Hello I am looking for a martial art for my son to do, he is a rather boisterous 3 year old (4 in August) and I feel a martial art would help him greatly. The issue is this, in my area of the UK, there are only Kung fu, Karate and TKD classes, most of these run on evenings and I don't think that my son would be suitable for these as he has an early bed time. There are 2 TKD classes in my area that train kids on Saturdays, one is and "Olympic TKD club" which only charges a yearly membership fee of £40 and doesn't charge training fee's. The other is this club http://www.wolftkd.com/wolf-cubs-from-4-years.html which I am interested in as I could actually train there on an evening (shift work - not great for structured training) - I used to train in Shotokan. Would this benefit my son? Would I find it hard to change from SHotokan Karate to TKD?
I can not speak to things in the UK but I can help with your 2nd question: You will find a lot of similarities between Shotokan and traditional TKD and some major differences. I don't believe you will have a hard time transitioning. Just my opinion but the biggest difference I find is that Shotokan tends to be more linear. More direct. More powerful. Tae Kwon Do has more movement. More angles. I have found the mixture of the 2 arts to be enjoyable.
Benefit your son in what way? TKD schools are good at tiring your kids out, basically a daycare (as are most martial arts classes for that age range). He will get a fun work out and that's about it.
I want to get him into something structured he starts school in september and I think something with a little bit of added discipline might help him
Well the truest form of discipline (IMO) is self discipline. No four year old is going to learn that. Tbh, that's what school teachers are for. They will have had years of experience dealing with kids exactly like yours. So don't worry about it. Definitely take him to martial arts classes if you feel it gives him an outlet for any emotions though. Good luck
You'd be surprised. Kids that do martial arts are just better behaved. You spot them at kids parties in groups being sensible
Shodan_Marcus, I actually had another thread on a similar topic a few weeks ago. You can find it here: http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123420 My advice to you when comparing the two options (Olympic vs the ITF School) is to go spend some time at the classes watching, and have your kid try them out. Having studied both Kukkiwon (Olympic) Style TaeKwon-Do and ITF Style for a number of years I personally prefer the ITF-Style. That said, when I lived at home the Olympic Style school was a much better fit because the Master was absolutely great. I'm now training in ITF-Style with an absolutely fantastic Master and although there's a lot of distance between us I feel great about training again. Since I posted the thread above, we decided to take my 3 year old (who turned 4 last week) out of the class but he is still training with another instructor about 90 miles away twice per month. This means that he only gets classes twice per month vs 12 times per month and it means we have to drive 180 miles return vs 3 miles etc. Ultimately though, my son loves his other instructor so much that it's worth it. He trains at home and is extremely excited about going; he's super well behaved and looks at it as a treat to train. On the other hand, although the other Master was a very good instructor he just didn't 'connect' with my son and ultimately he's trying to make a living by building a new school with lots of different kids. Maybe in a year or so we will try again and things may have changed. Long story short then would be to try it out and see how your kid interacts with the instructor. Trying to force them into something generally doesn't bode well for the long term but getting them bought into it and excited generally leads to excellent results (and that doesn't just apply to kids!)
Hi Shodan_Marcus, I'm a student of Wolf academies and so is my son who age 7 now has been a member since 5. The cubs are put through a programme that breaks down the yellow belt into a number of white/coloured stripe belts, grades the students regularly until they reach a full yellow belt (after which they transfer to the standard ITF grading system); so by yellow they'll know the same terminology and pattern as an adult at that grade, have the foundation for correct execution of punches and kicks, perform safe non-contact sparring and take part in competitions. Contact levels increase later of course as the child develops in grade, age, and ability. They also get a good workout and discipline is tight - they won't put up with any nonsense there, that's for sure (though I'd expect that of all clubs tbh). Recommended (for adults too!)
Funny, we were talking about this in another forum last week. We discussed the fact that a small body of research exists which suggest competitive martial arts MAY increase aggression levels in a child, whereas more traditional, less competitive training may help make them less aggressive. That said, there isn't enough strong evidence either way at the moment but I felt I should mention it. I can provide some papers if people like.
Is this only true of martial arts, or of other passtimes too? I would imagine that any passtime that encourages competition between kids and encourages an "us and them" attitude will result in more aggressive, competitive behaviour than more self-focused passtimes.
Wouldn't competitive actually be "more traditional"-like the Okinawan,Chinese,and Japanese practitioners and systems were were prior to the repackaging of MAs in the 20th century?
I actually see this in the kids of pro mma fighters. I also know the said pros to be from poor upbringing. Hmmmm.
No. Just my observations from the gyms I train at. It of course could only be the social circle of the gyms themselves.
