Martial arts are a popular, healthy hobby for children across America. It’s a common adage that no martial art is superior to another, and that it is the natural ability and hard work of the individual student that determines its ultimate worth. This, however, is only one part of the equation. Like any weighing of value that takes place in the real world and not just on paper, there are multiple factors to consider. Judo is less commercialized than other martial arts and has maintained better quality control, grappling by its very nature is more appropriate for children than striking martial arts, and Judo is the best applicable martial art to real-world self-defense situations a young person is likely to encounter.
In most cities across America you can find numerous Tae Kwon Do dojangs or Karate dojos filled with young children. Most of these schools are run for-profit and many are notorious among serious coaches and practitioners for shady business practices and substandard instruction. Besides charging exorbitant rates, some of the common shady practices include signing students up for lengthy contracts (meaning you are locked into a year-long payment plan, which you must continue to pay even if your child quits), grading kids for new belt ranks every couple of months (each new rank of course accompanied by a hefty fee), making it mandatory for students to buy ordinary gear from the school at a marked up price, and luring parents to enter students into a “black belt club” (essentially paying more money for fast-tracking students to gain ranks sooner regardless of whether they’re ready). A person who has no background in a quality martial art is unlikely to be able to recognize substandard from good instruction and tends to be easily duped by disreputable instructors that are usually good at selling themselves. They are often better sellers than quality instructors who may be good teachers and practitioners, but often have no mind for business.
The simplest solution for the average well-meaning parent who doesn’t have the discerning eye of an expert, is to choose a martial art for her child that has been touched less by commercialism and has maintained better quality control over its instructors. Many Judo clubs are non-profit institutions. They are often housed in community recreation centers, universities or YMCAs. Very few Judo coaches make their livings by teaching Judo and rather do it purely for love of and dedication to the sport. Although an Olympic sport and very popular in other countries, Judo is less popular in the United States and thus has not been corrupted by the almighty dollar as much as other martial arts.
Judo clubs are usually much less expensive than other martial arts programs despite often providing a much better standard of training. Also, unlike most martial arts, Judo is controlled by a central organization in Japan with national “helper” organizations here in the United States. All rank and coaching credentials come from one of these organizations which means while Karate and other martial arts have many self-proclaimed masters and self-promoted tenth degree black belts, it is very difficult to set oneself up as a Judo instructor if you are not qualified or claim rank you don't have. For a prospective customer, finding out if a Judo club is legitimate is as simple as asking, “Does your club compete in Judo tournaments?” A club must be registered with one of the three legitimate national “helper” organizations to participate for insurance purposes and only properly credentialed instructors are allowed to run clubs. Not only will an experienced coach of quality provide better instruction, but he will ensure their safety and minimize chances of injuries much better than a pretender. This is not to say there are no good Tae Kwon Do or Karate programs, but the average person will have much better results seeking out a local Judo club rather than searching high and low for a rare gem of a quality Tae Kwon Do program.
Judo clubs are usually much less expensive than other martial arts programs despite often providing a much better standard of training. Also, unlike most martial arts, Judo is controlled by a central organization in Japan with national “helper” organizations here in the United States. All rank and coaching credentials come from one of these organizations which means while Karate and other martial arts have many self-proclaimed masters and self-promoted tenth degree black belts, it is very difficult to set oneself up as a Judo instructor if you are not qualified or claim rank you don't have. For a prospective customer, finding out if a Judo club is legitimate is as simple as asking, “Does your club compete in Judo tournaments?” A club must be registered with one of the three legitimate national “helper” organizations to participate for insurance purposes and only properly credentialed instructors are allowed to run clubs. Not only will an experienced coach of quality provide better instruction, but he will ensure their safety and minimize chances of injuries much better than a pretender. This is not to say there are no good Tae Kwon Do or Karate programs, but the average person will have much better results seeking out a local Judo club rather than searching high and low for a rare gem of a quality Tae Kwon Do program.
The nature of Judo’s physical mechanics makes it more appropriate for children to learn than striking martial arts. All martial arts, regardless of origin, can be classified as either striking (punching and kicking) or grappling (throwing and wrestling). To learn to do anything well, you must practice the activity under conditions similar to how you expect use it. Swimmers really swim; they don’t practice their strokes on dry land and expect to be able to win a swimming race when the time comes. This seems like common sense, but this “dry land swimming” is exactly what many Tae Kwon Do, Karate and Kung Fu programs largely consist of, especially for children. Stylized prearranged forms, compliant drills, and non-contact tag sparring bear little resemblance to fighting and cannot make up the bulk of your practice if you want to become competent at a martial art.
In order to become proficient at punching and kicking people, you must punch and kick people, with solid contact to distinguish incidental touches from cleanly landed blows with good technique behind them. Few parents would want to sign a young child up for such a program, and for good reason, as repetitive hits to the head are harmful for a child’s developing brain. So the choice for striking martial arts usually comes down to either putting a child’s well-being at risk or “faking it” to some degree.
