Judo or Karate for a small 5 year old?

[mckenzie]

does anyone have any experience or knowledge please of either of these two. DS is a small 5 year old with not much in the way of sporting prowess.

TIA

No experience of karate, but my ds started tae kwondo at an early age (5). However this fast became very serious, expensive and time consuming. He then moved on to judo (6) which he loved - they are like little bear cubs. The only downside is that they do try it out at home on siblings.

Opting for karate in this house as it is what DH does and we know it will be non contact until dd learns some control. DH has been doing it for 10 years and teaches but will not be teaching dd, we will send her to his instructor and I may well go with her as I could do with getting back into it.

karate is largely non contact till they reach blackbelt which is years down the road.

DS's teacher last year in reception suggetsed that he needed to do something to improve his upper body strength/muscles which would in turn help him with holding a pen.
Would that make it easier for anyone with knowledge of both to suggest which one we should choose perhaps?

sorry, don't understand how doing a martial art would help a child hold a pen. is it the way he is writing? dyspraxia comes to mind.

I don't know about judo, but ds1 (8yo) has been doing karate for nearly two years now and thoroughly enjoys it. It's just the right sport for him (although not everyone takes to it so enthusiastically as he does and it's not for everyone). It is very disciplined and this suits him. He loves learning new katas and all the fitness training which goes with it. It is very good for upper body strength (although I'm not sure it'd do anything to help where holding a pencil is concerned). Ds does a lot of press-ups etc as part of the training and you should see the muscles he's developed. The gradings (exams) are every 3-4 months or so for new belts. It's not cheap sadly. Ours is £5 per lesson, currently once a week. Also there is a yearly membership/insurance fee to pay, GIs to buy and gradings/belts to pay for too.

With all this in mind though, it's a good all round fitness sport and there's no contact until a lot later on. It suits ds1 down to the ground and for that reason, if you think your child would enjoy this type of sport, I'd thoroughly recommend giving it a go.

what's dyspraxia?

Apparently it takes quite a lot of strength and muscle control to hold a pen at the beginning. And it needs to come all the way from the top and not just in the arms and hands.

here is a good place to start reading but if you google dyspraxia, there is a wealth of info out there. viewed from only one website may not give a balanced picture so if it starts to ring bells, read other sites.

i don't think holding a pen takes that much strength, i think it comes more with coordination and practice. coordination (nervous system development} is more about what dyspraxia is about.

was looking at Judo for DS1 and the youngest anywhere round here would take him is 6

thanks for that website link kiskidee. I'm going to do some more reading about it as, worryingly, I would be ticking quite a few of those boxes for DS.

was thinking that holding a pen is considered a fine motor skill, karate, etc. would be working on the gross motor skills. start a thread in the Special needs area where there would be more help on what to do regarding what you can request from the school.

my youngest started karate at just over 5, her loves it, but i am not allowing it to become too serious i.e. he goes once a week - Ma'am would have them all attend 3 x plus a week - she gives special prizes to those who attend all the classes !!!