# Getting a family started



## rframe (Feb 26, 2012)

Hi all, I'm glad to have found this forum as it seems pretty active.I've been lurking through past posts for a couple days, soaking up what I can, and thought I'd say hi.I recently signed my 3 children (5, 6, and 8) and myself up for karate.  So far my wife just wants to watch :wavey:.


I spent a couple weeks looking into dojos and of the 12 or so I looked at, unfortunately only two had programs for youngsters that were not in the middle of the work day.  Thankfully, one of those is a pretty active Shotokan school with plenty of members, a good number of experienced/advanced students, several instructors, and led by a 5th dan.They allow us to take classes together as a family which is great.  My goals for all four of us are physical fitness, balance, focus, self-discipline, and eventually some basic self-defense skills.  If this sticks I see it as an activity we could enjoy together as a family for many years.


I took Shorin-Ryu when I was younger but only reached orange belt when the sensei moved away, so we're pretty much starting fresh.


Right now my biggest challenge is being honest with myself about my physical abilities.  Having been an endurance athlete in the past I often think I'm more fit than I really am and so I get winded faster than expected, lol...  This has helped me change diet and exercise habits though and I'm starting to gain fitness again a bit, shedding 5 pounds so far and pushup/pullup/chinup reps are climbing slowly.


We are taking classes 2x per week.  We've started practicing basics together at home, but I'd like to plan some well thought out practice sessions for home, rather than currently I'm just randomly calling out things.  With a 5 and 6 year old I want to keep them fun and interested but also help them focus and do things "right".  Any ideas on how to go about this?


I'm considering purchasing the Shotokan Mastery DVD's by Richard Amos and using those to enhance our sessions at home.  Any users here?


The school is very affordable, but getting four people started does make one think about the budget.


A few ideas I wouldn't mind feedback on...


Since the kids are young and growing I'm just planning to buy them Swift student gi's.


Since I'm grown I'll get a decent but still affordable gi right away, I'm thinking Mugen orange label.


I was looking maybe getting Swift sparring gear, it's the cheapest stuff out there but I actually handled some different focus mitts and shields in a local MA store and the Swift stuff had a very nice build quality, thicker materials and better stitching, than some of the other stuff (like Century stuff that appeared to be garbage) and was about 40-50% cheaper than anything else... so seems like it might be a good entry-level option.  Has anybody used their vinyl covered sparring gear?  It's only a couple dollars more than their foam dipped stuff and I would think it would have a longer life-span.  As entry level gear could I expect 6-12 months lifespan from this stuff?


Right now according to measurements, all three kids could fit into the same size sparring gear, so I'm just thinking of buying two sets of identical sparring gear, since I doubt all three would need to spar at the same time? :boxing:


I see a lot of children in youtube videos wearing chest protectors, how important is this?  It doesn't seem to me that most kids are going to generate enough force to damage ribs or organs... Is this just reflecting a culture of overprotective parents, or is there more to it that I just dont understand?


Any recommendations on groin guards for little boys?  I dont want the experience ruined by poor fitting gear.


I'm also assuming any cheap child size heat formed mouth guard should be fine for the kids getting started.


Appreciate any advice or ideas.  Thanks all.
_

Just for fun, my daughter sporting my old Shorin-Ryu gi from when I wasnt much bigger than her (and yes she knows how to make a proper fist now) 


_


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## rframe (Feb 26, 2012)

Wow, my nicely formatted post was squished into one big blob...lol
_Fixed with lots of extra line breaks now...is this normal?_


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## Toast_in_the_Machine (Feb 26, 2012)

rframe said:


> Wow, my nicely formatted post was squished into one big blob...lol
> _Fixed with lots of extra line breaks now...is this normal?_



Getting the format of the forum wrong - I don't know about normal, but I did it on my first few posts (and probably will on this one).

My recommendation (as a dad) is that you keep as light a touch on the outside the class training as you can.  You don't want to make it a chore or extra task for your kids.  They will likely enjoy the time as "dad time" but kids do burn out fairly easily.  You may enjoy the DVD, but the kids probably won't and the most important thing is to support the class training.  Your certainly know your kids better than anyone on the interweb, but I just wanted to put a word of caution out there.

Yes, you will likely need three sets of sparring gear.  It always works out that way.  Sorry.

