Children and Karate

Call the karate school. The ones around here won't even take them until they are 4. Then he can't argue. :)

I don't think that there are any programs that will accept children until they are three years old. When I took karate in college the only time you touched anyone else was when you were practicing self defense moves and sparring. The sparring was done with pads on. The instructor teaches you how to fall. Everything is done on padded mats. I know a first grader who tested for her black belt and got it. She is a tall, lanky, sweet child. I think it is pretty safe, but not sure a two year old is coordinated enough to do it.

i think is about 5-6 years you can take your child to a free class ,but 2 year is to young i don't think thay have classes for that age almost everywhere starts at 4 years

Most karate studios start kids at 3. My son goes to Karate World in Surfside and LOVES it! They have a program called Lil' Dragons (alot of studios do) that is for 3-5 year olds. It's a wonderful program. They learn some karate moves, but it works on coordination, life skills as well. They're website is www.karateworldssb.com

You will be hard pressed to find a class that will take him before he is 4, and even then they may not take him. I found 2 classes that said they would take a child at 4, but they assess the child first. At 2, he does not have the maturity it takes to learn a dedicated practice such as Karate. But if your husband is belted, maybe he could teach him a few things to prepare him for when he is older and ready for a class.

I wouldn't be concerned about the safety since they don't start actually sparring until they are older but the karate schools around here won't start that young. My daughter was 3 and her brother was 5 when they started. She was the youngest that their school had ever had and she did really, really well. The issue that I would be concerned with is the child's attention span and the teacher's patience. If your child is not likely to be willing to follow instructions and the teacher is not good at keeping young ones focused, then it will be a waste of time and money.

Good luck,
K.

How about a tumbling class for a two year old?

I think some places will start as young as 3. You can call the karate studios in your area. My nephew started at age 4.

The karate place where we take karate doesn't start classes for kids until they are 4 years old. Karate is also pretty expensive. I don't know how much he would get out of it at that age, if they would even start a child that young.

2 is way too young. At that age, he will get some exercise out of it, but anyone who tells you it will give him a head start on martial arts is wrong IMO. My son has taken aikido since he was about 6 and that is the youngest they start at in our dojo.

I know many places do start as young as 4, but again, I have seen a lot of kids start young and just burn out after a little while, wasting your money and time, without really getting much out of it in the long term.

My son is 10 now and is the highest ranked child in the dojo. He loves aikido and is totally committed to continuing it all on his own. When we moved to a different suburb, his one concern was that we could keep coming to our dojo so he could keep doing aikido. He wants to get a black belt by the time he graduates high school and I bet he will.

Don't spoil what could be a great thing for your kid by making him do it too early. And- most importantly- do NOT just put him into a random martial arts school or program. Different martial arts have VERY different approaches and although most dojos have kids' programs (they are real cash cows for some places) the level and quality of instruction and what it is all about will be VERY different from place to place and also between different types of marital arts.

Wait til your son is older, then do some serious research about what KIND of martial art to get him into, what you want him to get out of it, etc. Visit a few different schools in your area for different disciplines and watch their kids' classes. Find out their requirements, expectations, etc.

Doing this can make this a terrific lifetime activity and a huge success for your son. But just signing up for some random kids class and paying a lot of money can burn both of you out early! Wait a few years and do some homework first!!! Read your husband this post, lol! If he really wants his son to do this, he should wait and do it right.

I don't think you'd be able to find a place that would teach a 2 yr old karate.

My son just started and he's 3.5...The place where we take him says they don't take children under 3 because of there attention span. They actually did an evaluation on him first to see if he'd even begin to follow what they did in the class.

my daughter started ju jitsu when she was 3. My son is 2 and my husband works with him on it at home. He is also teaching both of them stick fighting. My husband also helps teach classes and has been doing martial arts forever! So, I think 2 years old is fine to start at least at home with your husband maybe?

at two children barely have all the coordination it takes to perform accurate movements (for example they can hardly draw or toss a ball to the right direction more than once), how can he even think your child is ready for something requiring him to be so much in control of his actions? Plus, as someone has mentioned before, at two and even at three y.o. a child has not yet the attention span required to follow sequences of movements and patterns like the ones in karate. It's ok to think that our children are the best in everything and they are ready before all the other children because they are special (someone likes to think their children are "gifted")..but your hubby may be exaggerating a tiny bit...and I agree with you, he may inadvertently hurt or get hurt...he is still more a baby than a child, I say enjoy him the way he is now, there are many years to come to see him excel in sports!

Try to go and sit in on session at several different locations, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

My husband and I want our boys to take karate, but most studios around us only take kids 5-7 and above. Years ago I did help out with a class of 3 and 4 year olds at a karate studio, but it was primarily formed and used as a therapeutic approach for kids with ADD and some other disorders to help them focus while getting to be active. Karate is fantastic, but 2 is really too young to do much of anything but play!