More and more children - including under-fives - are learning a martial art. But does it make them aggressive or teach them respect and self-discipline?And should parents be worried? Fionola Meredith reports 'I did have concerns about aggression. But both children were hooked after the first night'
They're barely old enough to tie their shoelaces, but that doesn't stop the tiny white-suited and heavily-padded figures from swinging an impressive range of high-flying kicks at each other. Cheered on by their parents, and closely observed by an adjudicator, these preschool kick-boxers clearly relish this legitimate form of fighting. The action is taking place in a community centre in a loyalist housing estate in east Belfast, but the scene - heady with adrenaline and the whiff of hundreds of sweaty little feet - is increasingly common across Ireland.
Martial-arts enthusiasts are keen to emphasise their sport's physical and psychosocial advantages. Improved agility, balance, co-ordination and self-defence skills, alongside enhanced confidence and respect for other participants, are just some of the benefits that teachers of kick- boxing, judo, ju-jitsu, tae kwon do and karate offer their junior students.
But although many children are attracted to martial arts by the apparent opportunity to live out their ninja fantasies, some parents are a bit squeamish about the combat itself. If you're trying to instill the virtues of tolerance and non-violence in your children, should you really be providing them with the opportunity to perform flying kicks, strangleholds or joint locks? "Kick-boxing will not make a child aggressive," says Roy Baker, national coaching officer for the Irish Martial Arts Commission and chief instructor at Bushido Martial Arts. "In fact, the opposite is true. There's no physical contact when a child begins. We emphasise interaction and learning respect: it's very disciplined and controlled."
Baker's organisation teaches children from the age of five, but no younger - "otherwise it's just a babysitting service". Once they are old enough, "it's all about fun and games: they're doing exercises without realising it".
Another common parental concern is that martial-arts training could give children a false sense of invincibility, so that if they found themselves in a threatening situation they could try to stand their ground and fight rather than escape. Many martial artists acknowledge that the number of trophies, medals and belts accumulated, or the ability to twirl a variety of martial-arts weapons, can be less relevant than a proficiency in the 100-metre sprint.
Colm O'Reilly, chief coach at Clever Little Monkeys, a children's martial-arts club in south Dublin, says that choosing the right instructor is crucial. "If the instructor tells the children they are learning 'lethal techniques' or they will all be invincible ninjas, then, yes, it is dangerous. Usually this will end with them standing up to a fight when they could have easily avoided danger. And instructors should not concentrate solely on the dreaded 'street fight' that lurks around every corner. This is not a healthy attitude to adopt. While it is important to teach children to be aware of the dangers, these should not be exaggerated into horror stories. By constantly preaching fear, or worrying about what might occur, we lose sight of what is likely to happen."
O'Reilly, who teaches children aged four and over, is wary of encouraging excessive competitiveness. "Fear of failure also ranks highly in martial-arts schools, since many competitions are held throughout the year. The emphasis at these competitions is on winning, usually at the expense of enjoyment. While it is nice to see your child excel at his or her sport, as long as they enjoy competing, knowing their parents and instructors care more about them than some cheap plastic medal, who cares if they win?"
O'Reilly's club, with its child-oriented, unaggressive approach, is one of a growing number of organisations that repudiate the swagger traditionally associated with some martial-arts disciplines. Theresa Gadd, whose nine-year-old son and six-year-old daughter attend Clever Little Monkeys, admits she had a few qualms about sending her children for martial-arts training. "I did have concerns about aggression. But both children were hooked after the first night. I've seen a marked improvement in my son's confidence."
O'Reilly says: "Many martial-arts instructors assume a distant and domineering persona while teaching. A common number-one rule is: Do not question your instructor's orders. I believe this is detrimental to learning of any kind. As long as the children are taught with love and understanding, competition can allow children to develop their confidence to tackle challenges, rather than avoiding reality and escaping into the 'mysticism' and 'invincibility' of most military-style martial arts."
Ian Somerville, an enthusiast whose children go to judo lessons, is equally sceptical of the "cult of personality" surrounding some instructors. "The teacher is like a messiah in most martial arts. What I find unimpressive is when the sensei [ teacher] demands that the same reverence is extended to him outside the class. It's different in judo; here the teacher is called a coach."
The "love and understanding" approach advocated by O'Reilly and others is about as far as it's possible to imagine from the origins of many popular martial arts, in feudal Japan. But Peter Gilligan, the first person to teach Yang Family T'ai Chi in Northern Ireland, in 1990, says the Western servicemen who brought martial arts home after the occupation of Japan returned with an amplified and "hopelessly testosterone-soaked" version that exerts a negative influence on Western practice to this day. Gilligan sees the macho habit of refusing to submit, or "tap out", of a stranglehold until the last moment as part of this inheritance. "It's folly, all about point-scoring. And children are even less capable than adults of knowing when to tap out. It's vital they understand that the fact that the big boys are doing it just tells you the big boys are moderately stupid."
Gilligan is also concerned about the very young age at which some children begin to learn martial arts. "I'm quite alarmed at the idea of starting any child under six, and they shouldn't be engaged in competition before they're about 10 years old," he says. "But the bottom line is that the instructor must be experienced in teaching children. The fact that he's five times world champion is not relevant: personal excellence in performance bears no relationship to one's ability to instruct. Teaching children is totally different to teaching adults. For instance, a blow that wouldn't damage a 16-year-old could easily cause a greenstick fracture in a younger child."
But what if it's not the teacher but the parents who should be under scrutiny? The martial-arts world abounds with tales of children's contests that descend into mini-riots when competitive feelings run high among mothers and fathers. Although most parents' commitment is limited to ferrying their children to and from the dojo, or training hall, a small but noisy minority - more often fathers - take their support to extremes. According to the British National Martial Arts Association, many youngsters give up martial arts because of the stress of parental pressure - the shouting and taunts from parents with a win-at-all-costs attitude. It advises instructors and coaches to "look for the parent taking the enjoyment factor more seriously than they should, shouting vociferous encouragement from the side, displaying excessive disappointment at the missed opportunity". The association also warns that "outright abuse or invasion of the training or competing area should never be tolerated, and neither should abuse between rival competitor parents in the heat of a competitive bout".
Roy Baker of Bushido Martial Arts says: "Parental pushiness is one of the biggest problems. It's as if some parents are hoping that their children will succeed where they didn't."
Other parents welcome the transformative effect that martial arts can have on their son or daughter's physical confidence but continue to experience a lurking sense of disquiet when they see their child engaged in hand-to-hand combat.
The language of martial arts, with its brutal-sounding talk of roundhouse kicks, neck cranks or twisting wrist locks, can also be disconcerting for a peace-loving parent. But as Colm O'Reilly asks parents of prospective pupils: "Which would you prefer? For a child to learn defence skills in a safe environment, while supervised by a qualified adult and wearing protective equipment, or in the street, unsupervised, by a bully?"
CHOOSING A SCHOOL
Visit potential schools, observing how the instructors interact with their students.
Ask about instructors' experience of teaching kids.
Check safety protocols: there should be first-aid certs.
Make sure the school is accredited by a reputable martial-arts association or governing body.
How often does the class meet, and for how long?
Find out if the school has a trial period.