With the arrival of the 20th century, the discipline, self-control, and mutual respect that the martial arts has cultivated has brought the arts out of the shadows of battle and into mainstream culture. Of course, inventions such as the TV and movies have had an enormous influence on the surge of martial arts popularity, especially in the west. New students are being signed up every day, seeking the bridge from everyday life to the fantasy life they see on the big or small screen. This is particularily true amongst children. Therefore, it is no coincidence that enrollments in martial arts classes everywhere swelled to new heights after the Hollywood releases of Enter The Dragon in the seventies, The Karate Kid in the eighties, and the countless Steven Seagal movies of the nineties.

A byproduct of this mass media exposure was dojos (martial arts schools) capitalizing on the numerous enrollments pouring in from children seeking to emulate their martial arts heroes. As a result, children's martial arts programs have, quite frankly, provided the key ingredient in allowing many dojos the means to pay the bills.

What does this mean for the parent who is seeking martial arts instruction for their children? For starters, it means choice. A flip through the yellow pages and community course brochures is full of martial arts clubs offering instruction for the young ones. However, the (sometimes) lucrative benefits which children's martial arts classes provide these clubs can make the search for a suitable school AND suitable art a difficult one. It is unfortunate that there are a few schools out there who literally "bank" on the high turnover of kids without the quality that one should expect in a martial arts dojo. We do believe that these schools are in the vast minority, but they do exist.

In the sections which follow, we will provide you with some guidelines and suggestions which will help you in the search for a suitable children's martial arts program. Click on the links below to start you on this journey.