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Oof.
How many pages of space do I have?
Depending on circumstances, that is not too young.
What circumstances?
1. Attention Span
The biggest issue with kids that age doing almost anything is of course attention. It requires several things.
The teacher must be competent to deal with kids that want to wander off every 5 minutes.
The class structure must be able to deal with kids that want to wander off every 5 minutes. (Usually a small class size, and a 30 minute class time.)
The achievement goals must be geared towards kids that age.
And sometimes the hardest, the parents' expectations must accept the limits of the attention span. If you expect too much, too soon, you may never give the school a fair chance to teach your child.
2. School Safety
This has two primary components.
First, if the teacher does not let you watch the class, every class, beginning to end,
Do not merely leave, flee. At top speed.
I can not stress that as a greater absolute.
I do not care if the classes are free, the instructor has enough certificates to outweigh your D&D collection, or whatever.
When I was working for NYC teaching a class and had a background check, that was still the first advice I gave to every parent, and my classes were always open.
Second, the class program must recognize the needs of a child that age.
Among other things, that means no breaking boards. I do not care how cute it is, or how much the teacher says it is safe. An adult, with fully developed bones, can fracture a bone if he hits a baked and scored pine board incorrectly. A child, with still growing bones, can do much worse even if he hits the board correctly.
This also applies to the drills in general, much like the stories about excessive gymnastic training. You can overdo physical training with a child quite easily. And to me, with a karate teacher's personal bias, almost as tragic is the mental burnout that drives an otherwise promising student away too early.
Likewise there should be an absolute limit on the sort of self-defense and application that is taught. That leads to a much longer dissertation on what the intent of self-defense is supposed to be, the mindset required, and the psychological effects are (primarily PTSD), but equally important is that, again, no matter how cute it may look, a 5 year old can not beat up a fully grown adult, and an attitude that it is possible will do more harm than good. How to make someone let you go while you call for help is quite adequate, and even an older child (tweens) really does not need to know just where to punch to cripple someone.
Beyond that there are a whole bunch of other issues relating to finance and some other danger points to watch for, but those are the most critical special issues when finding a school for a child.
Provided you find a school that accounts for all of them, which is usually not excessively difficult despite how the above may make it seem, 4-1/2 is a suitable starting age.
The best student I ever trained, a girl, started around that age. She spent about a year standing around, twirling her hair, going nowhere fast. Then one day she declared she wanted to be like another girl, about 3 years older than her, and within 3 years she had completed the black belt technical program. I delayed her promotion a full year because of her age, and she did so well on her test she made my test performance look pathetic by comparison. (By "technical program" I mean the forms and moves. She still could not beat a full grown adult in combat, or know the full scope of application, but she has since learned enough to qualify as a full black belt.)
At this point, I generally catch my breath, and ask if there is anything I could elaborate on, or any specific questions you might have. (Yes, I have a standard presentation for parents of new students.)
One key problem with martial arts is that a lot of the terminology is like D&D terms. Unless you already know it, they are just polysyllabic gobbledygook, and I do not believe in promoting the martial arts by impressing someone with my vocabulary of obscure terms.
So if you have more questions, ask away.
:)
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Thanks a lot!
I had about 5 years of Isshin Ryu in high school. Then I took a semester Judo class in college; some guy popped his knee out in the Judo class, so overprotective me; when my wife asks if I think my son could do a little Karate, my first reaction consists of hearing that poor guy screaming...
I'll think long and hard about it, since this bit of advice moves it from an "out of the question" to a possibility.
Samuel brings up a big point; parent’s expectations. An instructor is not going to teach a group of 4 year olds an entire kata.
I took some classes way back in the day when I was in high school. The same sensi taught a ‘self defense’ class for little ones. He focused on what to do if approached by a stranger; hit, scream, run for safety. He also taught things like how to call 911.
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Thanks a lot!
