Customer Reviews

Aikido for Kids

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found this book to be an excellent resource. I teach aikido to kids and bought a copy to circulate among my students. It introduces the basic aikido concepts, but does not get bogged down with a lot of Japanese terminology, which tends to differ from dojo to dojo and would not be helpful. This book will give students confidence and makes aikido practice seem approachable. The section on testing was very helpful.

As an Aikido teacher, I think this book is especially helpful for children and parents considering whether Aikido is right for them. Rather than being a book for Aikido teachers, "Aikido for Kids" is an excellent resource for children and parents interested in Aikido. My favorite aspects of the book are the diversity of the children models (age, rank, ethnicity, ability and gender with students training with people different from themselves) and the emphasis on how Aikido is useful in daily life (making friends and respecting parents is described as Aikido). The physical aspects of Aikido are presented in a clear and inviting way and includes everything that is part of a typical Aikido class from warm-ups to testing (I particularly like the segment on rolling). The section for parents on finding an Aikido class for their child contains wise and practical advice. I can think of no better resource for children and parents seeking an introdution to Aikido.

This book covers the things that a younger child wants to know who is getting interested in Aikido and martial arts. The plentiful pictures both show the various stances and are motivating to the child who may think that he'll never be able to "get it." It is an excellent introductory book to the subject of "Aikido for kids."

I was hoping to have this book be a resource for my youngsters as they fall into the 9-12 age range and have advanced several belts in Aikido. We all agreed the photography was a bit flat and univiting. Our dojo uses the Japanese termnology and the lack of it bothered them - as well as they are used to mixed classes of children and adults. This book is good at giving a very basic understanding of the differnces between Aikido and other martial arts and it is suitable to be read to very young children (4-6)who may be curious before they visit a dojo. As a study aid for older children it falls quite short.

This is not a book about teaching aikido to children, but a book about aikido written for children. It attempts to explain what aikido is and how a class operates in language suitable for children. It fails. I found there to be little concrete information in there, very few techniques are illustrated, there is nothing about the the origin of aikido or any mention of what makes aikido different to other martial arts. The writing is overly simplistic and highly patronising. Even the section for parents treats them like idiots.
This book could have been very helpful if it only contained some facts, some technical information, and did not make the assumption that just because the reader is a child he must be stupid.