Aikido Yoshinkai Hawaii - Koryokan | 合気道養神会ハワイ

Aikido for Kids

Children's Classes are a unique blend of traditional aikido discipline and fun. The hour of aikido instruction is broken into periods of aikido training and games designed to enhance the skills and abilities needed for aikido development

Aikido training helps children to develop:

Coordination
Respect for others
Self control
Self respect
General fitness

Social Skills

Children's Class (7 - 12 years) exposes kids to a mix of technique and games that are designed to provide an understanding of Aikido's basic principles. Aikido practice for these children fosters discipline and mutual respect. Additionally, they begin to learn the basic techniques of Aikido and their Japanese names. Games teach various lessons about attitude and awareness in a fun context and serve as a reward when the students have stayed focused on the more routine aspects of training. Colored belts are awarded in the same way they are awarded at the honbu (headquarters) dojo. The ranking system includes testing procedures to encourage the young people to organize their technical knowledge and to challenge them a bit more while still focusing on building confidence and self-esteem.

Classes will usually begin with breathing meditation. The kids will line up in seiza with their hands placed on their thighs. They’ll concentrate on breathing, counting up to eight in Japanese and then repeating the process. Basic meditation like this helps to calm and focus the kids.

After a short warm up of general stretching and wrist exercises, we practice kamae (basic stance), seiza ho (getting in and out of seiza), shikkoho (knee walking), and one of the kihon dosa (basic movements). We will also spend a lot of time on ukemi (tumbling) drills to help the children get used to the mats.

We then line up, the instructor demonstrates a technique and the children will pair off and start training, just like in the adult class. We usually pair the kids off by experience level. Sometimes the higher ranks will practice a more advanced variation of a technique and the younger ones a more basic movement. We end each class with kokyudosa and meditation before bowing out.