"BEST" martial art for childern

[ratcatcher55]

Mauserman,

I think it's hard to beat the physical toughness that wrestling brings out in a person. Judo iand jujitso are certainly very close to that level. Just having somebody leaning and pushing on you all the time is wearing.

My high school was in a very strong wrestling area in PA. They never cut anyone from the team. They just quit, most after one or two days, most in the first month.

I really like the flow of movement in Aikido. But if I understand it correctly the practioner is never trying to hurt his attacker, just stop the attack.  What fun is that?

Yes judo and wrestling are sports not MMA.  I do think both have things that translate in to fighting arts.

I knew Andor P-Jobb at college. He might be the tough man I ever met in my life. He coached the Hun Judo team there and taught art.

[MAUSERMAN]

I have practiced both Thai boxing and Judo for most of my life, and have combined certian skills that both defend and at stop the threat cold. Wrestling is a very tough sport but it requires you to have a very strong upper body, I dont know of any females that can match a male in that respect.

[TAB]

I have practiced both Thai boxing and Judo for most of my life, and have combined certian skills that both defend and at stop the threat cold. Wrestling is a very tough sport but it requires you to have a very strong upper body, I dont know of any females that can match a male in that respect.

while i won't say you don't need strength to wrestle, just like judo, good technique and proper position are the diffrence between winning and loseing.   girls can and do excell at it, infact at the 10-14 year range, they tend to be stronger then the boys.

[ms1212]

A little late to the party on this topic....I teach children and adults and may have a little insight on the topic. I started at 10 years of age in Kung Fu and GoJo. My brother was a wrestler so he being much older than me used me as his training partner i.e. throw dummy. My neighbor was a boxer who gave me boxing lessons. I had a school teacher who taught me basic fencing. So I was exposed to a variety of systems. This made me skeptical of holding to straight traditional dogma. When 14 I was lucky enough to train in JKD(Kali/Silat/MuayThai/Ground Fighting) under one of Guro Dan Insanto's top instructors the late Terry H. Gibson in Tulsa. I was able to see the usefulness of being exposed to a variety of systems even if the exposure was limited and I was definitely no master of each system. So exposure in a variety of arts even if it is limited I think is good. This way they can see how to integrate different concepts and also see which system is better for them. Don't discount non-Asian arts such as wrestling and boxing. They are great arts that contribute greatly to many attributes useful in many areas. Most of my best students to train come from these two arts.

For many years I taught a Karate-lite system from Tracy Kenpo for children. Later on I had problems with teaching kids from 5 to 14 these system and when they came to the adult class I said forget 80% of what I taught you and now let's get real. Seemed kind of wrong to me. So I finally began to teach a JKD/MMA(no not UFC) system for kids. I keep it real basic and fun. As Luis Gutierrez calls his system P.A.W.(Play As the Way). I had no idea how it would go over with the kids or parents. No gi's or belts or board breaking can be quite different than what they may be thinking of. So I probably do more educating the parents than most by giving them a very detailed info packet and explain why the system is like it is. I let them know this is not for every child or parent and encourage them to watch a few classes and see and if they start they can drop out without any hurt feelings or contracts. I do not run my classes as a business but for the love of it. If I break even that is great for me. So many Martial Arts classes are set up for money from uniforms, belt testing, fee after fee and long contracts and the like. It went over great. Had a few parents that wanted their kids to be Randy Couture or Jet Li or my favorite...."can you make my 6 year old be able to beat up two kidnappers at the same time?" Geez, what are they thinking.

My daughter now 10 has been training since she was 4 but only in small amounts until she was around 6 which depends on the maturity of the child. She has never been made to train, she wants to and loves it but is has always been presented as a fun activity. She can take care of herself with little problem. However, if a 6'3" BG attacked her she knows to escape and draw attention to herself not to try to fight one on one. She also has been taught not to ever fight unless there are no other good choices. It does my heart good to see her be able to easily and humanly control and make her untrained boy cousins who outweigh her by 10 to 30 pounds tap. They cannot believe a little girl can do that. That helps her self confidence.

Just watch many different classes and see what fits with her. Good luck and hope it is a good experience.