My 10 year old is a first degree blackbelt, halfway to the 2nd degree; the 7 year old is red belt. They were in the same school for 5 years studying in the WTF school. Since relocating some 1400 miles, and because they obviously want to continue, we are attending classes at the various schools near where we live. The 10 year old loves going and was on the leadership team and an assistant instructor (ie he ran the lower belts through the pre and post form warm ups/downs and helped the white, yellow and greens that needed some assistance in forms).
I would suggest you call the school in your area and ask to attend a free class to determine if the school could be a fit. Make sure the class is of his level, not the kiddie classes. While they do appear to be organized chaos, those students there for the right reasons are getting what they need at that level. Being as high a level as your son is, the classes should be more structured and more form intensive.
Ask that your child keep his belt. With the weird levels, he might just revert back to plain old red, but he shouldn’t have to start at white again.
Since we’ve relocated, I have only been able to locate ATA (American TKD Assoc) and ITF (International TKD federation) schools. All schools have agreed to let the boys keep their belts. I can say that the 2 ATA schools we checked out, one did have the appearance of a McDojo. I dislike the colored uniforms, although it was the one that connected with the students the best and was more concerned with the forms than just through the class. Both had installment type programs. One was buying classes (purchase 300 classes and you’ll go from white to black with 3 days a week attendance), the other was buying time frames (purchase 18 months of unlimited days of instruction, and we’ll see where you are).
Worth noting - the amateur version of MMA - which would much more closely resemble what beginners and kids train in - is VERY different to the UFC. No head strikes are allowed, everything is much more padded also. 99% of the time a match can only be won via submission, rather than knock out.
UFC is a good indicator, but you should check out the videos on this page for some amateur rules fights (kids and adults) for a better idea: http://www.manxtube.com/users/lao/videos/public
I was just thinking making the kid could see the differences in the styles, i.e. introduce to the concept of the ground game etc, I seriously doubted kids MMA training would resemble a competition UFC bout hehe!
I really wish I could drive, there’s an MMA school nearish me, but it’s not on a public transport route.
I really need to get back into training…
Amateur MMA rules Neverender; no head strikes allowed, but other than that, the usual stuff applies. Because of the rule about head strikes matches usually finish by submission or decision. If you want more info on the rules I would message lao, who’s the coach, through the link on the video.
