by Sean Wong
December 29th, 2011
If you are reading this, it is likely because you have just enrolled your child into Karate or perhaps seriously considering it. If you haven’t yet – please do. Karate dojos in the Markham area are all pretty good. This guide is to help parents understand the progression of karate stages experienced by their children and how to support these young athletes.
Realistic Expectations
Most parents bring their child to a dojo because they wish to see their child improve their health, focus, and/or discipline. It is important for parents to stay focussed on a child’s personal best rather that being the best in the class. A dojo cannot make everyone into Chuck Norris but with the right amount of support a dojo can compound a child’s daily improvement to make an everlasting difference in their lives.
Goal Setting
Goal setting is one way to manage realistic expectations. If a child is expected to perform 30 push ups and can only do 10, a gentle encouragement of 12, then 14, and so on is a manageable way to increase performance. This applies to every drill and component of a training regimen.
Sideline Coaching
Nearly all parents offer some sort of coaching at the sidelines. Sideline coaching while your son or daughter is being active in the dojo goes against most dojos’ protocol. Unless there is a urgent reason to coach from the sidelines, it is best to wait for a break in class to whisper advice to them. Excessive sideline coaching has the potential to be distracting or intimidating for some toddlers.
Tardiness
We know that in today’s world things get busy but being habitually late sets a bad example for the children. If there is real chronic reason for not making class on time, it is best to speak to the Sensei so that he can address it in class properly.
Uniforms
Uniforms are sometimes provided a little bigger than usual to allow your child to grow into them. Please have pants and sleeves hemmed to the proper length for class. Having your child constantly fussing with rolling up sleeves and fixing the pants is sometimes dangerous during sparring practice and distracting.
Belt Advancement
Every child progresses differently and at their own pace. There is really no advantage to measure your child belt progression against another student in the class.
Hitting the Wall
At around the second year of training, blue belt, almost all students hit a wall. They see how long it took to get a blue belt realize that they are only half way. Further more, the higher the belt the more skill is required. At that point it is common for student to become discouraged and perhaps want to quit. This is quite normal. Feel reassured however that many students hit the wall and overcome this obstacle to become black belts.
Practising At Home
Practising at home should only be done with the permission of the parents and under parental supervision. Sparring is not recommended but it is clearly at the discretion of the adult in charge. Fatal accidents have occurred when martial arts is practised outside of the dojo.
Dealing with Bullies
Please refer to the article on dealing with bullies.
Bumps and Bruises
Just like falling off a bike or getting water up your nose while swimming, bumps and bruises do happen in Karate. It is a normal part of growing and advancing in sport. When we make a mistake in a video game, we just start over but when we make a mistake in a physical activity, we sometimes have to get up, brush ourselves off first, and maybe even get a bandage or two.
Copyrights © 2011 Sean Wong | All Rights Reserved
