Self-Defense for my Son - advice

[delta1]

Is pepperspray be an illegal item on the playground?

 

Even if nothing happened other than the wrong people finding out you gave your kid pepper spray, you'd get charged with endangering a minor. If he did use it, or an accident happened, you'd both be charged. Pepper srray is also on the list of things not allowed in most schools, as it is considered a weapon. Not a great plan.

[AngelaG]

Now that I have said my little rant, I will ask one question. Is pepperspray be an illegal item on the playground? Cause that would be very cheap and fairly easy to use(just make sure he knows enough NOT to point it the wrong way) Man and that would scare the hell outs those bullies. And dude, if for some reason you do get the Pepperspray make sure to secretly video tape him using it, that would be a good few minutes of entertainment.

 

Please tell me that I did not just read someone recommending that one child pepperspray another in the face . My god what an irresponsible attitude! The bullies may be horrible little thugs but they are still children - if on TV you saw police pepperspraying kids what would you think??

 

Anyway if he tried something like that the child would be expelled and would probably be in trouble with the police, and the adult that supplied the spray would definitely be in trouble with the law!

[Shito Ryu]

GUYS.... GIRLS.... I WAS KIDDING!!!! I guess I am not very god at adding sarcasim to my posts. But just outa curiosity... What is the more damaging weapon... Pepper Spray or your fists??? Especialy to new students who don't know how to control their strikes.... I would NEVER give a child of mine(I dont actually have any but for future reference) at that age ANY kind of Pepper Spray, stun guns, etc.

 

I prolly will start teaching them what I know at a very young age, like i am doing with my 2 year old brother(I haven't taught him much just simple stuff to impress my friends\family, stuff like if someone grabs you around the neck, to elboe them in hte solar plexas, puss their head to the ground and either stomp kick or punch tto the head\back) Its not much but everyone gets a kick outa it when he does it.

 

Also you don't see police to use pepper spray on kids that age because they don't need to, kids at that age normaly just have temper tantrums, which can be easily taken care of by the parent. But if a kid at that age was taking edged weapons on their parents then, or being EXTREEMLY violent ot their parents, then I wouldnt care if they used pepper spray. Again I DON"T THINK THAT YOU SHOULD GIVE A CHILD PEPPER SPRAY. What I said before was a JOKE, nothing more then a JOKE.

[searcher]

If you give one pepperspray the other will get a taser. Then you have to give your kid a knife then the other kid gets a gun. Do you see the problem with the whole situation? This can get out of hand even "arming" your child with the skills needed to defend his/herself. Because if your child does defend his/herself tomorrow the other kid will have a buddy with them and then it starts.

 

Is thereno other way to remedy the problem than what has been presented?

[Shito Ryu]

Uuuhhhhh...... Home school till he is able to take on multiple opponents????

[SloMo]

If you want to get your kid ready for "street" fights, then I would go for a mix of different styles. Most japanese karate styles were created by shorter people, so smaller people often are able to adapt to those styels better. So for Japanese styles try for Shotokan, Goju, Shito Ryu. etc. etc. etc. Or look for a Jeet Kun Do school, I think that those are fairly hard to find but Bruce Lee's style is an excellent all around style.

 

I would personaly get him started with a combo of, Kenpo, Aikido\Jiu-Jitsu, and Kickboxing\Mui-Tai. Don't enroll him in the nearest YMCA's TKD program(or almost any TKD program for htat matter) cause I'd say that 95% of all the TKD\Kungfu schools out there are what I think Black belt magazine refered to as "Fast food Schools" Basicly cheap watered down styles that give you a false sense of confidence. I know cause I have been to a few in different states. Mostly its greedy korean people, that hand out belts and charge massive amounts of money, to little kids that want to be like the Power rangers or Neo, or whatever the latest martial art hero is.

 

Now that I have said my little rant, I will ask one question. Is pepperspray be an illegal item on the playground? Cause that would be very cheap and fairly easy to use(just make sure he knows enough NOT to point it the wrong way) Man and that would scare the hell outs those bullies. And dude, if for some reason you do get the Pepperspray make sure to secretly video tape him using it, that would be a good few minutes of entertainment.

 

Greedy Koreans huh? Hmmmm, I'm going to let that one go for harmony's sake.

 

I have found that you can find some great teachers and schools anywhere. But you do have to be careful. Some YMCA or similar schools are taught by people that are not really skilled enough or have enough experience to teach, HOWEVER they are also people who are not teaching martial arts for a living. So they are doing it strickly for the love of the art.

