What age can a young child learn a martial art?

Question

and what would you say would be the easiest for that age (3years old)

Answer 1

My son starts 7 years old during his primary one class. I think 3 years old too young, their bones quite fragile.

Answer 2

Don't start your kid any younger than 7, before then all it is, is expensive day care for an hour.

The time up to this point you can nurture the child's love for martial arts by "spotting" or coaching them in simple exercises. Better yet, a family exercise time.

Answer 3

Seven to nine years of age depending on the child.  Possibly earlier if someone else in the family is doing it also as younger siblings will imitate older ones and adults in the family as we all know.  An bad example is if you swear and cuss around a child; they will swear and cuss; if older brother or sister misbehaves; so will younger brother or sister probably.  Some younger children do take to it like a duck to water but that is an exception usually.  Also they are doing a lot of growing and special care should be taken as to how much and how far they are pushed and their bodies are stressed, especially in the growth plate areas.  I have had some good success with five year olds but they require their own class and not every child stays with it so I would avoid any long term contracts or commitments.

Answer 4

It's never really too early to teach the basics of tae kwan do or karate for any child. That, of course, depends on the child's attention span and discipline. 3 years old is a very young age to start any form of martial arts but as I said, it all depends on the child. Around 5-6 years is a perfect age to really get into the basics and general techniques of any form of martial arts whether it be karate, tae kwan do, ju jitsu, judo, or aikado.

Answer 5

Well....if it's just for fun, don't start until 10, most serious schools won't teach any younger, but personally, I would wait until he/she is 13-14 because that's when they'll know if they really want it and they'll truly train and research.

Answer 6

Quite honestly my opinion is that a child should not be put into a martial art until they are at least 6 or 7. Any younger then that and they are not going to have the attention span to really learn anything.

My advice would be to instead enroll the child in a good gymnastics or dance program at this point in time. They will be ina fun learning environment that will start to build their co ordination, strength, memory(Dance or gymnastic routines), and also some discipline. By the time they are 6 or 7 they will have a far better amount of co ordination and learning ability then most of the other kids, and should do much better in any martial art.

I can garuntee you the reason why Tom P's daughter likes it so much is because she is playing and ahving fun with dad, but that will not be the case with astranger in a reguler martial arts class.

Hope this helps.

Answer 7

Id say start of with wushu, there are many kids in China who are trained in young ages, wushu helps with dicipline and it doesnt involve sparring, if your child enjoys this after some years then he/she can start doing the fancy stuff. Why exactly do you want your child to learn a martial art? Fun activity or to have a knowledge of fighting in the future? If you do want your child to be able to defend themselves in the future than id say go with taek won do.

Answer 8

I've heard of 4 years old before. Anderson Silva started training at 5 and he's the toughtest man on the planet! In all seriousness though its good to get into good habits. Something like Tae Kwon Do (improving flexibility) or Judo (ground skills) would be excellent.

Answer 9

The youngest child my instructor will take is 5 years.

Answer 10

my judo teacher accepts children at age 4

Answer 11

If your child at 3 can pay attention enough to learn I would say it's fine to teach them.

I taught my daughter basic fight stance from the day she could stand.....now she's 2 and knows the stance perfectly. We "wrestle" almost everyday too. Of course it's nothing formal but she is getting used to the idea and sometimes she'll start wrestling with me. Now she will actually push my head or arms out of the way in an attempt to wrestle with me and get on top of me.

Once she's a bit older I'll make it more formal and teach her striking and when to use it.

Right now it's mostly fun......but it's becoming ingrained in her

Answer 12

you could probably be about 3 or 4 and karate or tae kwon do.

Answer 13

If you live in any place with a city life... I would suggest you start them around 10-12 at the earliest. Children in these societies really take a while to mature mentally. It's just the type of lifestyle so don' t be offended I'm not saying anybody's stupid. Children have an extremely short attention span 5-10 minutes max, and it's just too boring learning martial arts at that age. Maybe if you took something you could show them some moves and play with them a little at home, and see, when they become of age, if its something they want to try.

Answer 14

3, 4 and even 5 year olds rarely have the coordination to perform the moves properly.  

That being said, they can still benefit from the physical activity and the socialization (with other kids) aspect of going to a martial arts class.

They also benefit from learning some respect towards adults that are not their parents or family.

Although they really shouldnt need a self esteem boost at that age, they do get rewards such as new belts or tips on their new belts that give them a sense of pride and achievment.

All that said, I didnt start my daughter until she was 8 because I wanted her to have the reasoning ability about why she is going and I wanted her to be old enough to understand "if/then" consequence style discipline.

James

Answer 15

I first started martial arts at 6. From the age of 3 though, I was enrolled in a dance school. That helped me a bit when it came to learning martial arts later on. At 3, it's probably a bit too young to be starting a martial art. They might have the attention span for it, but they still wouldn't be able to learn a great amount at that age. It's better to wait until they're at least 5 or 6.

Answer 16

My school will start teaching as young as 4, but they need to demonstrate their ability to pay attention and follow directions.  Usually we won't start until they are 5.

From my experience in teaching 5-10 year olds, it's a matter of their individual readiness.  There are some older kids whose attention spans are about 2 seconds and there are 5 year olds who will focus on me for an entire hour.  

In most cases the kids do not really start training until after they are 10.  Up to that time we're trying to instill some discipline and enough basics so that when they get to the next class they are ready to start really working on becoming a martial artist.  Then again, we've never had one of those 5 year-old black belts you see occasionally on TV.

Answer 17

i would say 4 absolute minimum and would recomend it for 5+

Answer 18

um i go to kung fu at jose johnsons  martial arts and he has every thing there he has kung fu for ages 7 and older he has tai ji for older people around 40 and older he has the heros for kids about 4 to 7 and i suggest for ur kid he has a program for little heros which is 4 and younger  and the price is only 100 a person! i think ha ha ha

hope i helped ~sara♥

Answer 19

I wouldn't start a child until they were at least 12.

Before that their attention span is not long enough and they don't have the mental capacity or self restraint.

There is a lot more to martial arts than learning how to hit, kick and throw!

Answer 20

I would say 5 + in gereral for kenpo. I teach a little dragons class (5-6 year olds) and we have occasionally had 4 year olds in it. The class is shorter than regular classes and we keep it fun and geared towards the little ones. It's not that kids under 5 can't get it, they certainly can. But 5 year olds seem to have more fun, get more out of it, etc.