Appropriate Starting Age

[singularity6]

I was just thinking: What's an appropriate minimum age to start training?

Kids are able to learn things a lot faster than adults. Those who start training in martial arts as a child tend to do a lot better than those who start as adults, as their bodies are developing while training. As an adult, my body is already developed, and since I'm approaching 40, it's getting to that point where the development takes a dive.

The concern I have, however, is if you start training too early, that could cause some pretty serious problems later in life if you quit training, or if you train too hard as a kid. (Two obvious examples would be head injuries in American football, or hyper-mobility in joints in gymnasts.)

The other concern, which was brought up in another thread is advancement. If you start when you're 5, and train through age 15, you're already having a decade of training. As an adult, a decade of training in my style should land me somewhere around 2nd dahn. But black belts being awarded to children under the age of 16 is often chastised in most styles (again, in my style, the master instructor is extremely reluctant to give anyone anything higher than 1st dahn junior black belt if they're under 16. But this is in our small school.)

How young is too young, in your opinion for a kid to start his/her journey in martial arts?

[Zaine]

I think that, generally, the agreed upon age is 5. I also think that this is too early for MA training. In my opinion, classes for kids this age should resemble a bunch of MA related activities over a bunch of traditional exercises. It should help them learn structure and discipline and not necessarily how to defend themselves.

[Tempest]

I won't take them younger than 6. 7 is actually my preferred starting age.

To address another point you made about someone who starts at 5 having a decade of training by the time they are 15, yes, and no.

There is a reason why you cannot be a black belt in Judo until you are 16 period, 17 is more common but 16 if you have medaled in national competition.

You don't get 10 years of training between 5 and 15, you get at most 2-3 years repeated 5 times. There are various reasons for that, ranging from the students abilities to the way kids classes have to be taught most of the time.

The number 1 reason for this is physiological development. A seven year old's body is so different from a five year old and a 10 year old and a twelve year old and on and on that there is no consistency to what techniques they can do well and very little in the way of neuro-muscular retention. That is, children often are not able to remember what they were able to do previously under adrenal stress and then build on it. They have to often be re-shown the same move again and again.

Once puberty starts, even that goes out the window. Now, that being said, if a kid is a competitor who trains hard and doesn't STOP training at any point, then starting as a kid can give them a HUGE advantage in pure experience and number of reps, but the skills and techniques they have as adults will look nothing like what they started with as a kid, not just in quality, but also in type and body mechanics.

It's this constantly having to relearn basic body mechanics as their minds and bodies develop that causes children to need to relearn everything they have done before as adults and can even put them behind others who started as adults if they take a significant time off from training.

[singularity6]

Zaine, I agree with your stance on how younger ones should be taught.

Tempest, very good points about the way we develop! I do recall playing soccer from age 8 or 9 to about 14 or 15. While I was never very coordinated or strong as a child, I didn't have much more difficulty during growth spurts, and neither did most of my team mates (unless they shot up a foot in 6 months.) There was definitely an adjustment period for us, but I wouldn't say we had to realearn everything.

[Tempest]

Zaine, I agree with your stance on how younger ones should be taught.

Tempest, very good points about the way we develop! I do recall playing soccer from age 8 or 9 to about 14 or 15. While I was never very coordinated or strong as a child, I didn't have much more difficulty during growth spurts, and neither did most of my team mates (unless they shot up a foot in 6 months.) There was definitely an adjustment period for us, but I wouldn't say we had to realearn everything.

The difference, as I too played soccer at about that age, is one of complexity, at least with grappling arts.

A large part of your learning is ingraining complex movement patterns in to your bodies musculature. Think of it more like dance. You can enroll a kid in tumbling/dance as a 5 year old, but it is nothing like them applying for the high school dance/cheer squad and again that is nothing like a professional ballet company.

There are levels to this stuff, not just the same thing done but better, but actually using different body mechanics based on where you are in your physical development at that time. You gain some big advantages starting as a child, but you actually gain just as many, if not more, playing a whole bunch of sports and becoming a great athlete and taking up MA a little older, say 14-15.

[JR 137]

As has been said, a 5 year old taking karate for 10 years isn't the same as an adult training for 10 years. In addition to what's already been discussed...

Kids' curricula aren't as large. In our organization, a just promoted junior black belt is comparable to between 4th and 3rd kyu adult curriculum. So 6 years to learn what an average adult does in a few months short of 3 years.

Then there's the standards at which they're evaluated on. It's impossible to require the same standard of performance for a kid as required for an adult. Most adults will quickly learn the basics - punches, blocks, kicks and stances. I've seen VERY FEW 5-8 year olds do these things properly and consistently. They don't always make proper fists, they hold their fists at odd angles, don't have very good functional balance, don't use both hands during blocks, don't rechamber, etc. They're capable of doing all these things, but they need to be reminded constantly. In a word, they're awkward. If they were adults, they wouldn't promote. But they're not adults and shouldn't be held to adult standards.

A 15 year old who's been training since he was 5 is no where near the same thing as a 30 year old who's been training since he was 20. That doesn't mean kids aren't good and anyone with 10 years of adult training is better than everyone with 10 years of kids' training.

I guess adult training is kind of like "dog years" compared to kids' training

[Tempest]

In our organization the curriculum is the same, it's just the rate at which it is broken up and delivered that is different.

There is a difference, in grappling and sword work at least, between the techniques that you know well enough to demonstrate and maybe even teach and the one's that you will trust to use in full contact sparring against an opponent of your level or higher.

The body mechanics that you absorb and that fit you best as a 7 year old will NOT work for your 10 year old self, and again for your 15 year old self and again at 21 likely. However, if you are 20 when you start, and keep your self in good shape and training, the mechanics that "fit" at 20, can be refined for the rest of your life and then added to.

[sensei8]

I take child students at the age of 4; and I don't apologize for it. My dojo...my rules...my P&L's Bottom Line.

Our Soke's rule was that the child had to be in the first grade, as a minimum.

[Lupin1]

I would say 7 or 8 to start proper karate training, but as young as 3 or 4 can benefit from group learning in a martial arts environment working on gross motor skills, group behavior, balance, concentration, etc in a fun environment. I don't consider that "karate" as much as just a movement class in a karate-themed environment, but I still think kids could get a lot out of it.

[Nidan Melbourne]

We say 6 Years Old at my Dojo, which where I live is 1st Grade at School. But we often allow students who are on the verge of turning 6 within' a space of 2-3 Months to train.

Our New Dojo has a "Mighty Mites" Class which is designed for 4 + 5 Year Olds, but the way it is taught and curriculum is different to our Juniors Curriculum.

Hypermobility is something that you are often born with, with the exception of extreme circumstances.

With the Juniors, I am more mindful of the fact that certain activities could be detrimental to their Physical Development. But this is also taking into account the fact I am trained to recognize and understand what milestones children at certain ages are required to meet.

Yet with the Seniors; I know that majority of them have met 90% of their developmental milestones. So I am still mindful of any potential changes, yet am able to go harder on them.