Advice for a Dad, kids and competing?

[Karate Dad]

I was hoping to get some advice on my 8yo who is wanting to do some competing in the area of forms. I think he is pretty good, but have nothing to compare it to except some of the other kids at our dojo. He has improved a lot the last few months and has joined our dojo's demo team. The team has really help him have a greater desire to improve. Here are some videos of him for any comments on what key aspects you think he should improve on to be more competitive. What are some of the key areas judges look at for that age group?

Also I am looking for more information/resources/rules for tournaments in the Northwest.

Thanks in advance.

[Bushido58266]

here are my opinions, his stances looked a little off cause he didnt seem to have a good balance when doing the moves. also his kicks were just whip kicks they didnt have much power, he needs to fold for his kicks to generate power and i didnt see much hip action in them either. his punching was really good

ive judge katas before and here is what i look for:

1. stances!!! they are very important, they are your balance and your power. if your stances are off then your balance and power will be off.

2. power is also important, blocking, punching, and kicking should all be powerful

3. speed, you dont want to do your katas to fast cause your likely to lose balance and mess up, and/or you will get tired and become slower towards the end of the kata. you dont want to be to slow cause then your sacrificing power and you will look sluggish. so find something in between. katas should also be the same speed through the whole thing. dont start fast and end slow or start slow and end fast it should all be the same.

4. Form!!! is also very important. good stances, good weight transfer, strong and solid punching, snapping and powerful kicks, solid chambers

5. and finally presentation and attitude. how you present your self in front of judges is important, try to be a little cocky but dont over do it and be sure to show confidence. make sure you keep a good positive attitude.

that is what i look for when i judge katas, so maybe you could check his katas again and use this to help fix what needs fixing. good luck

[Oracle]

Check out MASLINC.COM and look for videos on kids in your sons age range. This website has the best competitors in each age group.

In your sons age range look for videos on Ryan Wells, Sage Northcutt, Cole Eckert, Reid Presley etc.

Basics are everything and this should be the foundation of your sons future growth. These kids compete on the World/National Circuits and it should give you an idea of the competiton level in the 8-10 range.

Please keep in mind these kids train 4-7 days per week and many have multiple coaches.

Good luck!!

[Karate Dad]

Bushido58266

here are my opinions, his stances looked a little off cause he didnt seem to have a good balance when doing the moves. also his kicks were just whip kicks they didnt have much power, he needs to fold for his kicks to generate power and i didnt see much hip action in them either. his punching was really good

Much appreiciated on your comments. From his Dec. Form to his Kama Form more recently, his kicks have improved much, but yes there is still a way to go and yes we need to work on his stances and show better balance. I do see that he needs lots of work on demonstrating power in his forms. What I feel he does have is a good "presence" and "confidence" and enjoys performing, but need to learn the form much better to make his movements more confident.

I have printed out your key points and will work with him on those. Thanks.

Oracle

Check out MASLINC.COM and look for videos on kids in your sons age range.

Thanks for pointing out some of the younger names. I had been their before but did not search to find the younger athletes. I did notice these are also blackbelts, are there different groups within age for different belt levels? My son is currently an Orange belt, would he be competing against blackbelts in forms?

[Bushido58266]

i hope what i told you will help and good luck to your son and you

and also i dont think you will have to worry about competing against black belts cause all the tournaments ive been to you spar and do your katas against others of the same rank or close to it

[Oracle]

KarateDad..........yes those names were black belt kids and your son would not have to compete against them at a tournament....yet

However, they should be used as an example to see where he wants to go with his training. You will find that ..generally and I mean generally that you find two types of kids who compete reguarly.

The first type of kid is one who goes to a competition and witness's the skill level of one of these competitors. He leaves with the inspiration to train harder and seek out the best instruction to become competitve.

The second type of kid is one who is overwhelmed and thinks that he can never be that good and gives up on karate very shortly thereafter.

Most kids unfortunatly fall into the second catagory when it comes to competition.

This is why many schools frown upon students who compete at anything other than school tournaments. Most quit and the instructor loses money.

It is also for very common to see the parents give up on the kid. I can tell you from experience that it costs approx 10k to compete on the world circuit not including all of the private lessons it takes to become competetive at this level.

Many times the parents don't believe that their kids can do well so they don't spend the money for training and traveling, so they in effect give up.

Somehow, competitive karate is different than many other sports because where a kid who is not a "starter" stays with the sport for the love of it, in karate you don't see kids who get 4-8th place consistently hang around to long on the circuits.

Others have posted as to what the judges look for and I agree with most of what has been said, to help you further, I will give you a list of traits or habits of the best sportkarate competitiors.

1. Every single one of them trains religiously year round 4-7 day per week, at least 2 hrs per session.

2. They all have specialized coaches/instructors ie: trad forms, trad weapons, open forms etc.

3. Out of every geographic region you may only get 1-2 world class competitiors in each age group

4. The best kids usually outgrow their home based karate schools and have to seek outside private instruction. Why, because most schools cannot cater to the individual, they have to work with a larger less skilled student body. no offense meant!!

5. They all have better than average basics

6. The very best ones all started out with traditional and then went into open. It's very hard for young kids to start with open forms/weapons and develope the stances/basics necessary to become competitive.

7. Be wary of open only style schools if you want to compete. The kids/adults who are the best at "XMA" laugh at the stigma and they all develop their own material. To do all of the open forms your body needs the proper conditioning and most schools don't get their kids in shape.

Proper kicks/punches requires body control which requires strength.

I could go on and on, and hopefully I didn't hurt anybody's feelings.

This is the best sport I know that can develop a young persons charachter, the best time are the ones you spend with your kids and competiton gives a family alot of time together.

[Karate Dad]

Oracle

Thanks for the additional information and your knowledge with younger competitors. It is very helpful.

[jaymac]

Karate Dad, I know you posted this originally in Feb. Here is my advice: He is 8 years old. He is going to continually improve. He isn't going to do everything picture perfect. If he has the desire to train and compete, then support him and put him in any tournament you can. If you push him however, by saying "you are not doing this right, or you could do better at this," he may lose interest in all of it. I am sure you would think to never do this, but it happens because parents want to see their child do well. Every tournament I have ever attended, I see parents standing off to the side and shouting to their child ----> coaching from the side. I have seen children be more disappointed not because they didn't place, but because they felt they let mom and dad down. That should not happen.

[Karate Dad]

If you push him however, by saying "you are not doing this right, or you could do better at this," he may lose interest in all of it.

That is very true, even a well meaning parent needs to try to remember that.

[Karate Dad]

Thanks again for everyones contributions.

I just wanted to give a quick update on My son's first Tournament. http://www.IEMAT.com

We went to the tournament with a few other students in our dojo to Spokane, WA mainly for experience for the kids as this was the first tournament for all the kids and the school.

I have to say we are very excited that Jordan won 1st place in 8 yo Intermediate, Intermediate meaning those who have taken martial arts for 9 months to 1 year. I was surprised that they did break it down to that specific of an age/experience category for competition, but it is good that more kids get a chance to place and recieve a trophy. I don't know if this is that common at other tournaments?

Also, the other kids in our school(5 total that competed) all took home a trophy in their age breakdowns and 1 took Grand Champion for his division.