How young is too young?

[advantageledsigns]

My son is 5 years old. Do you think that he is too young for Karate?

[jaypo]

Depends on the child. Most clubs around here start at 4. My son is 5 and trains, but he is too immature, and Sensei spends a lot of time correcting him.

[sensei8]

First off, welcome to KF!! Glad that you're here!!

No. Your son's not too young for karate. In that, that decision rests solely

with the parent(s). However, it's also up to said school if they want to teach any children that young.

I personally and professionally have no problem with students as young as your son. Even more so, my age brackets start at 4 years old, and I've a ton of them.

I enjoy students that are that young because they've no agenda beyond wanting to learn karate; karate is cool to them. No aforementioned anxiety baggage is carried into the dojo/school. They're sponges; wanting sponges that want to have fun, and so do I, while they're trying to learn karate or any other style of the MA.

As a suggestion, find an instructor that's great with kids. Why? Not all black belts can teach, and no all black belts want to teach, and not all black belt should teach, and not all black belts can teach children. Teaching children takes a special gift, imho, and not all instructors possess that trait.

Good luck, and please let us know how everything's going!

[Nidan Melbourne]

We start teaching students at 6 formally. But at my old school the hombu dojo runs classes for 4 & 5 year olds which is called 'mighty mights' although it is a scheduled class it is run more informally until they are old enough to be able to join the actual classes.

Although I am unsure if the belts in the 'mighty mights' actually cross over to the same ones in the actual classes.

[unknownstyle]

As long as the underatanding is made that children are not learnibg karate like an adult would. i personally think 13 is a good time for starting. not all kids are going to have tge maturity to learn what is taught and use it wisely.

[ps1]

In the womb. In the womb is too young. I've seen places take kids as young as 2 yrs old. It all depends on the instructor and your expectations.

If you expect a 2 or 3 year old to move like Jackie Chan, then you're out of luck. Most of the development at that age will be gross and fine motor skills. Not too dissimilar from an early gymnastics class. They may do some kicks and punches too, of course, but it's not for self defense ect... It's for motor development.

5 years old is plenty old enough, IMO. I take them as young as 4, myself.

[ShotokanMaster]

My nephew started at age 5 his 8 know and his almost a brown belt in shotokan karate do. also my niece will start after her birthday

[ninjanurse]

I agree that all kids are different and each has their own timeline when it comes to physical and cognitive development. I have taken them as young as 3 at my dojo-as long as they are willing participants and are independant.

Of course they are not taught the same program. We work on preparation for entering the Junior program at age 8-not on earning a Black Belt by the time they are 7 !!!

[tallgeese]

In the womb. In the womb is too young. I've seen places take kids as young as 2 yrs old. It all depends on the instructor and your expectations.

If you expect a 2 or 3 year old to move like Jackie Chan, then you're out of luck. Most of the development at that age will be gross and fine motor skills. Not too dissimilar from an early gymnastics class. They may do some kicks and punches too, of course, but it's not for self defense ect... It's for motor development.

5 years old is plenty old enough, IMO. I take them as young as 4, myself.

I'm with this. My youngest started a BJJ kids program at 4. Now, it was pretty much exactly what ps1 describes which is a great way to trick kids into working early BJJ skills.

I am also in agreement w ninja nurse that milling out 7 yo bb is a problem. I do like the "junior" system in this regard.

[bushido_man96]

All good comments. The youngest I've seen is 4, and that was usually in a "kids program" that tends to focus more on building some gross motor skills, familiarization with some techniques, and working a lot with building different traits like respect, courtesy, integrity, etc. But some kids are better at 4 than others. It depends on the child.