best martial arts for kids

Whether you’re the parent of a boy or a girl, it feels good to enroll young people in a program that will boost their self-confidence and help them stand up for themselves in the world. But how do you choose the best martial art? Depending on where you live and your willingness to facilitate online martial arts classes, you may need to make your decision based on what is available in your area. If you’re willing to set limits and make time for your child to learn martial arts at home through an online program, then your options are limitless.

As a child, my daughter took a variety of different martial arts classes including: Kenpo Karate, ATA Taekwondo, Olympic Style Taekwondo, Kung Fu, Tai Chi, Aikido, and Toshindo. My husband and I took adult versions of the classes at the same time, and through our exploration of martial arts, we learned that Taekwondo is the easiest martial art to learn. This is the martial art we committed to and I don’t regret it in any way.

We used to climb at a climbing gym in the city, and from the parking lot, we would watch students from a nearby Kung Fu school perform beautiful round moves that were so impressive that I couldn’t wait to try it. So we skipped climbing that day and signed up for Kung Fu, where we took two-hour classes twice a week for a year. In our fourth class, the instructor had the entire student body present line up in pairs facing each other and we trained for two minutes with each person there. The class was made up of first degree white belt to black belt students and having already received my black belt in Taekwondo, I expected much more from Kung Fu black belts. But by the end of the class, I learned that a first degree black belt in Kung Fu was more like a green belt in Taekwondo (at least at that school). It was hard to translate the flowery Kung Fu moves into anything resembling street defense.

Aikido was an interesting martial art, but as a woman, I don’t like grappling because ultimately, once someone grabs me, if the only moves I know are grappling moves, the result will be based on my weight and the weight of my opponent. . This is true for boys and men too. I like the idea of ​​joint locks and I think they can work to my advantage in certain circumstances, but my daughter has been trained through martial arts to hit eyes, necks and nuts before it’s too late. . Joint locks are relatively forgiving compared to a knife in the windpipe. And honestly, in a self-defense situation, I want my daughter to be completely brutal in her own defense. I want her to go for her eyes, not her little finger, but that’s just my opinion.

Toshindo was a joke. It hardly passes as a theatrical effort. One time, a man tried to hold me down and I told him, “But my hand is free and look… I’m gouging out your eye.”

He said, “No, you wouldn’t do that.”

I said, “Yes, I would.”

We argue back and forth. After class, I decided that our family was not coming back.

Kenpo Karate was another simple martial art, similar to Taekwondo. Kicks and punches in Karate and Taekwondo have a more linear quality than Kung Fu, making them easier to learn and more practical. A child can learn the kicks and punches for any of these martial arts and they become immediately useful. And even if your child never needs to kick another person, he’ll be a better soccer player throughout his entire practice and probably less likely to get hurt when he falls, too.

When choosing a martial arts school for your child, keep your goals in mind. Do you expect them to be able to hold their own on the street? And how many years are you willing to dedicate to your martial arts education? If you want your child to walk away with a good sense of self-defense a year or two from now, enroll him in Taekwondo or Karate. If you are willing to have them take classes for four years or more, Kung Fu can have more impressive results. If you want your child to specifically learn how to wrestle, Aikido offers a variety of complicated moves that would surprise any high school wrestling coach.

The choice is yours. Good luck!