In order to become proficient at punching and kicking people, you must punch and kick people, with solid contact to distinguish incidental touches from cleanly landed blows with good technique behind them. Few parents would want to sign a young child up for such a program, and for good reason, as repetitive hits to the head are harmful for a child’s developing brain. So the choice for striking martial arts usually comes down to either putting a child’s well-being at risk or “faking it” to some degree.
Judo, on the other hand, does not involve striking, but rather focuses on wrestling, throwing, and pins (chokes and joint locks are also part of Judo, but are never included in the children’s curriculum). Nearly everything you learn in Judo is not only practical, but also safe to practice at full-force once you have learned to fall correctly. Children don’t need to fake it; they can really wrestle with each other, and try their hardest to throw their classmate or pin them helplessly to the mat, and because they are not hitting each other, no real damage is caused. Accidents can happen, just as any they can happen in any contact sport, but the injury rate in Judo is far lower than in American football, which thousands of school children still manage to play every day with their parents’ approval.
This type of training is better practice for being able to really use your martial art under the stress of a real attack, because the students apply what they're learning during class against a fully resisting opponent within the safe, wholesome context of sport play. Beyond being more effective for imparting physical skills, this style of instruction is generally more enjoyable and engaging to children. Common sense tells us younger kids would prefer to wrestle with kids their age instead of spending time memorizing forms and having to stand in strict lines while they punch the air.
This type of training is better practice for being able to really use your martial art under the stress of a real attack, because the students apply what they're learning during class against a fully resisting opponent within the safe, wholesome context of sport play. Beyond being more effective for imparting physical skills, this style of instruction is generally more enjoyable and engaging to children. Common sense tells us younger kids would prefer to wrestle with kids their age instead of spending time memorizing forms and having to stand in strict lines while they punch the air.
One point important point to consider is that I have been practicing and teaching a striking martial art (Karate) for nearly two decades and taught high school and middle school in the NYC public school system. I'm not unfamiliar with violence in schools, what it looks like and what repercussions can be expected when the incident is over. Simply put, while a striking martial art taught by a quality coach may manage to fill the needs of a child in danger of being bullied or threatened at school, it is not the best fit. Firstly, most school fights quickly turn into wrestling matches anyways, which striking arts don’t prepare you for. While being wrestled you usually can't rotate your hips freely to deliver punches with force (and it should go without saying that if you're being grabbed the opponent is already too close to make use of kicks). Unlike striking exchanges, during which you can move freely between different distances, once one combatant grabs hold of the other, both are usually stuck wrestling, usually until the conclusion of the fight.
Fights in school tend to begin at a very close range, with the aggressor getting in the other’s face to intimidate him while and psyching himself up to attack. At this range, the person trained in a striking art’s options are already very limited and the best option, tactically speaking, is to hit the aggressor preemptively, before his options are even further reduced by being grabbed. In a school setting this will undoubtedly make the repercussions worse as one of the first things the administration will want to know when assessing what needs to be done about the incident is who hit whom first. Lastly, even if you do manage to effectively defend yourself with a striking art, you cannot do it by hitting a person with half force. Punches and kicks need to be delivered as forcefully as possible, which will lead to black eyes or more serious injuries, which can get the victim in more trouble than the aggressor.
Fights in school tend to begin at a very close range, with the aggressor getting in the other’s face to intimidate him while and psyching himself up to attack. At this range, the person trained in a striking art’s options are already very limited and the best option, tactically speaking, is to hit the aggressor preemptively, before his options are even further reduced by being grabbed. In a school setting this will undoubtedly make the repercussions worse as one of the first things the administration will want to know when assessing what needs to be done about the incident is who hit whom first. Lastly, even if you do manage to effectively defend yourself with a striking art, you cannot do it by hitting a person with half force. Punches and kicks need to be delivered as forcefully as possible, which will lead to black eyes or more serious injuries, which can get the victim in more trouble than the aggressor.
Conversely, Judo provides the victim with a wider array of options. While it’s entirely possible for a judoka to slam an opponent in a very damaging way onto a hard floor, he can also opt to take him down in a more restrained manner. School administrators are likely to look more favorably upon a student who, when attacked, takes the attacker down and pins him helplessly, waiting for a teacher to break up the altercation. Instead of becoming more limited the closer the aggressor comes, the situation becomes more favorable for the judoka who wants to grab hold of his opponent as soon as possible. This not only improves the victim’s position, but also means he has more time to attempt to de-escalate the situation verbally and hopefully avoid a violent confrontation altogether. In the worst case scenario where the incident progresses to violence, witness reports that the victim continually attempted to persuade the attacker to not fight will factor in positively for the defender.
Parents should keep in mind that their very young children are not future Olympians in-training, nor is the world so dangerous that they are in dire need of self-defense skills by the time they can walk; kids come to class to have fun and there is nothing wrong with that. This does not prevent them from having fun while learning something of real value. If you sign your children up for little league, it’s expected they will be playing actual baseball, not baseball-themed games while being told they’re playing real baseball and martial arts are no different. In short, while it is possible to find quality instruction in other martial arts, Judo is a more consistent choice for quality, grappling martial arts in general are more appropriate for young people to learn than how to best hit each other, and Judo is more suitable to the self-defense situations that a school-age person is likely to find himself in.
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