when is the best age to start martial arts like wing chun, or tai chi?
i’ve heard that teacher usually accept kids at age 5 or 6 but when teaching their own kids will start at 2.
any ideas or experience?
We started from around three months -
lots of games for increasing reaction speed, tickling games that taught him how to instinctively block and he would accompany me to private karate lessons (I study Shotokan Karate).
We also downloaded the Shotokan Karate Kata on youtube and he watches those with me while I practice them.
He has no idea of what it is he is learning as in regards to self defence or combat but I believe it will make learning faster later.
The tickling games have paid off as my mum’s dog has a tendency to want to lick his face (they’re the same height at the moment) and Sabian automatically blocks without thinking. It felt great watching him do it instinctively the first time.
Whether or not these games will pay off later I don’t know but I figure they can’t hurt
TmS- that is brilliant. I never would have thought of that!
If your looking at private lessons it would depend on the place of instruction.
My daughter took karate lessons at the age of 3. They bascially taught her basic blocks and moves at that age.
If your looking to do it at home you can start any time you feel he’s ready.
For Tai Chi at home, try a great teaching video from Juan Li (video is in Spanish), a well renowned instructor (http://www.ichingdao.org/tao/en/biography-of-juan-li.html). I have the entire video (35 minutes or so) and can share it to anyone interested (as it’s old and very hard to find). Just mail me. I use a transfering website that gives you 10 days to download big files uploaded by others (http://s214.transfer.ro/)
Juan Li explains the movements very nice, guiding you all the way. The Tai Chi 13 Steps is easy to follow.
The initial training, which you can do with you kids, is exercising different types of walking:
- walk like stepping on clouds
- then walk like stepping through mud
- walk like stepping into water
etc.
to exercise the way you feel your feet and movements on different types of ground. This will make it a funny experience too. For kids, explain how you feel when walking like that: clouds are fluffy, soft, mud sticks to your feet, water puts pressure on your feet and so on and so forth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9uLsYDDBqA
If you want to get deeper into Tai Chi practice, try http://www.amazon.com/Inner-Structure-Tai-Chi-Mastering/dp/1594770581/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298706912&sr=1-1 - a book that explains the other side of Tai Chi - but this is just for mastering Tai Chi movements at an advanced level.
Hope this helps, 