Teaching Taiji to Children

[East Winds]

On a previous thread it was asked about teaching Taiji "Are any students turned away?"

When I am asked about teaching children, I generally say no, unless the classes are only 7 minutes long, as that generally matches their attention span!!:rofl: However several of my Instructors have taught Children's classes with varying degrees of success. I have also heard it said that childrens skeletons are not properly developed until they are about 10 and therefore they should not be taught Taiji before this age. However a quick look on You Tube will show several highly accomplished children (5 or 6 years old) performing very creditable Taiji.

What are other opinions on this topic?

Very best wishes

 

[grydth]

Kids do have the attention spans - but it must be something they want to stay around for. In the USA, those tend to be the faster paced arts such as karate.

My oldest daughter (12) just achieved brown belt in goju-ryu karate this summer.... a 2 mile run, followed by 10+ katas, self- defense techniques and 6 rounds of sparring. (I should add this dojo is not a belt mill or McDojo. People fail these.) You don't even get into such a test, much less pass it, without considerable focus and self-discipline.

While she shows no interest in taking up Tai Chi or Qi Gong, I did teach her a simple set of exercises to calm her before her karate tests. We do them off to the side before the test starts, and it de-stresses her quite well. I believe that this would help other children, and even outside a formal martial arts setting.

 

[ggg214]

I have also heard it said that childrens skeletons are not properly developed until they are about 10 and therefore they should not be taught Taiji before this age.
What are other opinions on this topic?

Very best wishes

my master has the same opinion.
he told me that when kids is young, their internal is still growing and not so stable for training. the internal training of taiji may bring harms to their internal.
but it doesn't matter that kids can get external trainings,such as shaolin etc.

 

[Formosa Neijia]

The Chen family don't seem to have a problem with it. But perhaps they just stress having a good form for the kids and doing it lots of times to keep the kids out of the adult's hair.

I don't see anything wrong with it per se. But i would prefer to train my kids in something that will develop their bodies more thna taijiquan will. Taijiquan's power isn't athletic power, and I would prefer them to develop that first. I consider TJQ to be the graduate school of MA. I want my kids to start off in kindergarten MA first.

 

[Phoenix44]

In my opinion the most difficult thing about tai chi isn't the physical movement but the invisible components: the energy and connections. That requires a great deal of internal abstraction. When you consider child development, before the age of 12-13 or so, kids simply lack the ability for abstract processing.

I have no doubt you could get kids to do the movements in a very precise manner. That's nice exercise, but as I've come to learn, it's not tai chi.

 

[mograph]

Maybe not. It would be an interesting experiment. If a child had the attention span and patience to learn the form, his/her imagination would be valuable in envisioning some of the abstract concepts, if they can be turned into a make-believe exercise.

"Be a tree ... a very strong, very heavy tree."
"Make yourself like a huge sack of potatoes."
"You are made of rubber -- be springy."

A lot of the adults I see believe themselves incapable of such exercises of the imagination. "How do I make myself heavy?, for example.

 

[marlon]

What about teaching them only grasp the sparrows tail. there is enough there for them to develop and it is short enough that it can hold thier attention span and wiuth the ten essences there is enough to correct and make it challenging for them. also there are enough applications to maybe make it a little cool. If they get enouhg from this then later they make take up taiji proper
just my thoughts

Respectfully,
Marlon

 

[marlon]

Maybe not. It would be an interesting experiment. If a child had the attention span and patience to learn the form, his/her imagination would be valuable in envisioning some of the abstract concepts, if they can be turned into a make-believe exercise.

"Be a tree ... a very strong, very heavy tree."
"Make yourself like a huge sack of potatoes."
"You are made of rubber -- be springy."

A lot of the adults I see believe themselves incapable of such exercises of the imagination. "How do I make myself heavy?, for example.

!!!!!!!!!!!! excellent