Yes, absolutely. There is less uncontrolled physical contact in karate than in football, basketball, or soccer.

In conjunction with the US Amateur Athletic Association’s (AAU) National Karate Program, the senior instructors of BCS have all been certified as youth sports coaches through the American Coaching Effectiveness Program (ACEP), including State Background checks and CPR/AED/BBP/First Aid certifications through the American Red Cross.

Children are closely supervised during class and all partner exercises are done with proper safety equipment at controlled speeds.

The three biggest reasons children struggle in school are (1) they don’t have a good attention span, (2) they don’t have strong socialization skills, and/or (3) they lack general confidence.

Karate can help with all three issues. The next three answers explain how.

Karate has a natural appeal to many children that helps keep their attention when they start taking karate lessons, so karate may be the perfect way to help your child increase their attention span.

Our children’s classes are organized so that at any given time there is only one thing to concentrate on. Over time, as children increase their ability to focus on this “one thing” during each drill in karate class, some parents find that their kids are able to use the same approach to improve their attention span at home and in school.

Becoming successful in karate gives kids the confidence and added skills to try other sports and activities, which in turn helps them build better friendships with their classmates.

Skill in karate builds up from very simple movements and positions that any child can learn. Over time, karate will help improve strength, balance, coordination, and timing.

For many kids who are smaller than their peers or a little less physically coordinated than other kids their age, karate can be the perfect way to build confidence and stay fit.

Yes. Kids who have had bad experiences with bullies are often embarrassed to tell their parents about the experience or ask for help from an adult. Children can become depressed over the bullying and end up being afraid to go to school.

We teach children to follow the rules for reporting such behavior while in school, but bullying can carry over to the neighborhood playground, the bus stop, or the walk home from school. Sometimes there are no adults to intervene and children need to feel that they can handle bullies on their own if necessary.

Children become less fearful of the school environment as they learn to defend themselves effectively and as their confidence grows they are less likely to be the target of bullies.

We encourage children to participate in all school activities and sports. Taking time off from karate to play another sport or participate in another activity is perfectly acceptable.

Absolutely. Self-discipline describes a pattern of behavior that supports achieving a goal, particularly when the required behaviors are more difficult than what we’re naturally inclined to do or less pleasant than the behaviors we’ve chosen in the past. Achieving a goal is a progressive series of cause and effect relationships where the “cause” element is your own behavior. Our training helps children understand this from a new perspective.

Cause and effect relationships tend to be separated by a great deal of time in our everyday lives. If your child doesn’t study hard in September, they fail a test in November. The consequences of bad choices and undesirable behavior are deferred, so the incentive to do the right thing isn’t always particularly strong.

In karate, however, cause and effect often happen within seconds of each other. We choose correctly or we don’t and the feedback is usually immediate. Having this concrete model to understand cause and effect can help students generalize the lessons of karate to their everyday lives, improving the choices they make and leading to a more self-disciplined character overall.

Practical, real world self-defense is about awareness, avoidance, and de-escalation, all of which can be learned rather quickly. As far as physical self-defense skills, the only honest answer is "It will take a while."

For most children, the underlying question is “will karate help me be less fearful?”

Kids never want to be in a situation where they have to defend themselves, and in reality, very few kids will ever have to punch or kick someone in self-defense. But one of the most significant benefits of karate practice is that, over time, your child will become more confident as they realize that they CAN effectively respond to physical violence if necessary. Gaining both practical and physical self-defense skills leads to less fear overall – less fear of meeting new people, going to new places, or trying new things.

Going back to the intent of the original question, it usually takes six months to a year for most students to incorporate enough karate into their existing defensive instincts to improve their physical self-defense skills under pressure. 

Shotokan kumite is not "fighting" like one would expect in a tournament competition or a MMA match - it's testing one's understanding of theory and technique with a partner.  Kumite begins with very carefully controlled partner drills. Over time, these drills are performed with fewer limitations and restrictions until students reach the level where they are permitted to freely choose the techniques they use and the timing of their attacks. It might look like "fighting" to an outsider, but it's more like playing a game of physical chess with an opponent. 

Above all else, the focus is on control and safety but like any other activity with physical contact, occasional bumps and bruises are part of the training. We supervise all kumite practice carefully to be sure that students are maintaining full control of both their actions and their emotions. Excessive contact, bullying, and recklessness are not tolerated.

No, not if they don’t want to. We encourage students to challenge themselves at least once in the environment of a tournament competition, but it’s not the focus of our practice and it’s not required to advance in rank.

Less than half of our students have ever competed in tournaments, but those who do tend to do very, very well.  Over the past 38 years, our students have won 11 individual AAU National Championships (Gold Medalists), over 70 Silver and Bronze medals at the AAU National Championships, one Junior Olympic Gold Medal (17yo Division), and one Gold Medal at the Pan Am Games.

When starting out, a t-shirt and sweatpants are fine. You can purchase a karate uniform (gi) at any time, but they will need a uniform to advance to the level of 8th kyu.  Sleeves and pants should be hemmed or rolled so we can see their wrists and ankles when they’re training.

Our students wear a plain white cotton gi – no patches, insignia, or other markings are used.  You may be used to seeing club patches on uniforms, stripes or embroidered names on belts, school logos splashed across the back, and a variety of other decorations but you won't see any of that at BCS.

The karate uniform (gi) as we know it today was adopted by Shotokan's founder to eliminate social and economic distinctions and ensure that all practitioners, regardless of rank or background, shared the same attire to foster a sense of community and shared purpose. An unadorned white gi, worn by all ranks from beginner to expert, is an expression of humility and inclusiveness that reminds all of us that our focus should be on the practice itself rather than external appearances. We believe that solid fundamental techniques, crisp and coordinated movement, and strong posture are the best way to “mark” ourselves and make our affiliation and skill level known to others.

BCS karate-dō is about the performance, not the paint job.

Students who have earned rank in other clubs or other styles are welcome to join us at their old rank if they are comfortable doing so. If they want to continue working toward a higher rank in Shotokan, we’ll be happy to accomodate them as they learn the details and nuances of our style. When we feel they’ve reached the same level of Shotokan-specific ability as any other candidate for the higher rank, they'll be invited to test for the higher rank as a member of our club.

Yes, but it's nothing to stress over. Tests are usually held every three months and students are invited to participate based on their skill level. There is no charge for testing.

Progression through each rank corresponds to a student's readiness to tackle new material, and each student will progress at their own pace.  Advancement to the next rank is a very straightforward process of demonstrating one's competency in the full curricula associated with their current rank, and students are only invited to test once they've already shown that they're ready to move up.  

We'll leave that up to you to decide. 

We can say that we're very proud of the fact that our students have visited and trained with the leading Shotokan organizations all over the world and have always been welcomed at the rank they’ve achieved with our club. 

In cases where, due to relocation, our students have had to find a new club to train with, the rank they earned with us was either immediately recognized or re-awarded quickly after establishing their new membership. With over 400 clubs teaching Shotokan in the United States, in every state and major city, it's always easy to find a place to continue training in our style if your family moves out of the area. Worldwide, there are more than 3,500 clubs in the Shotokan style, in over 130 countries!