Chest protectors will be set by your school, so I can't answer to the specifics.  I will say that it might not just be for over protection, but to let the kids know (initially) that they can be kicked/punched without being hurt.  One good kick to the gut and a kid might decide that this karate isn't for them.  Later on they can "toughen up".  (Or so a school of thought goes). 

Groin guards for little kids is tricky mostly because they grow so quickly, but I would guess that it won't likely ruin the experience.  As for adults - always wear a flexible undergarment under the cup to keep your stuff from hitting the walls of the cup when (not if) you get kicked there.

For kids and mouth protectors, remember they are naturally going to loose teeth and when they do, they won't want to have mouth guard in (it hurts).  I convinced the head instructor that there were no teeth to loose in the time between when the first ones fell out and before they filled in enough to have a mouth guard again.

Hope this helps


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## Tez3 (Feb 27, 2012)

For a few moments when I read the title I thought you wanted on advice on how to start a family! 

I teach children and I've found that many parents want their children to practice a lot at home but young children don't really want to do a lot outside class, as the previous poster said they can burn out quick. If they feel they are being made to practice they will lose interest pretty quickly, keep it fun and light is my advice. Do make sure though is they are doing techniques it's correct, it's soul destroying for the children (and the instructor) to have to correct them in class after a lot of practicing at home doing it incorrectly. for protections I can't add anything to Toast_in_the_Machine's excellent advice. Our smaller children don't wear gum shields, I teach them to keep their mouths shut with the tongue on the roof of their mouth if they can when sparring. It makes them be quiet if nothing else lol!


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## tshadowchaser (Feb 27, 2012)

First let me welcome you to MT.
It's nice to see that most of your family has started classes.  The kids will be kids and that means that they will want to have play time mixed in with their study time. Make their workouts at home brief and fun for them. If they practice more ontheir own thats good but do not push them to practice.  They are still verry young and it may be hard to hold their interst in the arts but if they are arounf it enough they will want to practice and take part because they will have friends in class.
You need to practice on your won outside of class. Doing so will not only help you but will show the kids that Dad likes doing this and enjoys it.
I wish you and your family much happiness in the arts


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## rframe (Feb 27, 2012)

Thanks for the welcomes and advice.  So far it seems they are very enthusiastic to do work at home and the instructors have commented they are doing very well so it seems to help.  Keeping the sessions at home short seems to be the key to keeping them "fun" for now.


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## rframe (Mar 10, 2012)

Just wanted to post an update on our experience.

Rather than purchasing the Swift poly/cotton student gi for the children, I instead ordered 100% cotton gi's from Karate International.  They have an 8 ounce cotton gi for $20, so I got one for each of our children.  They are a very nice Pakistani build quality, look good and the children said they are very comfortable.  The 8 ounce might be light for an adult, but for children I think they work well.

I did go with the Mugen orange label from Karate International for myself.  At $60 I am very pleased with this gi.  It's 10 ounce 100% cotton and the build quality is excellent.  About sizing...I'm 5'10" and about 195 with big shoulders (my fit/healthy weight is about 180 so I'm 15 pounds overweight right now), their sizing chart showed me in a size 5.  I felt like I was swimming in the thing when I first put it on. Pants were dragging on the ground and sleeves reached my knuckles.  I ran it through a couple hot wash cycles and it shrunk maybe 1.5" in length.  I did one karate class and it was ok, but really the pants still felt too long and kimono too loose.  I started another hot wash cycle and boiled four big pots of water and dumped them in there and let the gi soak in the boiling hot water for about 15 minutes.  Then I hot tumble dried it.  It now fits very nice with pants a little above ankles and sleeves about 2" above wrists.  It feels great to wear.  It does have traditional drawstring pants.  The hems are very well done with multiple stitches, so I really didn't want to pull these and re-hem it.  The hot shrink worked perfectly.

In other news, I asked our head instructor for references that would be compatible with the flavor of Shotokan that we learn in class and he highly recommended Nakayama Sensei's "Best Karate" series.  I purchased three of these.  They are very nice books with good visual representation of techniques and brief descriptions.  I've seen some books that try to explain too much with words and seem to do more to confuse me than help... Nakayma's books are very nice, highly recommended and I'm planning to buy the whole series eventually.  I started with 2 - Fundamentals, 5 - Heian and Tekki Kata, and 3 - Kumite 1.


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