CL <flothru@yahoo.com> wrote:
> mtfester@netMAPSONscape.net wrote:
> > CL <flothru@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >> John W. wrote:
> > 
> >> The upshot is that she's becoming comfortably multilingual.  The 
> >> downside is that I think I am going to have her spend a couple hours at 
> >> the local gym where a friend -- who was once up for the Japan 
> >> light-middleweight crown before he lost most of his hearing to mumps and 
> >> was disqualified from professional boxing -- has offered to teach her 
> >> how to counter some of the bullying she gets from local kids who are 
> >> barely functional in Japanese.
> > 
> > Go with judo; she won't break her hand on some bonehead's face.

> On the other hand (sic), we don't want her to end up looking like a 
> sweaty fireplug (ever seen the Japanese Olympic womens judo team?) when 
> she's 16.

We had the Japanese National High School Judo team visit us at Cahill's; a
couple of those girls really made me wish I were 35 years younger (though,
to be fair, there are a LOT of things that make me wish that.)

>  She's asked to learn Aikido and we think that might be a 
> better choice ... but a friend who is a top-ranked master says she 
> shouldn't start until she's at least ten years old and has refused to 
> take her as a student until then.

Aikido takes a long time to learn well enough to be effective as self-
defense. It's great at learning self-delusion, though.

I wrestled, and currently do BJJ, but I had my kids learn some judo first.
It helps their balance, and helps them fall well. Also, it really can be
used fairly quickly in self-defense.

Mike