Karate - is this normal??!

[fidelix]

DS recently started a karate club at school, run by an outside organisation. He seemed to be enjoying it though the guy leading it was quite strict.

Yesterday, though, he was really upset after the session as apparently they'd been told it would be a fun week, but it was the opposite. One child couldn't do the routine of moves they have to do, and every time he got it wrong, all the kids in the class had to redo it AND do 5 press ups or sit ups (the hardest type, with your hands on your head, but no-one holding your feet down, so not recommended). This happened 12 times till the poor kid got it right! DS reckons they all did about 100 push ups and 10 sit ups in a 45 min lesson (he said some of the other kids counted and thought it was 80 + 10 but he thought it was more - anyway, a lot).

Today, he's in a lot of pain - in his neck and stomach particularly.

Surely this isn't right? I understand getting the kid who did the routing wrong to do it again, but not the whole class? And not 12 times? And not with additional punitive exercises for the whole class??

It sounds like an army training camp. This kind of discipline might be fine for willing adults, but for kids aged 6-7 to 9, this seems like at best overkill and at worst abuse/bullying.

Anyone with any knowledge of karate or similar martial arts - how unusual is this, please?

I've done karate for a decade or two.

It doesn't sound good. Karate instructors are meant to teach karate, which is a pretty complex combat system. The level of detail involved in correctly executing a technique is (should be) immense. A good instructor should be focusing on technique, strategy and knowledge, not wasting everyone's time with mindless aerobics. The discipline of karate comes from learning to concentrate and learning to care about getting your technique as close to perfect as possible, treating others with respect, never giving up.

A skilled instructor should have a range of behaviour management techniques up his sleeve, and a lot of them should involve positive motivation and praise, if he'd like his students to last more than a few months.