Teaching Kids Martial Arts – 3, 4 or 5 year olds?

Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 12:32 pm

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Parents are always asking “When is the best time to start their kids in a Martial Art”… the answer is always as young as possible. Obviously most instructors don’t want to be teaching lessons to 2 year olds so the youngest age of most schools to start teaching kids martial arts is around 5yo.

Although most Instructors don’t want to teach 1, 2 or 3yo kids they generally start teaching their own children as soon as they start walking. Just jump on youtube and you can find proud parents showing their toddlers picking up sparring gloves and having a go or trying to get an arm bar on their Mum or Dad.kids with Martial Artist Parents should always have an advantage.Physical Exercise is just seen as a part a normal lifestyle.

I remember once being at my instructors house and we were sparring hard, groin shots, takedowns, chokes were all happening and then we see his 3yo daughter walk casually past us while we’re rolling on the ground, she climbs up onto the swing, gets it going and yells out “look at me Daddy, look at me”

Seeing her Dad knocking around with friends was just a typical weekend.i think most “normal” kids would be worried about their dad passing out due to a rear naked chock but not this girl… she is now a brown belt and even though she is one of the smaller kids she always hits the target (normally my groin) and hits it harder than average, then giggles as she walks away.

The intro of this article has taken a small detour but my point is the younger kids start learning the better they will be when they are older. I’m not just talking about teaching kids martial arts, but also Flexibility, Focus, Strength and Conditioning.

I’m sure I’ll upset a bunch of people by saying that fat lazy kids really annoy me, but that’s how I am.I don’t blame the kids because I feel it’s generally the parents fault for not showing them a better lifestyle.Kids look for a leader and follow the examples they see.I’m not saying that a Martial Arts Instructor should be expected to take on the responsibility of teaching kids to be fit,healthy students, but if they are already coming to you then why not do it as a bonus. Consider it a privilege to help set them in the right direction.The things that you can teach them will not only benefit them but everyone around them.

So what do I mean by Exploding/Explosive kids?

Kids excel at things they enjoy so it’s important to show them ways to build their Strength, their Fitness and their Flexibility safely and in a way that they find fun.

When it comes to Strength Training, you have to be careful. Using weights is not recommended because if the kid is not properly supervised at all time they can use bad form while lifting and cause damage to their growing bones, tendons and joints…. BUT with only using their own bodyweight there are plaenty of simple exercises to do.

There are three great advantages to body weight exercises:

1. No-one has to pay for any equipment

2. The Kids bodyweight is the perfect weight for them to train with

3. Most exercises can be done anywhere at any time

Body weight exercises also use a lot of core muscles and compound muscle groups.You can create great cardio endurance and explosive speed and power by training with higher reps and the explosive nature of these exercises.These are all crucial things for a fighter.

So “When is the best time to start teaching kids Strength, Conditioning and Flexibility”… NOW!!!

The basic exercises for core strength are push-ups, squats, dips, chin-ups and then add bridging which will strengthen the neck and back.Don’t just do the boring old basics of these exercises, mix things up and teach the kids new ways to do them, for example in the push-up category you have: standard, wide, narrow, diamonds, wide-narrow, armpit push-ups, robots, clappers, high-lows, hovers… Show them some variety and make a game/challenge out of it.

I find it a little scary to think how strong some of the young students will be when they’re teenagers.Imagine wrestling with an 18yo that’s been doing 100-200 push-ups everyday for the past 14 years.

My final words of advice, Make sure you also do these exercises or one day they will be bigger and stronger than you… hold on to your advantage as long as you can.

I wish you all the best with your teaching and training

Regards

A.J.Perry – Author of “Martial Games for Kids“