CHILDREN are oftentimes the ideal candidates for abductions because it is believed that they are weak and defenceless. With this in mind, the Future Leaders Eagle Karate Centre in Parkington Plaza, Kingston, has been working over the years to equip children from as young as three years old with techniques they can use to defend themselves in vulnerable situations.
Training under the tenets of love, respect, honesty and determination, the club has been training young minds in the art of self-defence since 1999.
While training three year olds who barely understand their surroundings might seem like a huge challenge, karate instructor Michael Young says it is something he enjoys doing.
"What we mostly stress on while teaching them, is building their self-confidence through strength," he says.
Because their students range from three to 16 years, the classes are usually separated, so that the younger students can be taught basic self-defence techniques, while the older ones focus on the more advanced art of self-defence.
Young says children are also taught various methods to develop strong mind and body, which will help them to prevail in dangerous situations.
So they are also asked to do several forms of exercise geared towards doing just this during training sessions. This, Young says, also helps them to be more balanced and focused.
And although children are usually bubbly and hyperactive, witnessing a training session at the club is like being at a boot camp where discipline prevails. Children are placed in two rows facing each other; with one mention of the word "Yoy" (get ready and don't move) from the karate instructor, there is dead silence and everyone is on their guard ready to face off with their partner. With each command from the instructor, their little bodies shift into another gear, doing high kicks and punches. There is no laughter or playing around, everyone is focused on the task at hand. And while the commands given in Japanese might leave us scratching our heads, the children have no problem understanding what is being said.
Young says that although they teach the children how to defend themselves, they also teach them the improbability of using strength only to take on a bully who is much older than themselves.
"The first thing we tell them is to strike in the eye or the groin area. We sensitise them now, especially with what is going on," he says.
Children are also taught to not only help themselves, but to help their parents or peers when they are in trouble.
After seeing the moves his eight-year-old daughter can do, Orville Dolphy sees the importance of getting her involved in the karate classes. Over the past five years she has moved from holding a white belt to now owning a green belt, which is the fourth highest honour a karate student can receive. Last year she won gold in a karate tournament she entered in the Cayman Islands, making her family in Denham Town proud.
Dolphy says his daughter's involvement in karate helps her to get involved in something worthwhile and get her mind off the violence in her community.
"She teach me how to back kick and teach her sisters how to defend themselves when she come home," he says.
Children doing karate for the first time are usually given a white belt. As they master the art of self-defence they change their belt from white to blue, then yellow, green, brown and black which is the highest honour.
