Is Karate worth it

[MorningBrew]

Help me weigh out cons and pros of karate (other martial arts) lessons for my primary aged child.

As a positive it is a physical activity and seems to be helping with focus and self confidence.

The negatives appear to be: there's no progress unless they are going for a really long time, children can't necessarily use any of the self defence tactics in the real world, normalising things like punching, expensive membership, kit, lessons and frequent grading.

Am I missing something?

If your dc (or you) have been going, would you say they are really capable of self defence now, but they will not resort to violence unless they need to defend themselves?
Has it helped with self confidence or concentration skills?

My son did martial arts for years, from primary onwards. He still keeps it up at Uni. There is progression via the belts and grading. It is a great activity for teaching self control, discipline and has a good social side, and for him, it was mixing with others outside of his school.

My son started taekwondo at 7. He is now an instructor. It teaches, focus, concentration, discipline, respect amongst other things. For us the martial arts side was a bonus to the life lessons, friendships formed and camaraderie.

Thank you, both

DD did judo from around 8-13, it was great for teaching discipline, hard work, resilience and respect, and made her feel strong, confident and as good as the boys. Progress through the belts is slow but it's the process that counts I think. She is a first year undergrad now and has taken it up again, still enjoying outwitting the men as well as the strength and fitness benefits.

I think martial arts are great and I'm quite tempted myself, but not sure I would be ok getting thrown on the floor as an overweight, bespectacled 53 year old 🤓

Discipline, self control, flexibility, physical confidence. The rewards of persistence. Mine did karate when they were tiny then switched to judo at age 7/8 because it's offered as an extracurricular activity at their school. They get a new belt approximately once a year and most importantly they really enjoy it.

Kit is very cheap - costs around 8€- 20€ from Decathlon and fits for a couple of years because it's baggy and doesn't matter if legs and sleeves are a bit short.

Also, martial arts absolutely do not "normalise punching." Some don't even involve any punching. Those that do teach you how to punch properly, and are very strict about exactly when you are allowed to do it.

Thank you.

The dojo local to us have a specific uniform, which you can only purchase from them (~£30), there's a membership fee of about £60 (doesn't say if it's annual), and then actual lessons and grading money on top of that.
It's one lesson a week.

Ds2 has been doing karate for 3 years - he’s nearly 10 and now brown belt so great progression.

he enjoys it but hasn’t ever used it in a self defence context nor do I expect him to. I tell myself no kid at high school will come near him if they know he is black belt (which he will be in a year or so) but I’m not sure that’s true

he’s quite a meek shy type so I think it’s good for his self confidence and body conditioning

some of the older kids at the dojo now teach or help teach the younger ones and I do think that would be a really positive experience foe him if he gets that far

it is expensive - weekly session, yearly membership and regular exams which are £40-50 a pop. Unlike music exams though they don’t get failed (at least not very often) -
they don’t get entered unless they are ready and if they mess up they just do it again until they do it right.

Comparable to our dojo. The membership fees for ours are annual.

Do look around. When I was looking for one for DS I found the same. They were also super pushy about signing up. I then found another group locally running out of local community centre, who did a couple of free taster lessons, and were much cheaper (although still have membership and grading fees). DS is 8 and goes twice a week so grades every 3-4 months. He adores it.

In terms of self defence, he definitely could throw a bloody good punch if he wanted to but he takes the discipline of karate extremely seriously. He has told us, several times, that if he ever used it in anything but self defence he'd be kicked out of the dojo for life. I'm not saying he doesn't scrap with his older brother, but he certainly doesn't glorify punching or use his techniques.

He absolutely loves it and it's definitely improved his focus. He's not a football/team sports kind of kid so this is great physical exercise for him.

My DS started karate only a couple of years ago aged 14 and has progressed to brown belt. For him it has taught patience, fitness and discipline and got him into wider gym work whereas before he really didn't do anything physical. It has been drummed in that you never use it for attack, only in self defence.

In terms of cost we have an annual fee (think about £25) plus £5 per week (which is comparable to other activities) and then grading fees. I don't think it's excessive. Can't remember how much the kit was but he's grown loads since starting and still using the same one (as PP said it doesn't matter if it gets a bit short).

I think it's a really good thing to do for kids that are not traditionally sporty and hope DS continues it beyond school years.

My daughter is 10 and does judo (karate isn't an option around here). It's a small local club, mat fees are very reasonable, annual license and grading fees aren't much. Uniform also isn't much, a generic white unbranded gi that you can buy anywhere and an optional club hoodie if they want one. It's great exercise, she has made plenty of friends outside of her school, it's built her confidence, and she just really enjoys it and looks forward to it all week. The coaches are there for the love of it, certainly nobody is getting rich on the mat fees (I don't think it would cover much more than rent and insurance and maybe putting the odd person through a coaching qualification) and the support they give to the kids when they grade or take part in competitions is lovely.

She hasn't been doing it for long enough to use it in self defence so can't comment on that.

I did judo myself when I was much (much) younger and had a very similar experience.

