View Single Post
Old 01-12-2012, 06:41 AM   #16
lbb
Location: Massachusetts
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,202
United_States
Offline
Re: Do Senseis Usually Not Want Parents Around During Class?

Sideline coaching by parents is a problem, no matter how you slice it. Either the coaching is unnecessary and a distraction, or -- in the case where your son was having problems with ukemi and you felt you had to advise him because what he was told to do wasn't safe -- the coaching he's getting from his sensei is inadequate, and you need to go elsewhere.

There are a lot of different ways that "martial arts" can be taught to young kids, and that "work". I put both words in quotes because when you're talking about young kids, those definitions have to be pretty loose -- you're unlikely to be able to teach martially effective techniques to a five-year-old, and if you somehow do, that creates another problem. A "martial arts" class for kids can serve the functions of exercise, socialization, learning how to handle structure in a different environment, and just plain having fun. When either parents or teacher become fixated on the quality of the kids' techniques, you're headed for disaster. Most kids of that age are simply not capable of working in that way, conceptualizing an ideal of what a certain technique is supposed to be and working at continuous improvement toward that ideal. Even with the few kids who grasp the idea of technique and want to get better, I've observed that they only want to train like this some of the time. They are as eager for the "aikido games" as the other kids, and as eager to run off the mat at the end of class and do kid stuff with the other kids, most times.
  Reply With Quote