So, is karate valuable for either adults or children? The key thing to think about here is that with karate, people often like the fact that there isn’t contact in a lot of karate styles. That is not to say some Karate styles don’t have full contact. However the vast majority limit contact to some degree, especially to the head. You generally are punching and kicking the air in most styles and there is occasional use of mitts or hand / kick pads.
Karate can enable small children to train in the same class as their parents, although this is not really safe but many Karate schools do this. And so there’s no doubt that some parents like that aspect of it. They’re not stood around waiting for the child to finish training. They can use their time in a effective manner. Also, I think that many parents are motivated by the simple fact that their children are learning a form of self defence.
The traditional martial arts and karate in particular have talked a lot about respect, and they talk about discipline. And having children standing in lines learning patterns, does require some discipline and obviously there’s a belt system in place and their good behaviour in reasonable clubs is rewarded with getting promoted to get their new belts. So there are some benefits. However, the fundamental problem with karate classes is that really, you’re only teaching children to defend themselves first and foremost by punching and kicking, and secondly, in predominantly non contact environments where the opponent does not hit back. This doesn’t mean that all karate schools are non contact, some resemble styles like Kickboxing and there are some without question legitimate competitors in mixed martial arts with big Karate backgrounds. Gunnar Nelson Lyoto Machida, and Steven ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson all have Karate background as well. So there are definitely some stylists that are very competent. However, that isn’t most karate schools.
Most karate schools are really a traditional martial art where you punch and kick the air, you learn Kata and you do a lot of bowing and keep fit type movements. Therefore, if you really want to enhance your self defense, get fitter, get stronger, be able to really defend yourself, but also be able to defend yourself in a way that’s proportional then without question, there are better options than Karate. So what’s the best class for my child to, to do in terms of learning to defend themselves, and learning to defend themselves in a manner that’s proportional to the attack? Let me give you an example of that. Let’s say that a child at your child’s school starts to push them around. If all you do is train them in a striking art, the danger is that they then respond by punching that child in the face, or kicking them in the face. The actual response would be way out of proportion to the actual crime. So the beauty of learning Brazilian jujitsu is that there’s no punching or kicking in most of our classes. There are exceptions to this, but in the vast majority of Brazilian jujitsu classes, the focus is on positional control. So pinning a child who’s attacked your child, such as they’ll pin them to the ground or they might pin them against the wall. They’ll take them down to the ground in a controlled manner and get on top of them. And from there, they can stop the other child from striking them. And they can if required, apply a proportional attack that stops their aggressor in their tracks. So it’s highly unlikely that your child is going to end up outside of the principal’s office for defending themselves using Brazilian Jiujitsu. That’s a huge benefit over Karate.
Also, if you look at the history of Brazilian Jujitsu, it gave birth to the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which proved that in really standalone martial arts, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is one of the very, very best that you can learn. It’s also a very positive environment in terms of fitness and exercise. Your children become much fitter and stronger because they are effectively doing a form of resistance training, sometimes described as lifting humans, so they learn these vital kind of fitness skills as well. And some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes even involve meditation as well. So breathwork is a big part of Rickson Gracie’s approach to Brazilian jujitsu. And that’s common in quite a number of our SBG gyms around the world. To focus on excellent breathwork to keep us calm when dealing with aggressive people, not just in physical confrontations, but also dealing with aggressive people in the workplace or at school, or as we go and live our lives out and about in social settings as well. Breathwork can even help our children get to sleep at night and self soothe should they wake up after a bad dream.
