Quote Originally Posted by Kristian View Post
I Agee with Hirlau. I train Wada Rye Karate, with my two girls. I have one that's 13 and one that is 10 years old.

Wado style karate is very close to sports karate and is much more fighting then kata.

We started karate training because my oldest daughter was assaulted my two buys. If anyone tried that today, they'll break their bones in the process.

She is very fast, and talented. We haven't gone to a tournament without medals yet.

Watching her fight is great, she change her fighting techniques all the time and is clearly an offensive fighter.

Today we still train in a dojo where we can train together. It's really fun and it has become a lifestyle. We train 3-4 times a week for two hours. I see the confidence both my kids have and I know that they can look after themselves no matter what.

Recently one of the great masters of Wado came to visit Denmark from USA. His name is Bob Nash. I believe he have 7" Dan. He is a great teacher.

Anyway I can't see anything bad about martial art. Properly trained, the kids learn confidence and self defence. Even my youngest is pretty tough. She broke three of my ribs in a training fight last year. ;-)
Interesting, whereas you get someone like myself, and my old Sensei, who believes you can learn Karate-Do learning two of the the K's, Kihon, Kata, and Kumite. He always said you could learn with Kata and Kihon, but never with Kumite and something else. He also believed a fight was won or lost in the gym, your personal fitness level was vital.

While some "set piece" training (self defense, you get grabbed..do this.etc.,) was given, he felt Kumite (fighting) could never truly be reproduced, you could not substitute a scenario for a real encounter, and scenario's were ultimately dangerous. We didn't do any real free form sparring to the much higher kyu's, but learned the one step and three step kumite practice, which was a fascinating thing to study, especially during summer camp in Ottawa, every summer for 5 years, when Sensei Tanaka, head of the JKA came over with his students, very nice man, loved golf and Crown Royal!

Ultimately, I think anything that can provide a fit body and a fit mind, with the added benefit of maybe providing some knowledge on self-defense is a good thing. For my two kids, who both quit after 6th kyu, it was something we could all do together, they learned some basics, gained confidence and built some character facing some exercises they'd never encountered before, and mainly, enjoyed themselves.