opr1945
Green Belt
You can't practice Karate your whole life if you don't start when you are young.
starting young!
- Thread starter opr1945
- Start date
This is great, but it really has to be controlled by the center ref. They have to keep the match fun and light. At that age, if one kid stops or is afraid to the point of not engaging, the match should end. No quicker way to scare a kid off from training.
Fragile minds at that age.
I was 46 when I started in earnest. One does what one can.
Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
I started a 11.... no tournaments for kids back then. We just trained jujutsu in a fencing school with no protective gear and no mats..... learning to fall and block became rather important way back then
It really doesn’t matter 9 out of 10 very young kids who starting simply don’t want to be there and are there because mum and dad want to have a break. most don’t care at all about what they’re learning and if they do stick it out they won’t start paying attention to it properly when they’re older so starting super young I don’t think makes much difference to if you start at an older age
Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
My youngest started TKD in 2011, stayed a year and then switched to Aikido. I think I was at almost every single class she took. She was in Aikido and loving it until 2020. When the Pandemic hit, her school went online, she lost interest. But up until then, she went because she enjoyed it and wanted to be there
All of my young students who continued to train until adulthood were focused throughout their training and ended up opening their own schools.
We usually will not take kids younger than 6-years old, and that is rare.
I had an exceptional kid named Mike(y) Hickerson who started at five. At five-years-old, he could hold a conversation with you better than many adults. Long story short, he has an incredible MA's career winning gold in the USATKD nationals 4-times, and around a dozen AAU Nationals gold. Something like 120 medals total in his competition career.
Mike is 34 now and has a PhD in chemical engineering, married with two kids, and still practices.
It is fantastic that I can still call him a friend.
I had an exceptional kid named Mike(y) Hickerson who started at five. At five-years-old, he could hold a conversation with you better than many adults. Long story short, he has an incredible MA's career winning gold in the USATKD nationals 4-times, and around a dozen AAU Nationals gold. Something like 120 medals total in his competition career.
Mike is 34 now and has a PhD in chemical engineering, married with two kids, and still practices.
It is fantastic that I can still call him a friend.
It’s always nice to see the kids grow into productive adults. One of the many positives that MA training provides.
I have a long-time adult student who is a lawyer, and they are the same way.
