Children and the Martial Arts: An Aikido Point of View

Children and the Martial Arts: An Aikido Point of View by Homma, Gaku. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781556431395.

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 hes 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.