I had about 5 years of Isshin Ryu in high school. Then I took a semester Judo class in college; some guy popped his knee out in the Judo class, so overprotective me; when my wife asks if I think my son could do a little Karate, my first reaction consists of hearing that poor guy screaming...
I'll think long and hard about it, since this bit of advice moves it from an "out of the question" to a possibility.
Ahhhh, yeah. Seeing an injury like that will do it to you.
That is why I mentioned safety as a core issue. Karate should not be more dangerous than it has to be. It does involve contact, at least beyond the most basic level, and intense practice. That does not mean you need to have half the class out with injuries or looking like raccoons on a regular basis.You can generally gauge that with watching a few classes, especially with a sparring session. Focus not only on how the students act, whether they are going at each other to injure instead of just win a minor sport contest, but also on the instructor. His attitude will drive the students' attitude, and establish how safe the place is.
I take my method from one of the black belts who taught me. He said very simply that he would hit me as hard as I hit him. I took him at his word, and controlled the strikes he let me hit him with. A simple lesson: Respect the people you train with, and they will respect you. It works for me.
Give it a chance, check out the local schools, and see how it goes.
By the by, who did you train with? (On the offhand chance I have heard of the person.)
I trained in NY (the Bronx and New Rochelle) with Tommy May.
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Samuel brings up a big point; parent’s expectations. An instructor is not going to teach a group of 4 year olds an entire kata.
I took some classes way back in the day when I was in high school. The same sensi taught a ‘self defense’ class for little ones. He focused on what to do if approached by a stranger; hit, scream, run for safety. He also taught things like how to call 911.
That is the best place to start, especially the running.
I always demonstrate to the kids that they really are not going to be able to hit me, particularly with my gut, hard enough for me to even notice it. It really gets through when they watch the older kids do it and I do not even flinch.Then I show them how to pinch, or use a fingernail, and make sure they focus on getting away.
And then I have a long rant about teaching self defense in general. ;)
As for teaching an entire kata to a 4 year old, with a good 4 year old, and the right introductory kata, you can do it. The thing to remember is, he will do it like a 4 year old. More importantly, he will understand it like a 4 year old. And likely forget it the moment you stop having him work on it.
That is why I prefer to focus on teaching children how to learn and to like learning first, then start teaching them the easy stuff. ;)
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Thanks a lot!
I had about 5 years of Isshin Ryu in high school. Then I took a semester Judo class in college; some guy popped his knee out in the Judo class, so overprotective me; when my wife asks if I think my son could do a little Karate, my first reaction consists of hearing that poor guy screaming...
I'll think long and hard about it, since this bit of advice moves it from an "out of the question" to a possibility.
Ahhhh, yeah. Seeing an injury like that will do it to you.
That is why I mentioned safety as a core issue. Karate should not be more dangerous than it has to be. It does involve contact, at least beyond the most basic level, and intense practice. That does not mean you need to have half the class out with injuries or looking like raccoons on a regular basis.
You can generally gauge that with watching a few classes, especially with a sparring session. Focus not only on how the students act, whether they are going at each other to injure instead of just win a minor sport contest, but also on the instructor. His attitude will drive the students' attitude, and establish how safe the place is.
I take my method from one of the black belts who taught me. He said very simply that he would hit me as hard as I hit him. I took him at his word, and controlled the strikes he let me hit him with. A simple lesson: Respect the people you train with, and they will respect you. It works for me.Give it a chance, check out the local schools, and see how it goes.
By the by, who did you train with? (On the offhand chance I have heard of the person.)
I trained in NY (the Bronx and New Rochelle) with Tommy May.
I trained under Richard Foster, who trained under (I think the name is) Robert Bremer, who trained under Shimabuku Tatsuo.
As for teaching an entire kata to a 4 year old, with a good 4 year old, and the right introductory kata, you can do it. The thing to remember is, he will do it like a 4 year old. More importantly, he will understand it like a 4 year old.
Good point.