I have been teaching children’s classes quite a lot
recently. The children range in age from five to teenagers. In my school karate
classes the whole class are complete beginners whereas in the club classes the
children range from white belt to black belt.
This is a huge range in maturity and ability and makes teaching children
very challenging.
For most children, particularly the younger or least
experienced ones, it is enough for them to learn how to listen, behave and
follow instructions; gain physical fitness and endurance; develop coordination
and balance, and learn the most basic of karate moves and kata as well as find
their courage with some light sparring skills. So, on top of all that should we
be trying to teach some basic self-defence skills as well or is that expecting
too much?
Can we realistically expect children to be able to
defend themselves physically from a determined attacker (whether that is
another child or an adult) by teaching them some escapes from grabs, strangles
and headlocks; learning blocks and counter-attacks; or doing throws and locks/restraints?
We don’t actually allow children to put locks on fully or grab another child
near the throat anyway for obvious safety reasons so the idea that a child may
actually be able to use these techniques effectively seems implausible.
My experience of teaching children suggests that they
have neither the strength and coordination or understanding to effectively
learn any physical self-defence techniques. In my opinion, most children are
not capable of learning effective self-defence until at least in their early to
mid teens; before that they are merely walking through some routines they have
learnt by rote.
The problem is, to teach effective self-defence
requires a certain degree of realism in both the attack and defence. This is
neither possible nor desirable with children. As instructors we cannot order a
child to try and hit or grab another child roughly and the child (as a minor)
cannot give consent to allow this to happen to them. As adults we freely consent to both uke and tori roles and the inherent
risks of injury that this entails – children cannot consent in this way.
Since we can neither teach physical self-defence skills
to children in any realistic way and most children are not physically or
mentally mature enough to learn them anyway, what is the point of taking
children through the motions of learning such techniques?
You may argue that it is worth teaching children the
basics of these self-defence techniques in the safe and unthreatening way that
we do it because it helps them to develop some muscle memory and ways of moving
that will make it easier for them to learn the techniques more realistically
when they are older. Perhaps that is sufficient justification for doing it?
However, are there better ways of teaching children to
protect themselves from harm? In my opinion most
children could protect themselves from most
harmful situations by learning about awareness and avoidance – ‘stranger danger
knowledge’; knowing safe places to walk and play; crossing roads safely;
learning to deal with playground situations non-confrontationally;
anti-bullying tactics etc etc…. Most of these situations are dealt with by
schools and parents anyway.
So, if a children’s martial art class isn’t dealing
with awareness/avoidance strategies and doesn’t teach physical self-defence
what should it be teaching? Well, in my opinion, there is much that a martial
arts class can teach to children that is valuable: physical skills of balance,
coordination, flexibility, and fitness; mental skills of self-discipline,
perseverance, courage, respect and determination; social skills such as
cooperation, friendship and compassion and sporting skills such as following
rules, testing oneself in competition and learning to win and lose with good
grace. These can all be learnt through the medium of some basic martial arts
moves/techniques.
All we can hope is that we can maintain the child’s
interest in martial arts long enough for them to grow up so that they can then
learn to effectively defend themselves physically.
What do you think is the aim of a children’s martial
art class? In your opinion what self-defence skills do children need?
Sue is the Blog-Editor-In-Chief for Martial News. You can contact her at sue.wharton@martialnews.co.uk Sue also writes a personal blog called My Journey to Black Belt
