An even better idea is for you to start doing Judo as well

Warning: This advice is heavily biased, as I started doing Judo at the age of eight, and never had the good sense to stop.

Cheers,

Mads

[Simon Ford-Powell]

well as a jiu jitsu man myself I would also highly recommend Judo as an ideal start for kids (oh alright...I admit it, I do Judo as well)

[Budd]

I'm going to also chime in support of judo (started at age 5 myself ) as the martial art I'd recommend for kids, based on the type of activities and the cost and availability of such programs.

I think grappling is a better activity for kids (as opposed to arts where they practice punching and kicking), as it's closer to a form of play that children seem to naturally engage in (true for puppies and kittens as well). Ukemi (falling, rolling and receiving techniques safely) will be good for their balance as well as helping if the child falls in real life.

Even better, it's usually pretty cheap (especially through something like a YMCA program) compared to some of the fees McDojos can charge for Little Ninja programs.

Good luck, though, and let us know how it turns out.

[gendzwil]

Even though I teach kendo, I recommend judo for kids that young. They have lots of fun wrassling, they don't learn kicking or punching that might get them in trouble in the schoolyard if used, there's lots of variety in the techniques so they don't get bored, it's great physical conditioning and they learn how to fall properly. Judo is widely available, cheap like borscht and mostly taught by dedicated volunteers who are there because they want to be. There's nothing they learn in judo that will screw them up for another martial art later on if they decide to take a different direction.

[BC]

My 6 year old son has expressed a desire to start karate, so I will likelybe enrolling him in one of two traditional Shotokan karate schools I have identified in my area. The rest of the local martial arts schools are either McDojo or sport TKD, or both. I will decide which one after observing their classes and speaking personally to the sensei.

As background, I currently practice aikido, and in the past practiced kenpo and taijiquan. I decided not to enroll my son in aikido, as I am not a big proponent of aikido for children. Not to put anything bad toward judo, but I have a friend who is a physician who stated that he thought there was too much risk for injury to children's developing joints in judo. Again, please don't take offense, as I am just reporting what one person said to me. Can anyone with experience in judo address this concern? Thanks.

[Budd]

Depends on the practice -- if they're cranking the heck out of armlocks and shoulder locks, then I'd say it's unhealthy for anyone in the longterm. If the emphasis is on ukemi and jacketed wrestling, then I'd put it above most anything else as an introduction to martial arts for children. As another poster already noted, a background in judo will serve them well for future study of pretty much any other martial art (speaking from experience and a completely unbiased viewpoint ).

[gendzwil]

Chokes and locks aren't generally allowed in competition for young children. For example, the AAU extends the IJF rules to disallow chokes for children under 11 and locks for children under 15.

Nobody is allowed to throw with a lock, which would be the most dangerous thing to joints of any age. Most dojo show kids the locks but don't let them use them in randori.

[Andrew S]

I'm a Karate and Aikido person, but I'd agree that Judo would be the most logical choice here - safety, fun and immediate practicality (I think of all the nasty falls I could have saved myself from in my childhood). Plus the gear is cheaper than kendo gear!

[BomberH]

I also recommend Judo as a great activity for kids. Younger kids aren't allowed to use joint locks in randori or competition, so I wouldn't worry about joint damage.

[MarkF]

I seem to have been a relative elder when I started judo (at age 12) and I admit to not being able to stop, either. As a teacher, I have had few students that young, but I have had students as young as 8 yr.

There are more injuries in judo than any other combative in judo, most of which are minor sprains and strains. Children that young do not seem to be injured nearly as often (unless you count boo-boos), but some injury can be expected, but they do tend to be minor. There are good reasons for starting judo at such a young age, and probably as many bad ones. Injuries are to be expected in childhood and the number of injuries is relative to activity. if the child is sheltered until adulthood you will keep the number down but then this is the example of those who do not belong on the mat, but it is like any number of activities in which movement produces injury. Repetitive joint injuries are not common in judo or children except in those expected to rise to a certain level, the Olympics being a prime example, particular in "women's gymnsatics (these are not women, for the most part)," ukemi is easy for a six year old to learn, and grappling is relatively easy on them compared to a child twice that age (I fractured the growth center of the ankle/foot at age 13 and was advised of the possibility of my foot not growing any more than it had up to that time. That did not come to pass even though I returned to judo more than two months before medical advice said I should. This is something that parents need to make sure does NOT happen.

