Has anyone tried putting thier ADD kids in Martial Arts? Does it help? Do they react posetively to the discipline?

The reason I am asking is that my kids have been in Tae Kwon Do for about 9 months and I think the results are mixed. They have a hard time paying attention in class, but they do advance. Today all 4 (ADD and nonADD) all recieved their orange belts. So far, they are all doing great, but I am afraid that it will be too much for them soon. Then again I could be wrong, I just got sparring gear and that seemed to snap them all into focus again.

My son had done Karate for 2 years; we decided to take this summer off.

He had earned his orange belt this past spring and was starting to lose interest.

-it was difficult getting him ready to go (transition, not worth the "fight")

-he was starting to cry during class; out of no where the tears would start and he would have to leave class to re-group.

-he was over-stimulated and un-focused

Karate was extremely helpful with focus and listening, until the demands of class became more and more. He soon lost interest and I was not going to force him to go.

I left it up to him this fall; I told him that it would be a commitment for him and me (financially), so if we are to do it then he has to stick it out and not fight me on getting ready.

He has not missed it at all this summer; Sensai is a good friend of ours and had expressed that the demands may be too much for him and he believes that he got all that he needed in the short 2 years that he was there. Unless we wanted to do a private lesson.

****My son is a moto cross quad racer; we travel all over the NE, he has an unbelievable talent for racing. It is an individual sport and he is so focused on his quad. it is amazing. He is aware of what is going on around him and is a good competitor.

He has had a few bad crashes and believe it or not, has not been seriously hurt. This is because he knows how to fall and react quickly.....I feel that the Karate has helped with that.

Karate is excellent for kids like ours and it will be beneficial no matter what they decide to pursue in life athletically.:)

He now wants to take Art lessons and Hip Hop dance lessons.

Wow, sounds like your son found his niche. Good for you guys. I think that is the hardest to do. I know one ADHD son tried sparring last week and I was just amazed at how he zeroed in on it. Maybe this will be his thing to do.

Yes i enrolled my daughter at the age of 8 into Martial Arts. I thought it was going to be good for her. And at first it was very good. It was something new that she enjoyed and they taught her about respect and loyalty. She loved the sparring because she was able to get physical and jump around. Once she advanced to the senior belt level, she started to get frustrated, overwhelmed and complained that she didn't want to go anymore. In Martial Arts the higher rank you are the more serious it becomes. And they expect the kids to be serious. As hyper as my daughter is, she just could not focus and like sportbikechic said, she was over-stimulated. During Belt ceremonies I would have to watch her and worry about her fidgeting and not sitting still. this is a big thing at the ceremonies, out of respect for others that each classmate sit with respect and watch the others. As most of us know, a child with ADHD cannot sit still longer than 5 minutes, if that. After about 2 years of Martial Arts I removed her from the school. She was not into it anymore. I truly believe that martial arts is great not only for kids but adults as well, and the sparring is a great way for them to get the energy out of their system. If your child can focus and enjoy it, by all means keep them in it. I think it's great, it just wasn't meant for my daughter. Good Luck to you!

JRodriguez

My son also loves sparring!! He loved the physical aspect of it; jumping around and being aggressive. He usually won in his class; Sensai did say that if he continued on then he could do more sparring. Which made my son really happy.

The next level is 2 days a week; one day forms, one day sparring. The forms day is very drill orientated (focus, listening, structure). When my son is over-stimulated he is like "deer in the headlights".

He just left 5 minutes ago for his first day of school. He looked so cute; 3rd grade now. He was nervous...but excited as well. I can't wait to see how his day goes. :)

Good Luck!

My son did not do well at martial arts. Later on we discovered that it was due to SEnsory integration disfunction. (Sometimes goes hand in hand with ADHD, as if one weren't enough) -Overstimulation, mixed results, and dificulty transitioning, those are all symtoms. (acording to the OT) He just became overstimulated by the whole martial arts experience so we stopped. We did wakeboarding instead. He loves it, he is good at it and there is something about the water that calms him a lot, not to say the energy burn and the thrill. He started on a kneeboard, much easier and encouraging. He is moving on to the wakeboard, he is getting there, and if he gets frustrated, a few fast laps on a kneeboard will cheer him up quickly.

well our son with ADHD has been doing this for a while now and recieved a trophy on his first ever grading for being the highest scorer of his age and class with straight A pluses, i think it gives them confidence and a discipline which they look up too plus for most of this sport its quite an individual thing and althou my son loves rugby and football he dosent do well as he isnt a team person if you know what i mean he finds it very hard but i think martial arts is a great thing to take up for an ADHD child who wants to do it and has the frustrational part of it as it allows them to focus there energy in a positive way.

Yeah I agree with sportbikechic's, I took martial arts(taekwondo) about 15 years ago and it was for about 2 years, I pretty much experienced pretty much similar stuff as what he posted, I would try it for couple years and then take him out, otherwise he probably will lose interest. however the crying, etc was mostly in school for me not the martial arts. however the martial arts did prevent me from being bullied in school about 6 months or so into the martial arts tg. I did lose interest after couple years though, and I was all right in school, most of the time related to some symptoms, not all though.

Also it seemed for me the reason why I lost interested is that they were doing the same kind of tg, High block and punch for like the last 6 months, and was getting bored with it , since I already knew it. and was nearly a red belt by then.. so I quit..