When my daughter was younger we had a trial class at a Matt Fiddes club (not sure which martial art it's based on, possibly tai kwon do) which I didn't rate at all. It was about twice the price then of what we pay for judo now, plus there was a membership fee. The class we went to happened to be a grading and from what I saw, if you paid to grade, you got your belt regardless of how you performed.

Karate is great for confidence, flexibility, and coordination, but it takes years to be good enough to use practically for self-defense.
McDojos will take your money, and you can be a black belt in a few years. or pop to sports direct and buy one for a fiver A good dojo minimum 5-7 years training multiple times a week. Once a week 10 yrs plus.

I appreciate the replies. Thank you.

Martial arts have been found to support working memory pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35988343/

My dd started her martial art aged 8 and still loves it age 15. My dd is very petite and you wouldn’t expect her to find it so much fun. She goes to a long session once a week (3 hours) and hangs out with the teen crowd - she has good buddies there, aged 13 to 18. She also now volunteers with a Junior class as she loves instructing the beginners. It’s not just sparring - a lot of it is forms, fitness, core strength, attitude and discipline.

It has been wholesome, remarkably not very violent, a good outlet for her as she has a lot of physical energy.

It definitely has not made her more violent but she can take care of herself. A bigger girl was bullying her (physically aggressive) when she was in y8 - she kept her cool for a few weeks and warned her not to make trouble. The girl in the end initiated some kind of mini fight and my dd defended herself very ably. When questioned by her head of year, my dd kept a cool head and said “I told her not to push me. She pushed me, so then I defended myself. I’ve been doing martial arts for over 5 years so I know exactly how much force to use and I was careful to make sure I didn’t injure her. The fact she fell on the ground was simply her been melodramatic . In fact, the way she attacked me and the way I blocked her, she should have fallen on the other side, so it’s clear she fell over just for effect.”

Head of year called me and said dd would get a detention but said I should be quite proud of her and not to worry it won’t mark her record. The other girl was suspended.

I think knowing how to handle herself mend she is much more confident and no one has messed with her now they know she is “lethal” as one of her friends put it. (She’s not lethal, but it’s a good rep to have to deter trouble!)

@Unbeleevableshe sounds amazing! Thank you for sharing

Definitely shop around a bit, the academy that DS has been training at since he was 6 offers two class times a week for younger kids, and a different two class times a week once they're a little more experienced so there's some obvious progression (slightly different uniform, different belts/patches to show skills learned) as well as some separation of strength and skill level and opportunities for the more experienced kids to move on to things like padwork and more advanced drills. It teaches discipline and self control as well as improving fitness, stamina, and coordination.

Good schools should offer a trial lesson or two so you can see how they teach. For young children it may be worth trying a few different disciplines until you find one that 'fits'. I think DS's academy works out at about £6 a week but then offers discounts if you block book. Kit's relatively cheap until you get up into the coloured belt classes and start doing sparring (more padding!) as well.

My son started taekwando at 4 and it’s been great for him. He’s super high energy so it’s good to keep him busy and focussed and he’s always really proud of himself when he passes his gradings. He does 1-2
a year but this slows down a lot as they progress.

its £40/month for twice weekly hour classes and the kit and gradings and such on top. It’s so much cheaper than my daughter’s dance lessons it hasn’t really registered to be honest.

He is not an aggressive kid at all physically - he does love talking about battles and acting things out with legos and such but he’s never actually gone after anyone.

Dd7 has been attending karate to just over a year, she absolutely loves it, it has helped massively with coordination, ability to Memorise forms, patience, respect, teamwork etc

She's about to grade for her 3rd belt and she's loving that she can progress with clear grades and aims

My DC did karate and I would reccomend it if you get a good dojo. I would be wary of any that progress too quickly to brown or black (some dojos may have junior banding and then you go through the adult belts).
My petite DD has used it for self defence blocking someone from smashing a bottle on her head and running away (as per training) She had a female instructor that did some special sessions for the girls in getting out of tricky situations when you are smaller and not as strong. Money very well spent.

I think it depends on your child. I'd try it ideally on a trial basis and see if they actually like it.

I recently saw a post about Martial Arts. I think everyone should learn self defence rather than just one Martial Art. Self-defence incorporates lots of different disciplines into one form, providing people with a much bigger range of defences.

Self-defence is for everyone, regardless of age, physical size or level of fitness, so you don’t have to fit into a specific brackets.

It helps to develop the whole person, because self-confidence and self-belief are an integral part of every individual’s self-defence skillset.

My 10 year old boy does Karate. He's been going for 6 years and competes at national and international level, managing to achieve medals in every competition he has ever entered. For him, it's an obsession - he trains every day outside of his usual classes.

Over the years we've seen lots of kids come and go at the Dojo. I think for most kids, it has a shelf life of 2 years - they do a few belts and then lose interest when it's harder to achieve the belts.

For my son, the progression has been more about the competing - he's achieved a lot for a 10 year old and takes a great pride in challenging himself. I would also say my son could defend himself because he's reached a high standard in Kumite (sparring) and is well-experienced in it, but the average kid won't have that unless they take it really seriously.