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kids and martial arts?

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SavannahLion:

--- Quote from: ChadTower on November 01, 2009, 09:35:03 pm ---
--- Quote from: SavannahLion on November 01, 2009, 08:37:11 pm ---I had this nice long post and the cat hit the keyboard.  :banghead:

--- End quote ---
You pussied out.

--- End quote ---

Duh! I live in a house with a 2 to 1 ---Bad words, bad words, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when saint censors you?--- ratio, I'm at a severe disadvantage.

ChadTower:

The guys I played football with that were black belts were at a massive advantage.  They were damn near impossible to knock down without perfect tackling because of their balance.  They were very strong without being overmuscled.  Maybe more than anything else they were near unblockable on the line because of fantastic hand technique and leverage.  The martial arts training was an incredible asset in football.  The only other sport I saw transfer nearly as well was gymnastics.  The problem there was that those guys were all really small and that made up a lot of the difference. 

For those same guys, did that transfer to tennis?  No, not really.  tennis is a very specific skill.  How much of tennis skill transfers to every day life?  Very little, I'd say.  In all of the sports I ever played the only tennis skill I ever transferred was serving a tennis ball to serving a volleyball.  That really is similar, but other than that, tennis is a very isolated sport as are more stick-ball sports.  Hitting a baseball does not transfer to a golf ball or a hockey puck or vice versa.  In fact the mechanics of these sports conflict with each other.  I always had problems with keeping my front foot still in golf after 15 years of baseball.

Another thing just occurred to me as to why the martial arts may be a good choice for my older son.  He works very much at his own pace.  Some days that pace is fast, other days it is very slow.  That was a problem with him in team sports.  He has talent, was always one of the best hitters at his age, but his approach alienated teammates as he got older.  They didn't like the days where he didn't appear to care much and his defense would really suffer.  I brought this up with him a few times and gave him the choice of improving that or finding another sport - he chose another sport.  We spent a lot of this summer fishing and canoeing and hiking, which was great and a lot of fun, but he also needs something that is not so dependent on me to do 90% of the work.  He doesn't need the physical training nearly as much as he needs the mental training.

saint:

--- Quote from: shmokes on November 02, 2009, 12:19:15 am ---"The arts" sound amazing, Xiaou.  I take back everything I said.  BTW, do you know the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique?  I would pay good money if you could teach me that.

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I lack motivation to respond to you point by point, but in a nutshell in my experience you're really wrong on this one. Having played in my time football, baseball/softball, and coming to martial arts late in life in my mid-30's, I have to say I think Xiaou2 is pretty close to on target. My kids are martial arts students as well, but are also active in other sports. The martial arts have helped them develop physically and mentally and haven't led to them being shunned or singled out. My daughter is on the swim team as her main sport other than JuJitsu and is an excellent swimmer, as well as being active in band and a variety of other school extra-curricular activities. My son is active in soccer and is pretty good at it, with thoughts of going pro (he's 10, so take it with a grain of salt, but it's something he says he would like to do), and wants to pick up baseball next. My youngest is 6 so your concerns wouldn't be showing yet but he loves the martial art he takes (Kyukido).

edit - my daughter and son are brown belts, testing for black within the next year in JuJitsu. My daughter also takes Kyukido. My youngest son is a yellow-stripe (second belt) in Kyukido. My wife and I are brown belts testing in a few months (ack!) for black belt in JuJitsu, with low belts in Aikido, Hapkido, and Kyukido.

My kids don't seem unique as far as I can tell. The other students in the kids classes all seem to be active in other sports or other extra-curricular activities, are good students for the most part, and seem to have a good group of friends. There are the occasional loner kids, but the classes seem to be helping them with that problem, not causing it.

Dunno - I suspect either your direct experiences have been poor ones, or you have a misconception from mass media perhaps. Or perhaps my experiences have been the unique ones ... but I don't think that's the case. I think you're off-base here.

--- saint

ChadTower:
saint, what is a reasonable picture of the financial commitment there?  That is 4 people with at least 3 of them studying multiple arts.  Ballpark is fine if you don't want to give specifics.  Feel free to decline to answer as well.

I haven't found a Jiu Jitsu school here that accepts anyone younger than a mid teen.  

saint:

--- Quote from: ChadTower on November 02, 2009, 09:23:37 am ---saint, what is a reasonable picture of the financial commitment there?  That is 4 people with at least 3 of them studying multiple arts.  Ballpark is fine if you don't want to give specifics.  Feel free to decline to answer as well.

I haven't found a Jiu Jitsu school here that accepts anyone younger than a mid teen.  

--- End quote ---

I don't mind talking finances but I honestly don't know, I'll have to check. The four of us taking JuJitsu do it at the YMCA. We are members so we get a discount but then we pay the membership fee so factor that in as you will. We pay $40/session, and they have six sessions per year. $240/student/year for JuJitsu, with a $20 fee for promotions.

The other arts we take are an "all-you-can-eat" deal at a dojo about 1/2 from us. Essentially we paid for taking Aikido for my wife and I. Because our ability to get there regularly was suspect, instead of paying for a length of time they gave us an alternative package where we paid for training up to a certain belt rank. Once we hit that rank, we have to pay again for the next set of belts. With that membership our kids are free, and while we are taking Aikido as our paid for art we can take any other classes the dojo offers as well. Our promotions in Aikido are paid for already as part of our membership, any promotions we receive in the other arts we have to pay for. It's a pretty good deal. I'll try to get the approximate costs when I'm home.

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