Tae Kwon Do "Black Belt" Kids.?

Question

Hi. I was wondering how many people here disagree with these little kids getting Black Belts in Tae Kwon Do. My school is ITF, but we have age requirements. No black belts under 15. And even 15 year olds barely pass. How can a 9 year old "Black Belt" compare to a 20 year old one who has been training for over 5 years. Does anyone else agree with me? Should they allow kids to have Black Belts?

I think it's not right. These kids "think" they can stop an attacker and defend themselves. There parents also put to much belief in this. My cousin is one of those 10 year old Black Belt wonders. I slap him outside the head and he's down on the floor done.

Someone Else my instructors operate under ITF, but they seem to follow your guidelines for giving belts. My cousin goes to an entirely different school than I do.

C&C 3, I'm not here to listen to your opinions on Tae Kwon Do. I doubt you even take a martial art. A true martial artists understands his or her arts weakness and the strengths of others. And I doubt that if one just decides to undertake Kung Fu he will even come close to the skill level of Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee. Besides Jackie Chan himself knows Hapkido, Boxing, Judo, Taekwondo and Hei Long.

Answer 1

I think it is morally wrong to give children black belts. Not just them, but any man or woman as well.

Especially with little kids and women...when faced with assault, due to the black belt they have it gives them a false sense of security.

Instead of running away, they may now potentially stop and attempt to face their attacker....and get beaten badly, possibly raped (the women/girls), or worse.

It is morally unacceptable to churn out these "black belts" from your McDojo so you can make money...but it's even worse sending them out into the world with a false sense of security.

Shame on all McDojo's that hand out black belts to children.

p.s. In contrast, in brazilian jiu jitsu you may not become a black belt until you are at least 18. Average time training to earn a black belt is 10 years. Average time from white belt to blue belt (the 2nd belt) is 1 to 2 years. This is the opposite of the McDojo.

Answer 2

They don't rely on Kata dude: It's one part of the curriculum. Kyokushin has Kata too you know. There is no best. You need defense, offense, frequent training, resistance, and appeal to the fighting ranges. That's it. It doesn't matter if you take x, y, or z. You have to worry about the situations that you'll have to deal with. The arts you listed are all different. Firstly: Aikido is a throwing art. It's highly defensive but newer styles are adding new elements to make it more complete. It's based around using your opponents weight against them. It works well when combined with striking. Tae Kwon Do and Karate are both striking arts, that do have kata traditionally (Including full contact variants), but whether or not that is done more than sparring is dependent on the school at hand, and the home sub-style. Tae Kwon Do has a higher emphasis on kicking (Which can be advantageous for people with long limbs like myself) normally (Moo Duk Kwan and ITF are 50/50 with hands and feet), while karate can vary as well, but is almost 50/50 as a standard. Whether which one works is dependent on the person in question, their dedication, and skill. No styles objectively work for everyone, just as no styles objectively fail for everyone. Training methods are what make things fail or not. Sparring is important for self-defense, aka street fighting.

Answer 3

Amen... finally someone with some sense... I agree whole heartedly with you and if the child or the parents can't understand this..then they aren't ready to get a black belt!! and I'm so sick of people bragging that A. their child has a black belt at 10..
or B. they "earnt" a black belt in 1-2 years... don't they know anyone with half an idea about martial arts doesn't care and think that they are a joke!..

Answer 4

I train under WTF not ITF however it should be the same... when someone under the age of 16 gets a Black Belt they get the title 'Poom' (and in Korea they wear a Poom belt half red and half black) meaning they are not yet OLD enough to be a """Black Belt""" over 16 you get 'Dan' (and in Korea the full back belt) a 2nd Poom is higher then a 1st Dan. It just means they are not mature enough for the title of Dan.

Also it might be that your instructors A. suck or B. only care about money and just give away the belts. The Black Belt kids at our school can stop most adults.

Answer 5

Yeah, kids should be allowed to haev black belts. When i say that i mean kids 9 years old and up. Maybe some mature 8 year olds. Kids under 7 years old probably shouldn't be allowed to be a black belt becuase of lack of discipline. Actually my Tae Kwon Do center has kids take a type of report card to school. Teachers fill out the card, if you act up in school alot you are not allowed to take the test. If your good in shcool you get to take the test. But, most kids don't have enough experience by the time they are 9.

Answer 6

There are kids who deserve their black belts. It depends on the school & their standards. Some adults don't deserve their black belts. Obviously, a 10 yr old is no match for a 20 of wqual expereience. The same is true for a 20 yr old woman & a 20 yr old man or a 60 yr old man vs a 20 yr old man. That's whay there are age & gender catagories.

Answer 7

Well I dont completely agree with awarding a 9 year old kid a blackbelt, I do see serious advantages in it. First of all it can help the kid feel completely satisfied, and also help the kid to feel extremely self-confident, and also fearless(which is priceless at an early age). These emotional qualities are good but I see a little bit of deception, however, there are also some 18-40 year old blackbelts who are just as weak in the martial arts as the 9 year old black belts.
There is no reason to try and establish a national or global criteria for obtaining a blackbelt based on your own personal beliefs. If the teacher wishes to deceive the young student for whatever reason, he has the freedom to do so. The teacher is not harming anyone, he or she is only teaching his style to his best ability.
Unfortunetly these young students abilities might not match up to a stronger martial artists ability.

Answer 8

I am teaching karate for 30 years, and I am sorry for parents who are tricked by false teachers and giving to their kids a Black Belt. Many of you are right about this. There is martial arts age requirement (usually not under 18 years old), maturity (I cannot believe kids under 18 or 14 has maturity level), years of practice (at least 4 years), technical skills, ...........
Advice for parents, while you are searching for best martial art for your child, runaway from clubs that have kids under 18 (or 15) with black belts, and/or colorful martial arts uniform with many patches and awards like scouts, and they have some "World" Champions from some local tournaments.

Answer 9

well in my old school, we had a kid start at 4yrs old and by the time he was 10 or 11 yrs old he had his first degree black belt.

it was well within the reccommended time frame from the time he started studying Martial Arts until he recieved his blackbelt.

now if they're getting their blackbelts inside of a year, then yeah I gotta disagree with that.

because Martial Arts is a Life long experience, and the 1st degree blackbelt is only the beginning as an instructor, you're only considered certified to teach the discipline, but if you haven't had the actual time behind it, what you learned is worth nothing.

Answer 10

I study WTF and we do allow kids to have black belts but they are not the same as adult black belts. Kids under 15 have a "poom" and 15 and older have a "dan". If a child black belt wishes to upgrade once they reach 15, they have to re-test.

Obviously, a child black belt is not going to be at the same level as an adult but I have seen a few amazing Olympic-potential kids in the sparring ring.