WHAT A GOOD AGE to START TRAINING?

[Shen Zhou]

I have recently been told that i am joining the fatherhood club. Excited can not even begin to explain what i am feeling. Being my first child i wanted to know what is a good age to start MA training? and what type of routine do some of you Sifu/Teachers use with your younger students. Thanks


SHEN ZHOU

[Starchaser107]

I personally suggest 4-6 years old.
but try to stretch the kid from maybe 1.5 to 2 yrs , kids are more flexible when so young and the earlier you start the easier it is for them.

[MasterKiller]

8 -10.

[PangQuan]

There are joint flexability techniques that must be started at least before age 6 in general. So I would go with the 4-6, but really it just depends on the parents. You in theory could start the little kid off as soon as they have a firm grasp of walking, and talking.

[HearWa]

I'm not a father, nor am I married, but I've seen a five year old whip out forms like Fuk Fu like no tommorow. I think somewhere around the vicinity of that age is decent.

Now, I'll hand you this: the kid was from China, and they're allegedly more obediant when coming from that culture, but I'm sure your kid could learn it just the same when he reaches that age.

He also picked up on French very quickly. Kids are amazing! :D

[Water Dragon]

between 11-13.

Before that, just let them enjoy being children.

[MasterKiller]

Little kids can learn forms and sure, they're flexible, but they just don't understand the intent. I would prefer to start them later. We have kids class with 6-10 year olds, but the young ones just don't get it. They move well. But they just don't get it.

I mean, how flexible do you really have to be? I can't do the splits but I can fight decently enough. If I could do the splits, I don't think it would make me fight any better.

[Serpent]

So what if they don't get it? Think how much better they'll be when they do get it and they've already got a solid training base behind them. I say anything from 4 or 5 up is good.

[Starchaser107]

Just to clarify myself.
I will elaborate my personal theory and experience.

I believe that if you want the best for your child, stretching and flexibilty basics should be done early. I'm not necessarily bent on showing toddlers forms / kata but like Hearwa I have seen a 4/5 year old karateka do a really powerful form.

Nevertheless , that's not my point. My point is that Children should/ or rather could be taught such basics as flexibilty early on. Even Shaolin Temple makes young children do that flexabilty form. It's not necessarily Martial in the strictest sense of the word , but it offers a really good foundation.

When it comes to hardcore training, I believe that should be saved till later, i.e. Full Contact Fighting. Or any Weight Training
as this might cause serious damage to the child and / or stunt thier growth.

Some kids are more obedient than others , and I personally don't want to teach anybody's young children, as it is a big responsibilty. But I will teach my own children.

Children grow, and that complicates learning motion co-ordination , because each time they grow thier motor skills have to adapt to thier new bodies. Having a basic training regiment for kids (perhaps flexibilty, stances, basic blocking , punching ,kicking, basic forms) more often than not helps to alleviate this problem.
And the children really benefit from this when they are older. I have personally seen this, so I can attest.

Shen Zhou, you will be responsible for the discipline of your own child/ children, parenting plays a major role in a childs development. I encourage you to be a good parent and teach your child the martial arts.

WD,
The statement that a child should allowed to be a child is a very strange one. I'm sure you would send your child to elementary school to get an elementary education, so why not the same for the martial arts? Unless you are running a strict Chinese Opera styled house I don't see the benefit of keeping your child away from martial arts.
It is PROVEN that excercize and physical activity helps to stimulate the mind. Why deprive your child of that? Martial Arts if taught right is a vehicle for discipline and Focus.

[Water Dragon]

Originally posted by Starchaser107

WD,
The statement that a child should allowed to be a child is a very strange one. I'm sure you would send your child to elementary school to get an elementary education, so why not the same for the martial arts? Unless you are running a strict Chinese Opera styled house I don't see the benefit of keeping your child away from martial arts.
It is PROVEN that excercize and physical activity helps to stimulate the mind. Why deprive your child of that? Martial Arts if taught right is a vehicle for discipline and Focus.

Not saying anything about physical activity, just saying that I think 11-13 is the best age to start children training. That's my opinion based on my experience w/ my oldest son and other children I've seen training.

If you want to put the kid into a Tae Kwon Do or kids Karate class, that's fine. I prefer to wait until my son is older and not build bad habits though.

[Wharg0ul]

IMO, 10 for MA training, and acrobatics/stretching before that.

You can start conditioning the body and attitude before you being the martial aspect of training.

We all know that developing bad habits while learning your basics can screw up your arts. Best to wait (once again, IMO) until the child really understands what he'she is doing before beinning the real training.

