Questions about the serious value of MA training as a "child"

[hardheadjarhead]

I started MA when I was 11 years old. I had lots of fun and built a good foundation of basics, yet the older I get, the more that training seems over-simplified. I'm not sure how much I really comprehended what I was learning. What it comes down to is this, I feel that I learn more in one year as an adult as I did in the seven I trained as a child. So, my questions are the following...

1. What worth is MA training when one is under the age of 16-18?
2. Is training as a child something someone should put on their "MA resume"?
3. Is it something that serious students of the martial arts should take seriously?

Yes, yes, and yes.


Now, for justification.


Training in athletics as a child develops proprioception or "body awareness." The percussive styles of martial arts that children are typically taught (Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Kenpo, Kung Fu...) are superb for developing proprioception, balance, hand eye coordination, timing, endurance--the list can go on. The non-percussive arts are also excellent for this. Grappling arts achieve the same goals, but take a different path to get there.

We gain the same thing from other sports, of course. Gymnastics and dance are some of the best arts for teaching children body awareness.

Some here might question the value of training in the arts as a child, feeling (as you did) that they learned far more as adults than they did as a child. My response: Of course you did. Most people do...that's why we have graduated education programs in all sports, music, and general education programs.

Ever go to a music recital for five year old kids? They're incredibly cute...but face it, they're not very good. Occasionally we get the one gifted child that is a potential Mozart (and in our arts we get the "future Bruce Lee"), but on the whole they're not all that sharp. As we see the older and more experienced kids come out for the recital...the ones that have practiced for five years...we note they're doing some pretty amazing things with their hands. So too the gymnast with like experience, the dancer, the baseball player...the martial artist.

Listing it on a martial arts resume might not mean anything unless to demonstrate a continuity of training and commitment. Julie Kedzie (MT's "JulesK") has trained in the martial arts since the age of five...with few breaks. Some might find that impressive, others not so much. Argument can be made that its what you've done recently that counts. Still, each phase of training she went through added a layer to her foundation as a martial artist...and each phase opened new doors of opportunity for her.

If a freshman from Indiana University walks in to my school and says he's studied Kung Fu under one of Pan Q'ing Fu's instructors in Canada since the age of five (and I have reason to believe this true)...and he's now eighteen...I have a general idea of what to expect from this person. I know I'll have someone who has mastered their body, likely acquired great flexibility. and amassed a significant amount of information. I'd be delighted, and honored, if such a person walked in. The training as a child counts as far as I'm concerned.

Those that train from age six to twelve have probably lost a great deal of their talent...but I'm convinced that the coordination and balance they acquired as kids doing martial arts has stayed with them, even if its vestigial. I've trained a number of people like this who have come back after decade long lay-offs. Within weeks they show some real skill.


Regards,


Steve

 

[Jonathan Randall]

I started MA when I was 11 years old. I had lots of fun and built a good foundation of basics, yet the older I get, the more that training seems over-simplified. I'm not sure how much I really comprehended what I was learning. What it comes down to is this, I feel that I learn more in one year as an adult as I did in the seven I trained as a child. So, my questions are the following...

1. What worth is MA training when one is under the age of 16-18?
2. Is training as a child something someone should put on their "MA resume"?
3. Is it something that serious students of the martial arts should take seriously?

I have mixed feelings upon the subject. Usually there is no harm in starting a child in the MA young, so long as they don't develop a dangerous false confidence. However, my early experience was very mixed. My parents put me in Judo in the early 1970's when I was five and it was, for the most part, a bad experience. I didn't understand the instructions and even after several years of consistent training I was still a white belt. To make it worse, the Sensei would discipline students by making them wear a "pink belt". This was needless and gratuitious humiliation. In truth, I would never have started the MA back up again in my H.S. years had I not had a best friend who was active in a TKD dojang. My early experiences really soured me on the MA as I tried my very best and failed every time. Remember, though, that this was over thirty years ago and attitudes have changed. Instructors would go out of business today for far less than what I experienced.

I guess, it ultimately depends upon where and how. Don't force a kid to go to a dojo that he hates. I remember getting sick before class every week, but being forced to go by parents who would have whipped me if I didn't. Depends. Tread softly.