A question on bullying...Follow

Isn't bullying illegal in Canada? They're minors, so it's not like anything serious will happen, but filing a police report might generate some awareness.

In any case, I'd recommend calling the bullies' parents. If it continues, call the school board. If they don't care, call the cops on both the bullies and the school.

The principle seems to be doing something about it now. My 5 year old knows to avoid the kids and tell his teacher and my 9 year old knows to protect his family IF he sees any actual violence. My 5 year old is not able to understand how to physically defend himself.

Gopher-chucks would be a more kid friendly choice, IMO.

This answer is like 300% correct. Somebody said something about being careful about having your son record them without their knowledge, but that is a baseless worry. Recording somebody is not illegal. It just may not be admissable in a court of law. Thankfully, your case will almost certainly not go that far.

Yeah, I don't think a 5 year old would be able to pull that sort of thing off stealthy like. Or possibly at all. I don't even have kids, but I know they don't have the attention span to remember to hit a record button at a specific time.

Wow, really? I didn't know recorders had gotten so high tech that they could record for that long of a period. Of course, the last time I bought one was 10 years ago when I was getting school supplies for my first year of college. They still had the little cassette tapes that only lasted for about an hour.

Not quite accurate there, as I said in SOME area's it is illegal.

Get them into an art that teaches grappling. They are more geared toward disabling an opponent without injuring them. You could also look into taking some tai chi classes yourself and passing some of your knowledge onto them.

I remember when I was in like 3rd grade. EVERYONE knew karate. Of course, nobody actually knew karate (except the asian kids, because they are all ninjas obv).

It depends. Teaching self defense is tricky. Many places don't properly simulate real fight conditions; the demographic of their clientele doesn't permit them to do things with the force or speed that one might actually encounter. Instead they'll just drill moves slo-mo, with little resistance. There's only so much one can learn that way, and sometimes it does more harm than good. A lot of what they do isn't practical, grappling or no. The moves are too complex, and/or too dependent upon your opponent being incredibly accommodating.

Grappling is a ton of fun to train, and it can have very practical self defense applications. But you really have to be careful about doing it for the right reasons, and you have to shop around for training centers like you're looking for a new house. It's not as simple as simply picking a martial art that you think might be relevant, and then going to the nearest place that's got it.

More to the point: in most cases, I'm not sure that there's any point to teaching a kid martial arts as self-defense. I can't say that I see a situation in which it's in their best interest to ever use them. They should be extraditing themselves and finding an adult. If they can't, they're probably better off just trying to endure until they can.

I don't mean to suggest that it's a concrete rule or anything, or that you're implying any of the stuff I'm complaining about. Kinda just soapboxing, I suppose.

This. 1000x this. Even in more advanced classes at higher ages, many schools still do this. I vividly recall the guy who taught me (who himself was taught basic military hand to hand by his father and then expanded on that over time with various disciplines) "sparring" with a guy we knew who made a big deal about his karate (and I'm sure whatever belt he had, which I've long since forgotten). So they take positions, and the other guy starts hopping up and down on his feet and rocking back and forth. More like jogging in place while in a fighting stance. This goes on for about 10 seconds, while my friend is just sorta standing there. Then he asks "What the hell are you doing?". The guys answer: "This is what we're taught to do when in a stance while sparring". And he's like: "I don't have to fight you. I can just wait until you keel over from exhaustion". Then he just turned and walked away, having learned everything he needed to know about the likely uselessness of what the other guy knew.

I'm sure that was great for conditioning and whatnot, but not remotely useful for sparring, let alone if you get into an actual fight at some point. Most martial arts schools really are more about exercise and coordination than teaching you to fight. That's not bad btw, but you need to make sure you know what you're getting (or your kids are getting) and that it's what you want (them) to get out of it. Frankly, it's not a bad idea to *not* teach a lot of kids how to actually fight. But as someone pointed out, it's even worse to make them think they know how to, when they really don't.

Most martial arts are about discipline, conditioning, and form, which is why many of the traditional arts still teach Katas.

Hapkido is about pressure points, joint locks, and controlling your opponent by using their own size and aggression against them. Jiu Jitsu is about grappling and ground based fighting. These two disciplines are probably the best two to learn for self defense since they are the most likely to be used in a real world situation.

Look at the majority of MMA fighters and you'll find 3 main disciplines. Hapkido and Jiu Jitsu for defense, and Muay Thai for offense.

Jiu Jitsu would be good for younger kids, but I would hold off a bit on Hapkido. You would be amazed at how little effort is required to seriously injury someone.

Eh, I don't know that Hapkido is really ever used by MMA fighters. I don't know of a single fighter who practices it, let alone applies it in fighting.

MMA fighters typically have some combination of the following: Boxing, Wrestling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, and Muay Thai. Also, the BJJ applies to offense just as much as it does to defense.