Grats on your fatherhood, btw. :)

[Starchaser107]

In your profile you have listed yourself as "Shuai Chiao/Muay Thai/BJJ " and under your avatar you have " Vale Tudo"

In My experience I understand these to be for the most part Full Contact Sports/Arts

and if you had read my post you would realize that I am in agreement with you for the most part.

However , I am under the impression that Shen Zhou ( the person who wrote this post) is a disciple of Preying Mantis, which is a form of Chinese Kung Fu.
There are many aspects to Chinese Kung Fu and not all of them involve going full contact.
I fail to see how in this particular instance (Shen Zhou's child) starting early would develop bad habits.

No offense to you WD, and your respective arts. And I totally understand not wanting to involve young children in activities that might do more harm than good.

[Water Dragon]

That's the beauty of this place. There's a lot of different people coming from a lot of different spots. Opinions were asked for, I gave mine. If you want to take my opinion, I'll even give you a grain of salt to go with it.

[PangQuan]

If we are talking traditional chinese training, then you start your child off when it is physically able to begin anything, you dont start with punches, kicks, or anything like that. Remember old school traditional style you will start off with about 3 years of basic stance training movement and flexability. This is easy to teach a child (especially over 3 year period) so you can start at 5-6 and then around 8-9 start the martial qualities, by that time their stance, footwork, and flexability will give them quite a LARGE edge over the other kids who are just starting their Ma Bu. This is traditional.

[Starchaser107]

lol

okay fair enough.

My opinion plus grain of salt is , if you're going to give your opinion on something make sure it's relevant.
It's like giving Swimming advice to a Race Car Driver.:p

[PangQuan]

I guess the real question is; do you want to give your kid a full blown martial education or is it going to be on the side of a full blown scholastic education. You can really only specialize in one. which ever you choose you can get good at the other, but will never be a true expert unless you specialize. Ask yourself this question, if the answer is that you want your kid to be homeschooled on what he needs to survive but specialize in MA, then I would go find a master that you are willing to let shape your childs future for martial success. If not start a high interest bearing certificate of deposit for college purposes, and train the kid when ever you feel he is ready. At this point its all day dreaming, planning the future, setting goals, laying seeds and watching the fruits of your labor.

Have fun with your little bundle of joy, what ever choice you make will be the right one.

[FuXnDajenariht]

congratulations Shen! cigars all around... :D whatcha gonna name him/her?

[Shen Zhou]

But thank all of you for your advice. I like the idea of building a strong foundation with stances, footwork, and streching at an early age and then as time go on move on to forms and fighting. My Sifu will still be alive and kicking so we both will have a hand in the martial upbringing which i think is a very good concept. Kinda old fashion but the idea of my seed having the same teaher as me appeals to me and if anything was to ever happen i could complete their training if need be. But thank you all for your answers. OH i Do have one name picked out PHAROAH if its a boy........

Shen Zhou

[SaekSan]

First of all congratulations on being a father! :)

About your question, it sounds like everyone is giving good advice.

I agree with MK on the 8-10 age, but to have them start and try it. If it's not their thing see how it goes later but never force the issue. This is how I do it with my daughter and she seems to feel fine with it, she knows a bit but she's not going all the time. She enjoys other things as well (swimming, soccer, dance, etc...).

Starchaser is also giving good advice on keeping the child active so they will have a better chance of a healthy body later on in life. Flexibility and active muscle exercises in childhood are proven to be beneficial later in life.

WaterDragon is also giving you good advice on the fact that a child needs to learn and enjoy being a child while they can and "serious" training at an early age may not be the greatest answer (this is from personal experience as my father had me study Judo 4x a week from age 5 to 10).

Now one thing I'll have to say from personal experience is:

Don't teach your child, let someone else do it for you.

In Brazil there's a saying "Santo de casa nao faz milagre" (Household saints don't make miracles). You can be there as support for the child and guidance but let the frustrating portion of the training (teaching basics) go to someone who's not attached to him/her.

Best of luck!

:)

[themeecer]

Originally posted by PangQuan
I guess the real question is; do you want to give your kid a full blown martial education or is it going to be on the side of a full blown scholastic education. You can really only specialize in one.
I disagree 100%. The two compliment each other. That is like saying a person cannot be a star basketball player and make good grades at the same time. Not true a t all.

[Mr Punch]

I would say that stretching exercises as young as many have said will lead to developmental problems in the long run and more than liekly an early onset of arthritis.

But then I'm not a doctor!

I'm a strong believer in 'when he wants to' but there's no harm in showing him how cool it is at every opportunity!!! :D

Congrats Shen!

[ShaolinJOJO]

a good age to start kids training is when they are mature enough to be disciplined, and able to take comands from the instructor thats why they should start a trial class first, i noticed this after becoming an assistant instructor.