FighterForLife

I hear you - it is a double edged sword. I, myself, as a child was a little snot in the dojo. Not mean, but I goofed around way too much and must have been distracting to the older and more serious students. I cringe when I think about how I used to behave. Then again, if I hadn't been enrolled or if they kicked me out, I might never have grown up to love martial arts the way I do, and Kyokushin would have never gained this student. My memory of how I used to behave, and my demeanor in the dojo now has helped me cultivate the first of my Martial Arts Maxims: "Have patience with kids in the dojo. You used to be that annoying, too".

THIS!!!! What will be most important, at his age, is that the school you choose has instructors that know how to keep kids involved and interested. When he gets older, then you can worry about style. And not to bring the thread to a dark place, but do a thorough background search on ALL the instructors who will have contact w/ your son. Odds are good everything will be fine, but there is no need to take chances.

you would have a CHILD face down an ADULT black belt?

Will your block/deflection END/STOP your attackers advances? This isn't a rhetorical question nor is it a general musing. If ones block/deflection lack stopping attributes, then there's no use, imho, to execute said block/deflection. Stopping attributes = solid mass + velocity + conflicting trajectory vs incoming attack. Yes, my blocks stop attacks. I still dont know what you're driving at. Sometimes the media in which we're a part of allows the written word to not come across clear. I'm driving at...Don't walk forward if it's not going to get one closer to where one is trying to arrive at. I give up.

Still seems like a crappy thing to do to somebody. What was his whole point of abusing you until you got angry enough to yell at him? Dai-Soke was never abusive, and if he was, I would've left Shindokan a long time ago. Dai-Soke always CHALLENGED us, that was his way, and that was the way of our Soke as well. While it may seem like a "crappy thing to do", I never felt it that way then, nor do I feel that way now. To know him is to understand him; he was very compassionate both on and off the floor. If the way that I wrote the OP has painted a negative hue about the situation as well as my Dai-Soke, then the fault is mine, and not Dai-Soke's. Fair enough. But what was the point of the "test"?

Still seems like a crappy thing to do to somebody. What was his whole point of abusing you until you got angry enough to yell at him?

Will your block/deflection END/STOP your attackers advances? This isn't a rhetorical question nor is it a general musing. If ones block/deflection lack stopping attributes, then there's no use, imho, to execute said block/deflection. Stopping attributes = solid mass + velocity + conflicting trajectory vs incoming attack. Yes, my blocks stop attacks. I still dont know what you're driving at.

As has been pointed out, the whole "register your hands" bit is a myth. As for the larger point of whether you'll have a harder legal time, I certainly think that your training will be under scrutiny. I am no lawyer, but I have always, in my mind, rehearsed running the heck away from the scene if I have laid someone out. If you aren't there, and witnesses can't give but a general account of the situation and your description then odds are better you wont be arrested and land in court. And as for leaving the scene of a crime, it is easily justifiable that you were terrified for your life and didnt know how many friends that guy had just waiting to pound you into dirt.

Apparently there is a different "C" word in Canada than there is in the US, lol. The more I think about it the worse this whole experience sounds. I mean, what was the purpose of this "test"? What gain is there to making him shout at his instructor? The only thing I can imagine is that he WANTED him to stop looking at him like an instructor and more of an equal (of course, I can think of several reasons why that couldn't be the case, too).

To the OP: If memory serves, the whole "one punch one kill" stuff started with Funakoshi when he wanted to make Okinawan fighting more relatable to mainland Japan. It is a nice sentiment, but I've never taken it literally. As for the question of blocks...what is your question? Is this rhetorical? Just seemed to be general musings rather than a conversation starter.

Thankfully I never have had someone pull that kind of nonsense on me during a test (passing a Kyokushin test is pretty straight forward: you fail if you quit) For someone to make it a requirement to break social etiquette in a martial culture that STRONGLY adheres to social etiquette seems like a bunch of crap to me.

No. Let's pretend it was for a moment. So what? Just because something "used to be" doesn't mean that it was "good", "right", "effective", or should continue at all. Remove the karate context - what if this boy's teacher, Scoutmaster, or parent did the same thing as punishment? You cannot automatically write off acts of violence on children just because they happen in white pajamas.

I used to take Combat Hapkido. 1. Like all fighting arts they are similar to one another, yet different. Both contain strikes, both contain locks. Both are (debatably) "reality based". 2. Far fewer groin kicks in CH and no hand grenade disarming techniques. 3. Commando KM is a "unique" brand created to avoid having to pay royalties to KM central. From what I was able to learn while I was looking for a KM school way back in the day, there is very little measurable difference to common KM

I'd have to disagree with that. A regular part of Kyokushin training is jissen kumite which is full contact fighting. Students regularly spar in class, and often with moderate to hard contact. Human beings are much sturdier than you think, and even a well trained strike from a martial artist is not always the killing blow (or even fight finisher) we think it is. This is the Kyokushin way of sparring. Note too that we rarely get any kind of serious injuries from this kind of sparring in the dojo too. Osu! In our dojo we have a lot of kids (small group - we dont have a separate kid-class) so I get my control training when I spar with them and will only make light contact. With the shodans and adults, that is where we take the gloves off (literally).

Uhm, I dunno about everyone else, but I didn't shop for my martial art at Ollivander's.