Martial Arts -time commitment?

[BlsdMama]

DD (16) is pretty athletically built - tiny, muscular, lumber and quick.  She deals with a lot of social anxiety and is a thinker. I suspect martial arts would be something she’d love. 

If you’ve started martial arts with an older child, what time commitment did you have? She isn’t driving yet and we live rurally, so I need to weigh all of it. 

[Clemsondana]

 At our school, classes are paid for like a gym membership - monthly, 6 months, a year, etc - and you can come as many times each week as you want for classes offered to students your age and level.  A 16 year old would be in with adults, and from what I see at our school they are great with beginners.  They recommend that students come twice each week if they want to progress at the typical rate, but there are students who come for one class and students who come 3-4 days/week.  Classes are one hour, although students can choose to do 2 classes if they do both karate and jiu jitsu.  My karate kid absolutely loves it, and I absolutely adore how they work with the kids and how more advanced students are expected to help teach the less advanced students when they work together.  

[Garga]

I just started taking lessons in April.  I go twice a week to the adult class, which is the last one of the day from 8:15-9:30.  The other classes only run an hour. 

And that’s it.  I can go more often if I like, but I stick to the 2 classes a week.  

At the place I go, kids under 16 do belt tests, which means that if you are ready to advance to the next level, you have to demonstrate everything you’ve learned before they give you the new belt.  But at my place, but if you’re older, the instructor awards you the next belt when you show him in class you’re ready to move on without the formality of a “belt test” on a separate night.  Not sure how other places do it.  Belt tests would be done every few months.  From white to the next level usually comes pretty fast, but after that it takes longer and longer to progress, as each level gets harder and harder.  

[Paige]

We didn't start with an older child, but for any student I'd recommend 2 classes a week at a minimum for a beginner and 3+ for an advanced student. We actually started with once a week, which was fine to get an idea if DS liked it at first, but it's not enough to make much progress. 

[Garga]

4 minutes ago, ClemsonDana said:

 At our school, classes are paid for like a gym membership - monthly, 6 months, a year, etc - and you can come as many times each week as you want for classes offered to students your age and level.  A 16 year old would be in with adults, and from what I see at our school they are great with beginners.  They recommend that students come twice each week if they want to progress at the typical rate, but there are students who come for one class and students who come 3-4 days/week.  Classes are one hour, although students can choose to do 2 classes if they do both karate and jiu jitsu.  My karate kid absolutely loves it, and I absolutely adore how they work with the kids and how more advanced students are expected to help teach the less advanced students when they work together.  

Yes...this is how they do it at mine, too.  I was typing when you were posting.  (Wait...actually I’m not sure how they do payments.  When we first started with the boys, I think we had to enter into a contract and commit to a certain amount of time...but between the boys and I, we’ve been there for 8 years and there is no more contract anymore.  It’s a small town and not very formal.  I’m not sure how other places would set up payments or how formal it all is.)

Edited February 3, 2020 by Garga

[MercyA]

We had practices twice a week for an hour and occasional half-day competitions (optional) on weekends. 

Martial arts are great for kids with any kinds of challenges. Highly recommended. 

ETA: Like other posters, we were allowed to go to as many skill-appropriate classes as we wanted per week. Two lessons a week allowed her to advance in early belt levels at the usual speed without any special athletic ability. 😉 

Edited February 3, 2020 by MercyA

[maize]

At my kids' martial arts studio the time commitment is extremely flexible. We have two tuition options--one that allows a student to come twice a week (any class at the appropriate level) and one that allows unlimited classes per week.

After we signed up several family members the martial arts school capped tuition (family maximum) so I signed everyone else up. My fourteen and sixteen year olds go every weekday at this point, sometimes more than one class per day. My younger kids mostly go once or twice per week. I go whenever I can fit it in, which is... not often.

If you go less often you progress more slowly, but the commitment level is entirely flexible.

 

[Meriwether]

Time commitment is flexible as others have said, but keep in mind that it could very well grow. We started with one class per week 10 years ago.  We are up to about 12 classes per week of class time. That is more than 30 man hours, though. It is time consuming but wonderful. The dojo is really a home away from home for the kids. In our time there, we have seen kids come in and really blossom. If your daughter can drive herself, I don't think the time matters quite as much. It would take her time but not affect the entire family as much.

[Laura Corin]

My eldest started off with one class a week but was soon told that two classes would be needed for decent progress.

[Another Lynn]

With a tight schedule here when my ds started, I committed to getting him there twice a week.  That's mostly what he did for 5 or so years.  It may have taken him a little longer to get his black belt, but he did it.  

