Question for parents whose children do KARATE, please.

[gorionine]

My DCs have starte Karate a year and a half ago. They have so far passed all the gradings they where supposed to. DD1 still very much enjoying it,DS2 is getting bored of it and I was wondering how to get his interest back. The club they belong too does not register the pupils for competitions and I have no idea how to find out more about them. I think DS2 would be more motivated if he felt he was "gong somewhere".(meant in the sense that if you do ballet you have a show at the end of the year, competition would be "his" show IYSWIM?)

In their club, belt do as follow from lowest grade (heard that not all go in same colour order)
White, red, yellow, orange,green,blue, purple, bronwn(3x), black.

DD1 is green (should be blue tomorrow night) and DS2 is orange, might not take is next grading tomorrow as he has lost motivation.

I guess my question is from what grade can they take part in competitions and how do you find where and when competitions are?

[gorionine]

anyone?

[mumblechum]

Which association do they belong to? My ds is with SSKA & I don't think they do much by way of competitions till they're at senior grade, ie brown belt and above.

DH used to compete at black belt level both in free sparring, kumite and kata.

My ds wants to go in comps soon, particularly free sparring but I'd rather he did kata as I don't want to watch him getting injured.

Last time dh was in a comp (many moons ago) he was disqualified for accidentally breaking someone's jaw with a roundhouse kick .

If I were you I'd ask Sensei what he thinks about competitions but stick to kata.

[BingBangBaby]

At our club, students are entered into competitions as soon as they're ready. For some, this may mean from red belt onwards (our gradings are the same as yours).

My son started competition from red belt and up until he was around purple belt, he did about 3 a year.

From purple onwards, he was doing 4 or 5 a year.

I don't think you can enter without the sensei putting them in for you.

You can find out when and where comps are from www.englishkaratefederation.com/ but they're usually major tournaments (brown belts and over). Smaller comps can be found through your association.

I wouldn't worry about kumite, the rules are very strict these days with no face contact allowed etc.

How often do they grade at your club?

[bethoo]

surely when they do gradings they partake in an exam type thing whre parents can watch?
you can enter comps at any level, most karate is non contact or minimum.

[weblette]

Dcs and dh do TISKA, competitions start at red belt - only kata at the first stages but it's good fun for them.

Agree with what mumblechum said, talk to Sensei and see what he/she'd recommend. I'm sure they would want to keep them motivated and participating.

[gorionine]

Thank you everyone,his club is called Elite something , I will have a word with the Sensei (just changed recently) and see. I have come to realise that DS started to get less interested when his first sensei left.

BBB, thank you for the link, it is a very good one.

Bethoo, yes we go and see the gradings but at his level the grading just takes a few minutes and katas are not his favourite thing either, he likes to kick and punch "for real" IYSWIM.