In my school I take children from 4 year olds upwards and have a current karate student in their 60s. Obviously there are differing requirements in student needs. I teach to the younger students basic motor and social skills. In basic motor we use karate technique to increase fitness, balance and confidence. With social skills we develop confidence, self discipline, leadership and the ability to mix confidently with all social groups in an orderly and respectful manner. We intertwine this with movement training, usually in game sense to develop skills that at a later age they can transfer into self defence applications. As the students get older and learn about the self defence applications, great care is taken to ensure the student understands the self defence nature is used appropriately.

This depends on the student and their needs. With physical fitness, we increase their fitness in line with the guidelines for children from the National Coaching Accreditation Scheme. This is to ensure repetition movements are limited to children to prevent damage to their bodies. You should start to see a difference in your child’s physical fitness slowly over a 10 week period. Great care needs to be taken not to work a child excessively. The child will refuse involvement if physically exercised overly hard. Children’s fitness needs to be more gradually improved rather than what we expect of a fitness improvement program for adults.

For children with interaction issues, generally a term will start to empower your child to be move interactive with peers and adults.

Each child is different and we assess all children individually and tailor programs accordingly. If you have any issues, please feel free to discuss them with us.

Initially, one day per week is acceptable. If your child likes the involvement and wants to continue, after 18 months to two years of one day per week in the school term, they should increase to two to three times per week to gain improvement.

Children cannot be pushed too hard. They need encouragement and enjoyment from their physical exercise. We are specialists in children and are often referred by medical practitioners to aid in helping resolve childhood development problems in fitness, co-ordination and social development. We balance the activity level with exercise restraints and maximised the social and enjoyment factor of the children.

Non karate people have a perspective of karate of the sport being highly disciplined and fitness orientated. This is truer of what we call in the martial arts industry “Westernised Karate”. Traditional karate, as taught by the Japanese, is more attuned to the individual’s body requirements and capability. Discipline is strict whilst non-aggressive behaviour is encouraged.

Gentle persuasion is used to develop discipline and maintain discipline. The discipline we have in our school is based on developing the children’s sense of trust, loyalty, honour and being truthful. These attributes are developed using social skills development in a subtle influence, generally by introducing and reinforcing these concepts through specifically designed activities where the child is being introduced to new “norms and values” and having continuous reinforcement of these.

No. Actually correct teaching of karate will show that aggression and violence is not acceptable or necessary. Your child is taught that karate is a fun and entertaining activity but there are self defence applications which cannot be practised or used outside the karate school. Usually children that cannot grasp this concept do not tend to remain involved in karate for long. Their desire to be aggressive is countermanded by the discipline requirements. Children that attend karate training over a period tend to become self assured and confident that tends to reduce the aggressiveness used to cover social inadequacies. The term “karate kids have control” means that learning karate is a way of developing self control of themselves and the environment they are in. I would encourage you to come and visit our school at our school. We can introduce you to some of our students for an informal discussion and you can ask these children about their feelings for karate and the benefits of their involvement.