Just thinking over several different threads that touched on this topic regarding children. There seemed to be a conflict in two viewpoints:
1) Children are encouraged to start martial arts when young for their protection, confidence, discipline, and a host of other reasons. [Some dojos start classes with children as early as 3 years old.]
2) The idea of children reaching upper ranks (specifically black belts) early are vilified in several threads. [The preference of distinction is to call them "Junior BB" so that their rank is not comparable to the "full fledged BB".]
It is inevitable that children starting martial arts early will reach upper ranks while growing up.
Would you have handled the training of children differently so that the fallacy of "equal rank" doesn't occur? Is this just an issue of semantics and resolved only by comunication? Or are you of the opinion children should start later in life (in other words, achieve "maturity" enough to handle classes instead of starting at 3 or 4?) Could the idea of a different color or a mixture of colors be a possibility as a Jr BB rather than using black? Would using other colors help avoid the "ego" or attitude that often is attached to the color black?
Main question: What are the real issues with children's training?
Another related tangent: Assume for a moment that politics, personalities, economics, etc., aren't issues or problems, if you can run an ideal dojo (with children involved as students) and there is an ideal rank structure, what would the structure be like?
- Ceicei
1) Children are encouraged to start martial arts when young for their protection, confidence, discipline, and a host of other reasons. [Some dojos start classes with children as early as 3 years old.]
2) The idea of children reaching upper ranks (specifically black belts) early are vilified in several threads. [The preference of distinction is to call them "Junior BB" so that their rank is not comparable to the "full fledged BB".]
It is inevitable that children starting martial arts early will reach upper ranks while growing up.
Would you have handled the training of children differently so that the fallacy of "equal rank" doesn't occur? Is this just an issue of semantics and resolved only by comunication? Or are you of the opinion children should start later in life (in other words, achieve "maturity" enough to handle classes instead of starting at 3 or 4?) Could the idea of a different color or a mixture of colors be a possibility as a Jr BB rather than using black? Would using other colors help avoid the "ego" or attitude that often is attached to the color black?
Main question: What are the real issues with children's training?
Another related tangent: Assume for a moment that politics, personalities, economics, etc., aren't issues or problems, if you can run an ideal dojo (with children involved as students) and there is an ideal rank structure, what would the structure be like?
- Ceicei