At what age is it best?

[Zhong Gau]

In Fu Long Siu We do not teach anyone under the age of 21. I made the mistake of teaching a few techniques to my daughter and she crippled a kid three years her senior when she was 7.

[June1]

I think that maturity will determine how well a person will do in the martial arts. It is through this that an understanding of the art and a dedication to it will help make the artist. The younger the student is, the more difficult it could be to develop proper skills.

 

One of my senseis actually pulled his son out of karate for now because he just couldn't concentrate. I believe he is about 5 or 6.

 

There you have it!

[Mr. Mike]

I don't think there is a minimum age, as long as THEY are ready. It's also a great way to help instill decent values. My son sstarted when he was 5, and he's doing great. My daughter is 8 and she is doing a good job with it also.

 

AT our school, we don't hesitate to correct them if they are inaccurate, but it's to a different degree that we would correct an adult. With the children, it's important to keep in mind not to get overly technical, for exaple, if a defense technique employs leg checks, we would overlook the inaccuracy or sloppy leg placement in favor of gross mechanics, until they have mastered the basic movements.

 

They have more time to develop than the adults usually wish to take. According to our association's rules(IKCA), they have until the age of 16 to test for their adult black belt. Until then, they are junior black belts. So if a child were to fulfill the requirements for Junior Black Belt at the age of ten, they would have another 6 years to polish and refine. That's alot of time.

[Zhong Gau]

wow, i like that kind of differentiation. do y'all actually teach chinese fighting forms to kids or are you teaching primarily 'old school' karate/tkd

 

(please forgive my ignorance in japanese and korean arts, but to me they look okay if you're wearing armour and using stick/sword weapons).

[Shane]

I'd say its up to you, you know your kids best.

[battousai16]

um, i started when i was 7, learned a lot, had great amounts of fun, stuck with it. there are children in the kids class that i teach who clearly don't want to be there, and it's the worlds biggest pain for yours truly, who has to try to get them to focus, and more importantly, not lose the focus of everyone else... than you have to try to figure out how to get them on task... so really, it depends on the kid. i have a 4 year old in my class that i would rather not be teaching. he's pretty young, and his techniques are flawed, and he has the attention span of a gold fish. but man, when he picks up on something, i get ecstatic, and he impresses me every time i see him. if he sticks with it, i think he could be pretty great. so uh, yeah, i guess what i'm getting at, is that it depends on the kid. just make sure they want to be there and know what they're doing, and i don't see anything wrong.

[Hudson]

Yarr, I wouldn't have a quarrell with anyone teaching as long as they are a proper role model and focus more on fitness and mentality over technique, because a 7 year old does not need to know how to do a joint lock.

[Mr. Mike]

Zhong Gau- our only form is the Master Form, which is all of our defense techniques in the order that they are taught with varying transitions between them, so not really anything that would be considered 'classical chinese forms.'

 

hopefully that answers your query.

 

we do have other forms, but they are very short and only for the first two belt levels...otherwise after 1st dan we are required to make a creative form.

[thebarkingdog]

It depends on the school and what is being taught to the child and it depends on the child. Our children's Kung Fu class and Adult Yue-Chuan Kung Fu class are nothing alike. The children's class focuses alot on confidence and attitude "can't" is a bad word in class. As far as what we teach the kids physically there are alot of fun cardiovascular activities and games, they develop speed, agility and strength, rolling, sidestepping... all things that are needed for a good foundation before you learn actual fighting techniques. They also learn some katas and forms, we start with pinans (I think they are the easiest to learn) Where as in the adult class actual street fighting techniques are taught and chinese forms are taught. Our youngest student was 6 when he started and did better than the 9 and 10 year olds. We have a 4 year old daughter that we may let her join the classes when she's 5. We have alot of people call us for 4 year olds and we just haven't seen any 4 year olds that were ready for it. There are other schools that have special programs for just 3-6 yr olds, we just don't do it that young.

[krzychicano]

My son is going to be 5 in a few weeks but he has been taking Kuk Sool Won for about 6 months and I tell you what I would gladly put him up against most older white and some yellow belts when it comes to proper beginning hyungs (forms). I am so amazed at how much he can actually retain and I never force him to go he is always asking me when it is Kuk Sool time hahaha.