Kids Aikido Can Be Fun

Teaching kids Aikido is a little bit of a speciality, so you may have to hunt around a bit to find a suitable aikido dojo and an experienced aikido teacher.

Not every Aikido instructor will be willing to take on children in his/her classes. This is because teaching kids aikido needs more care than teaching kids judo, karate or taekwondo.

I believe that all sports are good for children. They increase fitness, strength and self confidence in growing young bodies... But here's the catch.

Many Aikido techniques attack the body's joints - especially the wrist and elbows. But these joints are still growing in young children and it is too dangerous to do these normal Aiki techniques in a kids Aikido class.

I was taught this by the late John Gay Shihan (7th Dan JAA). He said we could teach kiddies Aikido, as long as we eliminated the wrist joint techniques and elbow joint techniques until the children became teenagers.

This immediately removes common Aikido techniques such as Kotegaeshi and Shihonage (basic aikido throws number 12 and number 14 in Shodokan/Tomiki style Aikido).

But the first five Atemi-Waza techniques of the Basic 17 (the Randori No Kata) are absolutely ideal for this purpose.

Randori no Kata (The Basic 17 of Tomiki Aikido).