Starting karate at 8, 10 or 12: is it too late?

01The short answer

02“Too late” compared with what?

The question comes from a comparison: with the children who started at 4, or with the classmate who already wears a coloured belt. It mixes two things. Some sports have to be started early if the aim is the top level; in Long-Term Athlete Development (2013), Istvan Balyi, Richard Way and Colin Higgs describe them as mostly acrobatic and artistic — diving, figure skating, gymnastics. Combat sports sit on the other side, with the sports where athletes specialize late. Karate Canada, which governs Olympic-style karate and not Kyokushin, places peak performance in karate in the mid-twenties: at 10, the bulk of the road is still ahead. For the top level, the same model calls for significant exposure to the sport well before puberty, which a start at 8 meets more easily than a start at 12; for everything else, it provides an “Active for Life” stage, open at any age.

That leaves the competition rules. The minimum ages for junior competition under the WKO, the IFK and the KWU are set out in What age can kids start karate?: they are competition ages, not starting ages, and they are minimums, not cut-offs.

03Which group they start in

At the dojo, children aged 4 to 13 train in groups by age and by level. Ages 4 to 6 have their own programme, the Petit Samouraï, on Saturday mornings. From 7, it is the kids programme, on weekdays, and the schedule splits it into two belt groups: white to blue, then blue with a yellow stripe and up. A child who starts at 8, 10 or 12 therefore begins in the first group, with other students early in the programme, from white to blue belts.

The shape of the hour is the same for everyone: the bow and the Dojo Kun, the warm-up, kihon repeated in lines, then kata or kumite, and the closing bow. What a kids class is like goes through that hour part by part.

04What they learn first: the first belt

The first step is the orange belt, 10th kyu, and its programme is published: the first stances, the first punches, kicks and blocks, ido geiko — techniques on the move —, two kata and the Dojo Kun. Then come blue, yellow, green, brown and black; Kyokushin karate belts gives the full order and what each colour covers.

No page on the dojo’s site sets a length of time between belts, and this one will not invent one: the pace depends on the child, their attendance and the grading. What can be said is that the list is known in advance: a 10-year-old who arrives later than the others knows exactly what is left to learn before the first grading.

05Starting later changes nothing about contact

A 10-year-old who starts is a beginner, not a child who is “behind” and has to catch up: contact is decided at the dojo, and neither age nor belt sets it. What the site says about it, and what the rulebooks provide, is in Is Kyokushin safe for kids?; when the first kumite comes is a question to ask during the trial.

06At 12 or 13: what comes next, with the adults

After 13, the kids programme gives way to the adult classes, open to every level from 14, at the same dojo. A child who starts at 12 therefore has up to two years of the kids programme ahead, then changes group, at the same dojo. In Karate Canada’s model, this is the age of the “Train to Train” stage, which runs from 12 to 16 for boys and from 11 to 15 for girls; the model assumes basic movement skills acquired beforehand, which school and other sports may have provided.

At 13, the question is a different one: start for a few months in the kids programme, or wait until 14 and go straight into the adult classes. That is a question to ask the dojo at the trial. Karate for teens aged 14 to 17 says what awaits a teenager with the adults.

07How to try

The first class is a free trial, and there is nothing to buy beforehand: comfortable clothes and a bottle of water are enough. Parents may watch the classes. The monthly rate for the kids programme, ages 13 and under, is $82.69, taxes included, with a family discount from three members; the pricing page is the reference, and the schedule gives each group’s days and times. After the trial, the measure that counts is the same as at 4: ask your child whether they want to go back.

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