My oldest child is at the age where we've started to practice fighting. Im interested in getting her started on jujutsu and was casually looking at dojos. I found one that took in students as young as 4. All the articles I could find about young kids doing it all come from martial arts groups that have a commercial element. Stabbing in the dark in a site like this, but anyone heard any issues about kids doing it?
I actually taught martial arts to kids close to this age group (I think it was 5 or 6 and up). Don't do it.
It's a waste of your time and their time AND if you get some shitty behaved kids in there, your kid could get seriously hurt. I had no say on which kids were allowed in class, and spent most of my time trying to pair myself with the shitty behaved kids to avoid them hurting the good kids. (I'm sure you can't possibly guess the race of the bad kids).
Most of the kid stuff was just to wear them out - run here and hit a pad, run there and do jumping jacks, run here etc. But they were taught a few BJJ things like arm bars, which is where the bad kids were waiting to do their damage.
Also, BJJ is extremely limited, and I would encourage you to find a school that teaches both stand up AND ground defense. BJJ is all about getting someone on the ground. On the ground is a very.bad.place.to.be. Especially if you are a girl. It doesn't matter how much training you have, if a guy even the same size as your daughter is on top of her, she's pretty much toast. I would personally strongly encourage checking out the Philippino martial arts (Kali, Silat, Panatukan) as those are about anything as a weapon, strong standing and ground game, and considers the single defender against multi-attacker.
I'd say if you have a very mature 10 year old, and a really good school, she could start at 10 and find value, but it may be better to delay till more like 12-13 and have her work with the adult and teen classes. Regardless, sit in and observe classes before signing her up. Any legit school will welcome a parent who wants to observe, and not wanting you to watch is the first sign of a pedo-playground. (Sadly, they are definitely out there)
All4Fingers 3 points 2.7 years ago
I actually taught martial arts to kids close to this age group (I think it was 5 or 6 and up). Don't do it.
It's a waste of your time and their time AND if you get some shitty behaved kids in there, your kid could get seriously hurt. I had no say on which kids were allowed in class, and spent most of my time trying to pair myself with the shitty behaved kids to avoid them hurting the good kids. (I'm sure you can't possibly guess the race of the bad kids).
Most of the kid stuff was just to wear them out - run here and hit a pad, run there and do jumping jacks, run here etc. But they were taught a few BJJ things like arm bars, which is where the bad kids were waiting to do their damage.
Also, BJJ is extremely limited, and I would encourage you to find a school that teaches both stand up AND ground defense. BJJ is all about getting someone on the ground. On the ground is a very.bad.place.to.be. Especially if you are a girl. It doesn't matter how much training you have, if a guy even the same size as your daughter is on top of her, she's pretty much toast. I would personally strongly encourage checking out the Philippino martial arts (Kali, Silat, Panatukan) as those are about anything as a weapon, strong standing and ground game, and considers the single defender against multi-attacker.
I'd say if you have a very mature 10 year old, and a really good school, she could start at 10 and find value, but it may be better to delay till more like 12-13 and have her work with the adult and teen classes. Regardless, sit in and observe classes before signing her up. Any legit school will welcome a parent who wants to observe, and not wanting you to watch is the first sign of a pedo-playground. (Sadly, they are definitely out there)