 

When you check out schools, ask the instructor who they are certified through or who they learned from ( lineage in a way ). Then come here ans post a message. There are a lot of "Buy a belt" groups out there where I could get my dog a blackbelt if I wanted to lay out some money for..

 

Hope this helps.

 

Mo

[Shito Ryu]

The reason I said greedy is becasue one of hte TKD schools I went to while I was on a work trip, was run by an older korean guy who wanted $120 for 1 month of training. And when I asked if I could just come into the Dojo(or whatever the name is in korean) for like three days, he wanted to charge me $50!!! Now I am not a math wiz but I do know that $120/4 weeks is NOT $50. Not to mention his class was the weakest martail art classes I have been to in all my life, I did 2 hours of the class and hadn't even broke a sweat. Where as when I go to my Shito Ryu class(which my sensei only charges $40 per month and if someone wanted to train htere for a couple of days he wouldnt charge them ANYTHING) I break a sweat within 15 minutes usually. And one of the YMCA's TKD programs I went to charged like $60 a month and the Master there had some low level green belts who didn't even know their forms correctly teach me the forms............

 

And so test time comes around and he tells me to do my forms, and though I do them exactly as the green belts taught me I fail cause they taught me wrong. So at the end of the test he just puts a couple of stripes on my belt, and tells me to practice a little more, or something to that extent. That happened for 2 of the tests then I quit for the summer and when I went to check the class out again in the fall they had upped the price to like $75-90 so I was like SCREW that. Not to mention that after that Master left to do some other kind of work, the Y hired some weak little red belt to teach the class.

 

So about 2 years after that my sensei started teaching Shito Ryu again after not teaching in the area for a few years. And now I am in a good school that has a good Sensei(not someone who got their BB from some 2nd degree white guy that got his from century)

[searcher]

I have been brainstorming and I think I have a solution for the short-term since it DOES take so long to develop GOOD skills. I think you need to find a local boxing club and get your son in it. Now given the nomber of different skills they teach is limited they do have good defense and are very good punchers. This will get him some skills for the short run, but he still needs to be put in a good school.

[SloMo]

The reason I said greedy is becasue one of hte TKD schools I went to while I was on a work trip, was run by an older korean guy who wanted $120 for 1 month of training. And when I asked if I could just come into the Dojo(or whatever the name is in korean) for like three days, he wanted to charge me $50!!! Now I am not a math wiz but I do know that $120/4 weeks is NOT $50. Not to mention his class was the weakest martail art classes I have been to in all my life, I did 2 hours of the class and hadn't even broke a sweat. Where as when I go to my Shito Ryu class(which my sensei only charges $40 per month and if someone wanted to train htere for a couple of days he wouldnt charge them ANYTHING) I break a sweat within 15 minutes usually. And one of the YMCA's TKD programs I went to charged like $60 a month and the Master there had some low level green belts who didn't even know their forms correctly teach me the forms............

 

And so test time comes around and he tells me to do my forms, and though I do them exactly as the green belts taught me I fail cause they taught me wrong. So at the end of the test he just puts a couple of stripes on my belt, and tells me to practice a little more, or something to that extent. That happened for 2 of the tests then I quit for the summer and when I went to check the class out again in the fall they had upped the price to like $75-90 so I was like * that. Not to mention that after that Master left to do some other kind of work, the Y hired some weak little red belt to teach the class.

 

So about 2 years after that my sensei started teaching Shito Ryu again after not teaching in the area for a few years. And now I am in a good school that has a good Sensei(not someone who got their BB from some 2nd degree white guy that got his from century)

 

I have no issue with the "greedy" aspect of your statement. There are a lot of intructors who turned into business people first and forgot about the whole reason they started doing martial arts in the first place.

 

My issue is with "Greedy Koreans". What if your instructors were white or black? Would you have put any qualifier on that statement or would you have said "greedy instructors"?

 

Anyway, water under the bridge. I understand your frustration. The message here is "Buyer Beware"

[Shito Ryu]

Sorry the first word that came into mind was Korean, cause that was the "greediest" instruster I have ever met. I take it back and give an apoligy to anyone that was offended by my post. Normaly when I am writing stuff like this it is either late at night or I am tired so I don't always, think about how I should phrase my post. And I think if the instructer was white or black I prolly woulda refered to him\her, as "Greedy Cracker" or "Greedy *" as I am very racist.... KIDDING just kidding actually, no I am not. But I don't know what I woulda called them. I have nothing against koreans at all. I find that most are more polite then most americans, and that goes for most any other asian person(Chinese, Japanese, etc.). Americans seem to be brought up to be naturely rude, and asians to be brought up to be polite, but more and more us americans are corrupting them. With our fast food, rap music, and other trends like that.