Karate For Kids And Character Development

Children simply do not have the physical strength an adult has, but they do possess the ‘uncluttered mind’, which is definitely a huge plus when someone first starts to learn karate. In general, they are more flexible than us adults, and learn karate faster, especially the karate kata.

This is starting to look good for our karate kids, but wait. Adults can grasp the deeper meaning of karate moves and martial arts philosophy and obviously, in a self defense situation, adults can defend themselves against other adults, whereas a child has no chance against a drug fueled 200Lb + aggressor.

But I would like to go a bit deeper and look at character development along side karate for kids.

This opens up a whole new area for me. Children are easily influenced and if they really look up to someone, they will do almost anything for that person. This is why I believe there should be more control over karate instructors, maybe a governing body that regulates martial arts instructors.

Karate instructors are shaping these young minds and sometimes not doing a very good job.

Adults are different. When an adult starts karate, they have already forged their character and beliefs. A child however, is like a sponge, soaking up knowledge and experiences and deciding how to catalog the information.

If adults quickly lose their temper, are spiteful, nasty, jealous, selfish, it is very hard for them to change, I do believe it is possible, but very hard. It is much easier to help children with these problems.

I have always tried to instill all the positive human character traits in my students and I believe this is more important than how well they can fight.

Master Gichin Funakoshi, the founder of Shotokan karate said, ‘The ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory nor defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participants.’