My 7-year-old son loves swords. Love’s em. As such, I thought it might be good to introduce him to a good sword martial art, so now I’m soliciting info from yous guys.
The arts that I know of which usually include sword training are Aikido; Iaido; Kendo; and Kung-Fu. I’ve found dojos nearby that offer all of these, but I was hoping to solicit some doper input as well.
Any recommendations or good web sites on the arts I’ve mentioned? Are there other arts that tend to work with swords?
Thanks,
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Obvioulsy, I don’t plan to turn a 7-year-old loose with a hunk of sharp steel - I plan on taking enrolling myself & teaching him with the wood swords (bokken?) before starting him in a program.[/sub]
As someone said, the Filipino martial arts (kali, escrima, etc) are generally associated with sticks, but the sticks are used as a replacement for swords (and in fact, once you’ve moved up through the ranks a bit you get the privilege of using swords) so it’s a safe way to introduce swordwork to someone, especially a child.
For young kids, I’d go with a Wushu school if you can find one. It is very active and acrobatic, with lots of big theatrical movements that kids love, makes them feel like anime heroes.
I’ve seen kids squirm with impatience a lot with aikido or kendo (depends on the school though). Tend to be too much ritual and tradition to hold a kids attention when they are really wanting to jump around on the mats and club each other silly
Kendo’s good, so’s fencing, for when it comes to using-a-sword-to-hurt-folks. Heck, SCA isn’t bad either, although as I’m not a member, I’m not up on their combat-for-kids rules.
The Tai Chi classes I take have a sword component, but it’s all forms. Forms vs. usage is a good thing to check; most kids don’t have patience for forms.
Do you want him to learn a martial art? A martial sport? or a sport/game? Does it matter?
Kenjutsu and Historical European Martial Arts are fine choices for learning a Martial Art (and I’ll include the few forms of combative chinese sword still being taught).
Martial sports include Kendo, most chinese sword stuff, and some of the filipino stuff as well (though their work with sticks is an excellent martial art in it’s own right).
The SCA and modern sport fencing as well as some of the ‘extreme’ asian martial arts stuff will round out the sport/game arena.
The first choice should be Asian or European arts, and this will likely be decided by your son’s particular interests, and what is available near you (I can help you in the European Martial Arts Arena, if you’re interested, drop me a line and include your location).
Then determine what he’s most interested by supplying him with as much info as possible (again I can help when it comes to HEMA).
I’d like him to learn a martial art, but I guess what I really want is to do something with him that he enjoys.
I’ve looked at fencing, but it’s too expensive & too far away.
I haven’t been able to find anyone offering kenjutsu (or iaijutsu for that matter) nearby - just the *do’s. Of course, I don’t really know what the difference is, just what I’ve read online
Wushu sounds like something to check into.
HEMA might be just the thing - a lot of his interest springs from the “Lord of the Rings” movies. I’ll be sending email along Kinthalis - thanks!
I’ve heard very good things about Escrima, it looks and sounds like fun, and unlike a lot of martial arts you start with stick/swords and use bare hands when you get better, so much more fun for a beginner!
Kendo, IMO is boring as shit. I did it for a year and while it’s fun for the first few months there’s literally only 8 or so strikes you can make so it’d be way too dull for your kid I think.
Honestly? I wouldn’t try to teach him myself. Moves are broken down differently for kids than adults for a reason, and teaching kids is hard enough without complicating it by teaching your own kid yourself. Find a good school, join yourself if you’re interested for yourself, but enroll him in his own classes. Then you can practice together, but he’ll have people who have already figured out how to teach kids teaching him. Let someone else be the meanie, you be the supportive and fun cheerleader.
I have no idea where you live, but WhyKid attends Degerberg Academy in Chicago, which teaches its own blend, and I think they’re fantastic. The kids start staff work roughly six months to a year after they begin, depending on how well they’re doing. WhyKid started there when he was 10, but he was one of the older ones. WhyBaby will be enrolled in the “Ninja Turtles” class when she’s 3, because it helps develop wonderful kinesthetic awareness and it’s just adorable and lots of fun!
In most systems, he’ll have to learn quite a bit before they let him near a sword, even a practice one. He’s got to get control of his body and brain before he can hope to control a weapon. So if he doesn’t have the patience to do a lot of work before whacking things with a stick, maybe fencing would be a better choice. Of course, IMHO, developing such patience in kids that don’t have it naturally is one of the things martial arts does best, so if he doesn’t have the patience now, maybe it’d be even more of a reason to go martial. YMMV, only you know your kid.
I guess I should have clarified - most of what I’ve found is adult classes. If I can’t find a decent kids program, I’ll bring it home to him. If I can find a decent kids program, I’ll put him in that.