[JustEm]

Twice a week with practice at home as well. Dh, a martial arts instructor for 20 years, has always said that it is incredibly rare for someone to be able to take class once a week and be able to progress to the level of black belt. And from my experience he's right. They can make it to brown black but then need to spend months to a year practicing for the black belt test, which at his school is a really hard test. Many actually just give up right before their Black belt.

I started martial arts when I was 19 and I'd definitely say twice a week at minimum. I went more like 4 times a week but mainly because I loved the workouts.

[SKL]

Ours is very flexible - you come as often or as little as you want - multiple class options each day.

Our school has the "curriculum" online - that is, there are videos / explanations of each "form" - which is very helpful for those of us who need to practice at home between classes.

[2ndGenHomeschooler]

It’s flexible at our school. No contracts, just month to month dues. There are different membership levels depending on many classes a week we go to. Classes are an hour and a half for ages 12 and up and an hour for children’s class. We also have all ages family classes. One is an hour, the homeschool one is an hour and a half. Practicing at home is strongly encouraged. 
 

We all started five years ago with one class a week. Mostly, my DH and DC continue to just go to one class a week. I started going twice a week several years ago and as many as four times now. I have, obviously progressed much faster than they have. I’d go every day if I had the time and if our school wasn’t almost 30 miles away (we live rurally). A couple of my kids have started joining me for a second class each week and as they progress they’ll need to go at least twice a week and put in some practice time at home. Or not, if they don’t mind not getting their black belts. I leave that up to them. 

[JustEm]

11 minutes ago, OKBud said:

I don't see people mentioning class times. DH's BJJ classes have run 1.5 hours each but the kid's karate classes have been 50 minutes each. So there's some variation there.

But all schools we've ever seen have let you do several classes for free. So you can really get a good idea for how you might work it into your schedule. 

 

While class times vary, from my experience the number of times per week you go is what is more important. 2 45 minute classes a week is going to be more beneficial than 1 hour and a half class a week. 

At our school I believe classes are an hour long by the time they are adult classes, which a 16 year old would be in.

[SKL]

The times - generally the class times are 45 minutes at our school, but many of them are before or after a 15 minute optional skills class, so they can be an hour.  Also you can always stay through two classes if you want - we have done that at times.  So it can be as much as 1:45 if you want.  But I don't think there is a ton of benefit in doing that regularly.

[Meriwether]

Something that also might affect scheduling is what her focus might be. My husband and 4 of my kids do 1 or 2 core classes each week. Dh and all 5 kids do at least one sparring class. Most of them do 2. Only one child does a weapons class to learn a weapons form. Dh and two children do a leadership development class to become teachers. One child assists in two classes and is almost ready to teach classes on her own. Dh and 3 children participate with the competition team which meets twice per month for a couple of hours.

If she is only doing core classes, she may not ever do more than 2/week. If she gets into weapon forms, that would be an extra class at our dojo. If she wants to compete, she may want to add sparring classes. Or even if she doesn't want to compete, my kids enjoy sparring classes more than core classes. I guess kicking a friend in the head is more fun than planks. LOL

[2ndGenHomeschooler]

53 minutes ago, Meriwether said:

Something that also might affect scheduling is what her focus might be. My husband and 4 of my kids do 1 or 2 core classes each week. Dh and all 5 kids do at least one sparring class. Most of them do 2. Only one child does a weapons class to learn a weapons form. Dh and two children do a leadership development class to become teachers. One child assists in two classes and is almost ready to teach classes on her own. Dh and 3 children participate with the competition team which meets twice per month for a couple of hours.

If she is only doing core classes, she may not ever do more than 2/week. If she gets into weapon forms, that would be an extra class at our dojo. If she wants to compete, she may want to add sparring classes. Or even if she doesn't want to compete, my kids enjoy sparring classes more than core classes. I guess kicking a friend in the head is more fun than planks. LOL

Yes to this. 
 

Our core classes are long because they include sparring. But we also have a weapons class, black belt class, tournament prep classes, and demo team practices. Those are all optional and usually have minimum rank requirement. Right now I go to Monday classes and teach in one and jump in line in the other, we all do a family class on Tuesdays, A couple of kids have started going with me to Saturday family class, and in the next month or so the kids will start going to weapons class and I’ll start going to Black Belt class. If also gone to tournament prep classes when I first started competing. We skipped demo team most of last year and I’m not sure if any of will do it this year. 

[freesia]

Our kids ( and dh) do a two hour class once a week. They are steadily progress. (3 are  brown belts working on black.). If that’s what works, go for it. It’s been great for our family. 

[kiwik]

It entirely depends on where you go.  My son does Judo and they only have one class a week he can go to.  There is a second for his age but it is invitation only.  When I went to Aikido there were 2, 1.5 hour classes a week and I did both but when I did Karate at bigger places it was by the month and you could go to multiple classes.  Twice a week is good, three times is probably better.