should young kids do a martial art?

should kids as young as 3 be able to do a martial art?? there is a big debate on at our acadamy, some thinking that it is too young for them to do it and some not. what do u think?

3 years i dont believe the attention span is enough at that age to start learning..and teacthing six and seven year olds is hard enough..six is generally a good age to sart with..five if the child has advanced attention span..personally i would prefer 8 i feel most parents enroll them earlier than that not so much they want thier kids to become martial artist but more so the dojang doubles as a babysitting/daycare center

 

 

3 is way too young to start martial arts, even if they go to a special kiddies class.

 

When I started, the rules were you had to know your left and right, so the starting age was about 6.

 

C ya

 

 

the younger the better. u should find them exersises they enjoy not horse stance make up games to improve balance + hand to eye

there are some very good points in this thread.I think they are all good.But this is how I see it;

 

kids should be able to start games to improve hand-eye at the age of 3 to get their skills up to scratch.

 

But I think that they should not be able to start martial arts training until about 5 or 6.As their attention span is too short. I started at the age of 11.

 

 

We have a program at our school called Little Dragons for kids as young as age 5 ... assuming they do know their left & right they can advance to a regular white belt class in future. I find that when they start this early they do advance too quickly to black belt rank at too early of an age. All of my own children began at age 5 and one has earned her black belt at age 12.

 

Deby

 

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1st Deg. TaeKwonDo Black Belt/Fitness Kickboxing

 

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It is when the student approaches black belt that the serious student discovers that he has only just begun his study of Karate

 

[ This Message was edited by: KickChick on 2001-10-01 10:35 ]

I feel that 8 is the best starting age because that is when they can seriously give their full attention to the Martial Arts. It is then that they can realise what they are actually doing. Also, the left and right thing, I know some adults in my class who always confuse their left and their right!

 

 

Karateka very true about the adults!

 

I see that too!... We always say to the "kids"... "Step in with your left...no no no your OTHER left!" ...

 

Every child is different as every adult is different too. Who is to say a child is too young to train or for that matter....too old???

 

Deby

 

 

*grins*

 

I started when I was 8 ( now 22) and I think its a great idea to get kids involved the Arts. Not to young cause they may use it on thier sibilings

 

 

It is never too young to start training but getting a blackbelt at a young age is a huge problem.