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What do you think about kids/teens and weapons? Do the weapons help the student with their Karate? Or does the karate help the student with their weapons? Any schools out there offer Karate & Kobudo lessons to 8-14 year olds? Personally, I find that doing Iaido (Yeah I know, not like kobudo...but KINDA similar) has helped me with leg strength (no suprise...), balance, coordination and various other things that helps out karate.
Going the other way, Karate has helped my Iaido by helping with the flow and hand-eye coordination.
So what about you kids and instructors of kids? Specifically in the 6-14 year old range, do u notive benefit from teaching weapons, or just unecessary new complexity?



-David

I am not an instructor David, Sensei and in fact it may come to your surprise that I am only 15 and I just help teach a lot! I am currently 1st brown adn nearing my black belt test(waiting for the 16 year od age eligability), and have helped teach since I was a yellow belt about 2 1/2 years ago. I study the Japanese/Okinawan Isshinryu Karate and have been for about 3 years.

Anyway, we teach bo to the mature 8 year olds. Like I said in the other post, Tyler, the kid, knows bo and works it 1-on-1 with an instructor or assistant (like me) when there is room and time during class. We have few under 9 that ever get to the point to start learning weapons since we do not start teaching them till green belt (take an 7/8 year old about 2 years to get here) They quit before then. As for 9-14, being so close to that bracket I generally do not ever introduce the weapon but help after they have a foundation to work with that the adult yudansha have given them. 9 year olds tend to not pay attention and at that age it is very difficult and it taught slowly! Around 12 is the appropriate time I think for them to grasp the concept of using a weapon and the potential distruction it can cause. We are very careful with weapons and are always 1-on-1 or 1-on-2 in our dojo to prevent injury! I started learning bo when I was 11 and I think that was okay since I was mature about it and did not cut up adn play with the techniques that I knew. My sister started working with it at 14 and acted really immature and did not really grasp it until almost 16. Depends on the person. (she is 2 1/2 years older than me!)

You may want to give simple bo drills to the 8-12 year olds and let them work those over and over and over and over and over some more! They will learn coordination adn the mechanics of using a bo with the intent of not knocking themselves out should they ever use one. It helps teach coordination and concentration as well as control. Balance is a key thing too and using all body movements effectively. It makes the upper belts try harder since they are leaning something new. Many students tend to work with their empty hand kata after learning a weapon and incorporating the weapon into the forms they already know. That could be helpful.

I would appreciate learning more about your situation and how everything works. If I could be of any help feel free to ask. Please try to overlook my age as much as possible even though I know its hard to listen and agree with a kid. Sincerely ~ sjr

P.S. Could you also give me some information about iaido please? I would appreciate learning about another style!

Hey,
First off, I doubt that I have earned the title Sensei, so David or even "Hey you!" will do
Your age is actually good for 2 reasons. First, this is a kids/teens forum, so age really doesnt matter in here much. Second, I am your age, so don't feel alone.



"Please try to overlook my age as much as possible even though I know its hard to listen and agree with a kid. Sincerely ~ sjr"

Your opinions will always be respected, and it most definitely isn't hard to listen and agree with a kid....seeing how I am one...


As for Iaido....(well, you asked for it...)
Most of this should be accurate.

Iaido is a martial art that teaches how to wield the Samurai Sword (Katana) or the Long Samurai Sword in older, more -jutsu styles (These teach the Tachi instead of the Katana). Iaido was formed around the 1600's when Kendo masters felt that the Kendo-ka were concentrating too much on fighting and less on how to draw the sword and have the mental aspects.
Kendo is a martial art also teaching the Samurai sword, except that it is more sparring oriented. In Kendo, you learn Kata (mainly 2 person kata/kumite) and then you learn to spar with swords.
Anyway, The Kendo masters felt that the Kendo-ka weren't concentrating on the mental aspects and drawing the sword enough, so they created a martial art that was intended to be learnt along side with Kendo, to make a more rounded learning. To this day, if you speak to Kendo-ka, most of them have studied Iaido, and vice versa.

Iaido is considered to be one of the most mental of all martial arts, and teaches how to live in harmony through mastering the sword and then yourself. I

If you want to read some cool stories about Iaido/Kendo, I highly recomend reading some of the stories about Miyamoto Musashi, one of the most famous swordsmen ever.

Hope this helps,
And again, you and everyones opinion is always respected immensely,

-David

[This message has been edited by dominiuno (edited June 05, 2002).]

One last thing I forgot to ask you sunsu, What weapons do you know? What weapon of these is your favorite? What weapons does your dojo offer? and finally,in what order does your school teach weapons. Thank you

-David

hey this may have no relevence to what u guys r talking about but, I am brown belt and 17, will be going for senoir black as I will be 18 this year, and i haven't done weapon training yet, that doesnt seem so bad as I enjoy good old fashioned hand to hand uechi ryu, weapons don't seem that important (plus there havent been any classes organised), u know what grey fox from metal gear solid say "only a fool trusts his life with a weapon" (yeah i'm a video game dork). well bye

well As I am 18 I guess I'm teen.
I dont study karate or any unarmed fighing style instead learning various medieval weapons.
Why? you may ask. Because at first it looked cool but then because I found out a strange loop hole in my states laws that allows me to carry a muych more deadly weapon such as sword in the open with out a permit. But then I matured ,quite recently too, and now study weapon sto help celebrate my cultural heritige and also because you owuld be surprised about how many pyschos are runnig aroung with cheepie katanas and you never know whne you may need to defend against a long piece of sharpened steel and a human body can only take so much abuse from even a poorly made sword.

But anyways I beleive that training in the martial arts should begin as early as a child can walk unasisted. It is in my experience that a child raised around weapons and are taught the respect that is due to the tool they become not only good fighters but alsoa better person because they understand from a very early age what anger and weapon or carelessness and a weapon can do to another human or animals.

And when it gets down the basic basic movements fighitng with a weapon can improve your unarmed skils and vice versa. The only difference is in one case you have weapon taht makes you much more capable of killing a human and in the other case you have to be a little more tricky.

I am currently working on getting certified to teach Western Swordsmanship and the associated unarmed close in grappling and striking skills.

I also cary an asortment of knives on my person and have fundametal grasp of their use

ok im also a teen.. so finally we have some teens on here! haha anyway.. weapons aren't taught at my school.. and i dont teach them unless someone asks me for help with them and ill teach them some cool moves my sensei taught me to use weapons.. and im horrible at the bo haha but im okay with swords and i love nunchalks (however u spell that ) but yeah i think weapons are mostly for show in tournaments and just for fun. say someone broke into my house and i had to defend myself.. i highly doubt that id grab a sword and attack the person but idk maybe thats just me. i guess you could protect yourself with karate weapons.. but how many ppl carry a bo around with them? haha thanks again for stopping by!

Seisansister

well its like this... karate helps with kobudo [weapons], and kobudo [weapons] help out iaido, and iaido helps out jujutsu, and jujutsu helps out karate... so basically its one big circle of martial arts...

I selectively teach weapons to kids.

Students must show that they have control over themselves before I let them try to control a weapon.