How young can someone start the practice of Aikido? Often times in styles like Karate kids start as young as 4 learning punches and kicks.
I've heard most people wait till 13 when joint development usually ends. If we have stufents who are younger than that we take it very easy on the joint manipulations and locks.
Tru Tru, at the end of the the day the earlier they start the more aikido is going to be second nature, its getting em to keep going!
I honestly don't think Aikido is a good style to get young kids into. It's very difficult and for many reasons I don't think it would be found appealing for many young kids. When my daughter reaches age 4-5 I'll start her on Judo, children seem to like wrestling and its much easier to make Judo appealing to them by presenting it as a 'game' of sorts. My Sensei's father owns the dojo I belong to and holds 9th Dan rank in Judo, so we can go to the same school. IF she is still interested in martial arts as a young teen 13-14 I will introduce her to Aikido and see if she likes it. Aikido is a great style for women and people without great physical strength. But I really think your head has to be in the right place to get the most from Aikido, both spiritualy and focus wise. I just don't think a very young kid would be developed in this fashion just yet, although I'm sure there is the occasional exception. In any case I think Judo and Aikido complement each other very well so I hope she ends up taking both. IMO you CANNOT be a good fighter without posessing BOTH stand up AND grappling techniques.
Aikido is probably not the best bet. Go for something with more of a sport based approach. Judo, wrestling, or other grappling arts are a good bet. You want to avoid anything that does a lot of locking and manipulating joints though, especially the smaller ones.
I wondered about this one too, as my kids are 7 years, 2 years, and now 28 hours as I write this. I agree that judo is easier for little 'uns to learn. I'll be looking for a judo school for my 2-year-old boy in a few years. I think aikido is hard for children because 1) they're too apt to fake it because, well gee, sensei fell when he demonstrated it. 2) it relies so much on technical precision, rather than gross movements, and little tykes can't do details 3) so much of aikido is joint manipulation that could hurt still-developing joints 4) the essence of aikido is philosophical/religious, not physical, and no child is going to get that I still don't know a good age to begin aikido, but, I let my 7-year-old girl sign up for aikido a couple months ago because her friend wanted to do it too (so they go together) and because the teacher pays very close attention to what the kids are doing to each other's joints, and puts his emphasis on proper body position. I trust this teacher. Give me another teacher and I might not have signed my girl up. I still think judo is a better choice than aikido for children, but sadly, there's no judo school near me. I wonder if maybe the best time to start aikido is either 1) adult years, when you can appreciate the effectiveness and the purpose behind the non-violent approach to fighting so peculiar to aikido, or 2) after you gain a solid understanding in some other art, so that you can appreciate the effectiveness and purpose of the non-violent approach to fighting so peculiar to aikido.
Um, yeah. We start kids with aikido where I train as young as two...not as a combat technique, but we teach in the form of games, rolling, following fellow students through box patterns, and Sensei Jill even helps the little tots do basic forward rolls. It's very hands on and safety is our primary emphasis, but it teaches the kids balance and discipline from the word 'go'. Our sensei's children have been trained safely and with age-appropriate technique and force since the age of 4. As a result, aikido has been bred into them right along with walking, talking, reading, etc. They are two of the most amazing children, ages 10 and 12, that I have ever met. The benefit to teaching them young is that the secret to effective aikido is economy of motion, and they don't have to 'unlearn' any of the counterproductive motion that so befuddles our adult classes.
Well I don't want to get on anyone's wrong side..but here I go Physical development doesn't stop till at LEAST 18/19 (I meant the caps). No-one under that age should be putting any regular or deliberate stress on joints. Aikido strikes me as entirely the wrong kind of activity for children. Normal sports like ball games, track and field, swimming, gymnastics and the like. My personal worry is that people would use akido teach young people 'morals'. I still have strong feelings against this. Judo without locks or strangles, Karate etc with very low (or none at all) impact practice...perhaps a case can be made for it. Also look at the emotional/social development. Perhaps a martial art is the last thing a child should be learning? I leave my reply open-ended for discussion, but it is not intended to be argumentative or insulting.
I know a kid, Max, who is my dad's friend's son. He is 8 and has been studying Aikido since 4. It's built into his system. Even when we playfight, his hands are out in a grappling stance, ready to grab some joints. Good thing I do kickboxing or he'd have had me by now. I have always thought that teaching martial arts as early as possible is the best thing around. Think of all the problems you'll be removing from their lives at school: no fear of fights, bullying (physical bullying anyway) as well as a fit body and stable mind. I'm 16 and I've started KB and I just wish I'd started years ago. Maybe Aikido isn't the best, but A martial art should be done as early as possible.
The younger the better I think is the answer. I help teach in our junoir class twice a week (I'm the cannon foder used for demonstarighting...the kids love seeing me get beat up by a 5th Dan...bless 'em). Kids have such a natural abundance of ki (I practice ki aikido) and proper relaxation it seems foolish to avoide developing this before they become concerned with muscles and being strong and tough. We try to teach the kids mostly through games but they do also learn the same techniques as the adults. To help the kids we break the gradings down into smaller chunks, so they get so many stripes before they get a full belt. We also don't allow the very young kids (4 to about 6) to use imobalisations. In my experience, given the chance most kids will impress any adult with what they can learn from Aikido.
from what I have seen in my sensei's childrens class is a faster growth and understanding of the techniques. The techniques in aikido are to train your body. You can't think about it, children do this very well and excel sometimes faster than the adults. Howerver, the spiritual aspect of aikido which requires you to think needs to be done older. Check out your local dojo(s) to see how their childrens class is. I highly suggest starting them early, the techniques will come, and help them understand the spiritual part of aikido. I trained with a few children during the semenar and loved it, not only was it a good change, but they got the techniques faster than I did, they just didn't think, just did, i was too busy thinking about it. Its like that quote in Last Samurai, the only one mind thing, i completely forgot it, really good quote though.
I don't often discuss the spiritual aspect of Aikido with people but since I've seen a few people here say it's too hard for kids to grasp I'm kinda wondering what other people here perceive as being the spiritual aspect of the art. In our junior class we occasionaly teach kids some very basic ki meditation and ki breathing excorcises. We also play a few games where they have to walk around with their eyes closed and sense the location of an object and pick it up. This helps to teach the kids to extend their minds or ki and to be more confident in them selves. We call this Ki Development which i guess you could say is the fundamental basics of the spiritual part of Aikido. Granted the kids probably don't understand what this is all about. To them it's just a game. But the important part is it works and gets results. The kids are actualy normaly better at this sort of thing than most adults. We're pretty sure this is because the kids minds aren't full of all the distractions and problems that adults have to face day in day out.