Some, if not most, national junior championships in judo include kids as young as six and as old as nineteen. Emotional hurt seems to prevail well over the physical ones, in my experience. This is the worst injury in children of that age so this should probably not be an open season to sign up six year old kids but should be made on a case by case basis. A parent or other close relative with experience in budo has an advantage over those who do not have elders to look after them. This is NOT a reason to keep them off the mat, it just has obvious advantages. Pride can be a monster as well as a builder of character. While a child should be pushed to keep up with something they wanted, a good look at the situation also has merit.


Mark

[JustCreepin']

I have a very, very young son (1.5 years old) but I've already been thinking of the same question. Personally, I wouldn't want something that emphasizes competition - it's too easy for kids to make things about winners/losers (as a previous post was saying). That being said, my thinking at this point is that I'd try to take my son to different classes (after checking out the schools first) and seeing if there was something he found appealing. If he's into it, it might work out better.

Like most posters, I'm biased...When I was little, I wanted to do/try/study martial arts (loved the katas and weapons), but my parents ended up signing me up to a TKD McDojo (dang Mr. Moon!). To this day (about 20 years later), the 'rents still tease me about not getting the black belt they paid for in advance (I wasn't a good block-breaker and couldn't advance - great on the forms/kata and sparring, but a failure on the blocks ).

But I have to say, no matter what, I still love martial arts!

[jailess]

There's restricted availability, but if you're near one a ShorinjiKempo dojo'd be a good place to take and train a kid. I'm biased like everyone else, but what the hell?

There's no competition in SK, and the emphasis is on training with your partner rather than against them. The cirriculum's pretty well-rounded too, teaching striking methods (Goho) and throwing/locking methods (Juho). There's also philosophy and seiho (restricted acupressure), but I don't know how much of that the kids get.

If you want to know more, go to BSKF.org and contact the webmaster.

Aside from ShorinjiKempo, my second choice would be Judo: it's widely available, kids like the rough n tumble aspect of it, and to be honest I'm a little biased against Karate/TKD - I did TKD before ShorinjiKempo, with a good instructor too, but I didn't find it gave me practical fighting ability - I didn't know what to do once an opponent got within arm's length.

Good hunting...

[Mateo]

Mark's advice here is stellar as well as even handed regarding an art which he has practised for so long.

My own son is in Brazilian jiujitsu. He started last year when he was 8. He has gone to a few different dojos since he was 5 and started in the goju ryu class beside our house in Osaka. The Brazilian jiujitsu class has really caught his imagination and he loves the grappling. I think it is far more about the class structure, the teacher and the number of kids of your child's size in the class than the art.

I don't train jiujitsu but am a long time practitioner of Korean hapkido so I wasn't predisposed to having him choose this art over another. It was simply the best class running in my area. But I went and watched several classes with him, asked him what he thought of the trial class, watched what was going on myself; both the activities and the way the teacher handled the kids. At this age it has to balance skills with fun. (Though we went to one "judo" class where there were literally no skills taught by the end of the class!)

The rough and tumble of jiujitsu starts mostly from the knees and concentrates on groundwork for position, not submission, in this age group so there are really no injuries other than twisted thumbs and toes. I think once you add the stand up game there is greater potential for injury.

I don't know of a judo school that advocates locks or chokes at a young age. Perhaps physicians who don't practise that art would also be unaware of that factor.

I also sometimes feel that kids who do non-contact sparring in karate (not that I would advocate hard contact sparring!) often get an unrealistic sense of what they can do. But it is great exercise and wonderful use of still flexible bodies. Any wrestling based art offers realistic feedback to the kids, doing something that they like to do at home anyway!

In terms of getting into trouble at school with what they are doing I predict the complaint that 'little johnny is pinning his friends in the school yard' is a bit more socially acceptable than if he were kicking them in the head. (As Neil quite rightly pointed out)

Just a few thoughts,

[shaolin_hendrix]

I'd recommend a style that will affect the child's developement. An acrobatic style like Wushu or Shaolin would be good because the child would develope flexability that they could carry with them. A style with intense training like Hung Gar would be good because it would help the child become disciplined. Sporting styles like Boxing, Muay Thai, or Judo would be good because they'd make the kid be athletic. A Philosophical style like Kyudo or Kendo would be good because they'd make the kid be more thoughtful.

Bryce