Raising a Karate Kid

(pic from here)

I blogged a few months ago about martial arts and kids.  Remember this?  And this?

A few days ago, I decided that I was going to give it a shot by teaching my son how to throw a punch.  I taught the Gun-Gun to curl his hand in a fist.  It didn’t look right, so we worked on it until it sort of resembled a fist.  Then I instructed him to punch a pillow.  I showed him how.

He smiled and said, “Like that?”  It looked more like a love tap than a punch.  He moved his elbow while keeping his body still.  He said, “Bam” when he did it.  It was really cute…and unlikely to inflict any kind of damage.  No matter how many times we worked on it, I just couldn’t get him to put his weight into it or to snap it.  He was able to do a swinging type of movement, but he couldn’t throw a jab or perform a right cross.  I have no idea how Lyoto Machida started training in karate at age three.  After five minutes, it was clear to me–three year olds are not meant to throw straight punches.  The body mechanics are just too different from an adult.

Anyway, I started reading some articles on the web about teaching kids martial arts.  It’s amazing what I was able to find.

First, I saw this article, that says that young kids should not study striking arts.  The writer writes:

Parents can confidently place their kids into classes starting at 3 or 4 years of age. But, they should not allow them exposure to disciplines that involve striking or other aggressive techniques. Striking styles are best left for later ages when children have matured emotionally.

From my experience, I’d agree with that.  It was hard to get Gun-Gun to stop smiling and laughing.  Punching was like a game, which, when I think about it, is absolutely fine for someone of his age.  The author of the article is correct.  The mentality just isn’t there yet.

I had a long talk with a kung-fu expert friend afterwards.  He said that it’s probably best not to get a kid thinking about fighting too early.  Kids need time to be kids.  They need time to be in the world, to experience the world, and to live life without thinking about self-defense.  There’s going to be plenty of time when he’s older to worry about safety.

By the way, in my course of researching the question of when/how to teach a child martial arts, I stumbled across an awesome blog: Mokuren Dojo, coming at us out of Mississippi.  It’s an excellent blog run by a judo/aikido sensei that combines a holistic approach to martial arts with philosophy.  He’s also got some good tips about teaching kids, which he does in his own practice.

Related posts:

1. Raising my Asian kids Jewish
2. Raising IQs