Karate for young children

General discussions on Wado Ryu karate and associated martial arts.
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metalfury
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon Mar 07, 2011 10:18 am
Location: UK

Re: Karate for young children

Post by metalfury »

I don't think there's anything wrong with Children doing karate, in fact I think it can be great! If a child has met the grading syllabus for a particular style/association then they have earned the belt. The quality of that assessment/syllabus is a different issue.

In our association the syllabus is the same for adults and children, the only difference is that there are half grades for children to allow them to grade more frequently and be kept motivated. For children karate is often just one of several activities they do during the week and many move onto something new around the orange belt level.

The issues you describe of perceptions of over-elevated skill can apply to both children and adults, but in my experience it affects adults more and has more serious consequences for them - Generally children are just there to enjoy the activity.

Everyone does karate for their own reasons and I believe those reasons shape what you take from your training. Personally, what I want from my training is probably very different to that of the 8 year olds so I'm not concerned about comparisons to them.

As an aside, I see you're in Bucknell. It's a small place, so I don't suppose you know a Paul Barrett, he used to live next door to the Barron pub?
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Rob Barrett
UK
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