Children and the Martial Arts: An Aikido Point of View

by Gaku Homma

In the first half of the book Gaku Homma gives a very detailed and convincing account of how he came to the martial arts (and aikido in particular), and how this has shaped his practice as a teacher. He gives many examples of conversations he's had with parents who want to enroll their kids in his classes, which serve to illustrate many of the wrong reasons parents want children to participate in martial arts. In the second half, he gives examples of many of the exercises children in his aikido classes perform, accompanied by black-and-white line drawings.

264 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 1993

Reviews

[Andrew Stewart]

Great book on parenting and the difference between Japanese and western childhood. The first part of the book explains the author's upbringing in post-war Japan. The next part relates, his upbringing to the way he teaches aikido. The last part details lots of exercises that you can use to run a kids aikido class or practice at home with your kids if they are attending a class.