AikiWeb Aikido Forums - View Single Post

Leslie Parks · 07-23-2002, 10:16 AM

As to the original question about how young to start...a senior instructor at my dojo told me years ago that he was teaching his kids ukemi at a very early age at home on the carpet as part of play (as he put it, 'we didn't have much furniture then, so we put the carpet to use'). I believe this was as toddlers. When they started each started formal aikido classes at age 7, they already had the ukemi down...and their rolls look just like their fathers.

As to the more general issue of teaching kids, I've never had so much fun, nor have I ever learned so much myself. I have found however, that in a class of mixed age kids (usually up to age 10 or 11) for beginners, children younger than 7 lack the focus to attend to technical instruction and require a huge amount of attention, which detracts from being able to teach the other children. They are well able to do basic ukemi and other drills, so if one wants to have aikido available for that age group (4-7), perhaps a shorter class with ukemi & learning games (sort of a "pre-aikido") would be more appropriate. Just something I've been mulling over.

07-23-2002, 10:16 AM	#19
Leslie Parks Dojo: Tenshinkan Dojo Location: Chicago Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 41 Offline	Youth Classes As to the original question about how young to start...a senior instructor at my dojo told me years ago that he was teaching his kids ukemi at a very early age at home on the carpet as part of play (as he put it, 'we didn't have much furniture then, so we put the carpet to use'). I believe this was as toddlers. When they started each started formal aikido classes at age 7, they already had the ukemi down...and their rolls look just like their fathers. As to the more general issue of teaching kids, I've never had so much fun, nor have I ever learned so much myself. I have found however, that in a class of mixed age kids (usually up to age 10 or 11) for beginners, children younger than 7 lack the focus to attend to technical instruction and require a huge amount of attention, which detracts from being able to teach the other children. They are well able to do basic ukemi and other drills, so if one wants to have aikido available for that age group (4-7), perhaps a shorter class with ukemi & learning games (sort of a "pre-aikido") would be more appropriate. Just something I've been mulling over.