Kid's Goshinjutsu? 子供の護身術？What's that? 何それ？？

エイヤー！飛び横蹴りだーい！！

     Shihandai William was recently asked by parents to teach the kids Goshinjutsu or Self-Defense (^^). I could not help but chuckle. My personal feelings on teaching SD  techniques to kids is ....NONSENSE!!!

Just think how long it takes adults to master any self defense technique and the mind set to use it. To practice techniques with compliant adversaries is NOT THE SAME as real-life situations.　
In real life, the attack doesn't end when Sensei yells "Yame". 
In real life, you do not have the luxury of packing your Gi and driving home at the end of practice.
In real life, you cannot  join fellow Dojo members for some beer afterwards to Monday morning quarterback scenarios.
In real life, there is no "taking it easy" or "adjusting the intensity of the attack"
That is one of the fallacies of "teaching" self defense in Dojos.
Do you really believe that a 6-7 year old can take an adult down?
Do you really think that a child can effectively block a punch of an adult intent on kidnapping or harming the child? We need to get real.
Adult or child, no matter how much one tries to make realistic scenarios there is a limit. How do you create the fear factor? Is it healthy to submit a child to a realistic amount of fear in training? How can you create a realistic atmosphere when you will always know that there is  margin of safety and that at the end of practice you will go home as usual in one piece.

    Self Defense begins at home, like anything else parents wish for their kids to master. Manners, social etiquette, tolerance, kindness to others, the ability to see what is right or wrong and the ability and courage to refuse things that are unlawful and or detrimental. The Dojo can supplement those traits. It has to be a joint effort between parents and instructors. Through training we can help the kids develop self confidence and the correct mind set to be able to make proper decisions that will make them safe. 
    Even among adults, how often do we become non-compliant in our drills for bunkai and oyos? I would guess 1 %? The majority of the time it is done with being compliant so that the "jutsu" works like magic.  Of course there is also a safety factor involved in training and there is a limit to how real we can get. But we cannot teach in a way that develops false security. That is the danger of compliant drills. 

    What I want to point out is that what the kids learn at home, school,  and Dojo has to be supportive of each other. Kids cannot learn different sets of rules at every location. Take for instance, observing and abiding to laws, city ordinances and various regulations that we have in our daily lives. How can we tell kids to observe regulations and laws if  we and or parents ignore them. Driving with a cell phone and texting, parking in a no parking zone because its only for a short time, drinking and driving, throwing candy wrappers on the street, crossing against a red light or jaywalking because we are too lazy to walk to an intersection.  There are many other examples.

    I truly believe self defense starts at home. Kids will copy and follow their parents. In public they will copy the manners of adults. Self defense is not about techniques, it is about basic social behavior and simple awareness.

    So, at least at Yokohama and Makiki we will stick to kihon, kata and kumite. No special classes of kid's self defense. What use is kihon if it cannot be used for self-defense as a last resort?
I truly believe in the saying,

 "If one goes through without having to use karate, then karate has accomplished its goal".

一生空手を使わずにて本来の空手の役目を全うした。

上記の翻訳は後で頑張ります。悪しからず。