Children in Budotaijutsu

[Mountain Kusa]

For you guys that are in Japan now;

What is the youngest children you see training in this art?
And would you mind telling us what kinds of things they do if there are children?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Don Roley]

Someya Dojo has a children's class on Saturday afternoon. I think I have only seen it once. The kids in it are elementary school aged. One kid who reached 7th grade was then jumped up to the regular class.

From what I saw, it was mainly fun games stressing evasion skills like dodging various thrown objects. I don't know who was having more fun, the kids trying out their taisabaki or the kids trying to nail them. :snipe:

 

[Kizaru]

What is the youngest children you see training in this art?

The youngest I've seen was 10 or 11 years old. The youngest I've heard of was a Japanese man (who is still training) who began under Hatsumi sensei when he was about 9 years old.

And would you mind telling us what kinds of things they do if there are children?

There are two classes I've seen on a regular basis here; one Don has already mentioned, although I believe the training there has "evolved" since Don last saw it.

In the other class, it's mostly neighborhood kids from age 10 or 11 to about 13 or so. Class begins with a bow in, then junan taiso, various forms of ukemi, then gogyo no kata, ichimonji no kamae no kata, jumonji no kamae no kata, hicho no kata. Following that, punching and kicking at pads or makiwara, throwing shuriken made of leather, heavy cardboard or foam rubber at targets or each other. Sometimes I would see them working on kata from the first 2/3 of the Tenchijin, the shoden level of Takagi Yoshin ryu or Koto ryu, or basic striking with a hanbo or cutting with a bokken. The kata practice didn't seem like something that from my perspective, could be done with children in the United States. Often, a kid would pop another kid, there'd be some crying and screaming, both kids would get a little talking to, then they'd get back to training. After a few months of this, the crying seemed to stop...outside of Japan, lawsuits from disgruntled parents (who probably should have sent their kids to ballet in the first place) would get the dojo shutdown. In any event, I was told that because the kids lived in the neighborhood, there was also sometimes afterschool stuff outdoors.

 

[Tengu6]

The kata practice didn't seem like something that from my perspective, could be done with children in the United States. Often, a kid would pop another kid, there'd be some crying and screaming, both kids would get a little talking to, then they'd get back to training. After a few months of this, the crying seemed to stop...outside of Japan, lawsuits from disgruntled parents (who probably should have sent their kids to ballet in the first place) would get the dojo shutdown.

You hit the nail on the head with this one, in my childrens classes the kids need to be fully padded in sparring gear with headgear and a face shield to do padded bokken and padded shuriken stuff. They feel like they are in full Yoroi so it can be cool.

Markk Bush

 

[Shogun]

Man, the kids class sounds awesome! I want to do it! lol.

serously though, when I was a wee tot in TKD and Gymnastics, we didnt do 10% of that stuff

 

[mizu_teppo]

serously though, when I was a wee tot in TKD and Gymnastics, we didnt do 10% of that stuff

Lol, I know what you mean. I did have fun when I was a kid in TKD and Karate, but that doesn't even compare to some of these fun things I hear kids doing in Budo Taijutsu. Hearing about some of this stuff makes me want to be a kid again and start my training all over.

In light of the discussion here is an interesting article,

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mahoutsukai/archives/noguchi.htm