My niece and nephew do kung fu. With the right teacher it seems it can do wonders for not just discipline and self esteem, but they are also much healthier and in top condition. They started at 8 and 11 respectively.
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I agree with @oltman. Kung fu is a lot less formalised than Japanese forms and allows for more physical expression. On the other hand the Japanese martial arts usually comes with exact advancement conditions and attaining those can be a confidence boost in itself (belt colour system etc). Any martial art will do it, also boxing. From personal experience I can say that a martial art that allows contact sparring as a regular exercise can be liberating once you cross the contact barrier. The contact barrier is that barrier where you shy away from being physically confronted. Boxing, fencing etc, all the martial arts have it as a focus to cross.
Once crossed, there is no going back and your physical self confidence starts a journey of itself.
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Throwing a vote in for judo! Friend of mine was smaller than everyone else, judo was a very practical thing for her because she would always be outweighed and out-strengthed. She ended up being a national champ, supremely self-confident, and went from being shy and bullied to taking no shit. Also, she’s a girl in SA. She could practically defend herself as well.
But just wanted to say that not just martial arts can do what you’re looking for. Your kid might not be interested in “fighting” sports. Things like rock climbing and mountain biking are also options. Even canoeing. Ultimately your kid will be the judge of what they will enjoy and want to do.
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There’s always the Canadian martial arts, hockey! 
But if you go oriental, I’d vote for kung fu, just so he can quote Keanu.
On the serious side, I hope you’re able to find something for him. It’s no fun being in his position.
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Oriental is not always the best to go, it all depends on the interest. Boxing is an amazing cardio/fitness sport and safe too, with gloves. It also gets across that contact barrier very quickly and very practically where most oriental martial arts move closer to art than martial in their mindset. I have a vast respect for boxers and have watched many bruce lee wannabes flattened by a normal boxer. Greco-roman wrestling is amazing too, for the same reason.
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I would try a few things to see what he prefers doing. I know both my brothers did karate, whilst I did gymnastics - I was given the option between the two and I preferred the gymnastics just because it was something I have always loved. Karate interested me but not enough to do it.
Also, what a day, you would think the shop would be quiet on a long weekend saturday. . . . I served about 55 customers from 9 - 3, my “lovely” coworker was “busy” with difficult customers but yea no, he handled about 26 people made 1/3 of what I did in sales, and honestly he dragged out sales that ended up not being big ones. Where I got a lot of difficult and new people and managed to handle them all, I was multitasking my ass off, serving 3 people at the same time a fair few times.
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Happy Sunday y’all!
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Morning everyone.
Finally I’m without a fever this morning. I started feeling cold at work on Friday and it never went away. Developed a headache and my lower back was sore. Got home and my shoulders and thighs also felt like jelly. Check my temperature and I was at 38.6. Mostly bed yesterday. This morning I’m at 37. This is most inconvenient. I was worried this would happen eventually as the oke I spent a month in the boardroom with kept sniveling and coughing.
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Sounds a bit kak @czc. You doing any meds? Lots of liquids and vitamins with anti-viral boosters. Hope you feel better soon.
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Morning people of the palace, hope you all have a great day
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Thanks for the valuable feedback all, a lot of insights gained and a lot to think about. We sat together with him to learn what he might like to do and looked at different versions or styles of martial arts and his overall take was that he likes jiu-jitsu. When asked why he liked that and what is his reasoning for wanting to do it, his response was quite frankly because then he can learn to defend himself when he needs to and be able to stand up to Aiden (who is a constant bully to him).
On top of that, I will be requesting a meeting with the school principal and his HOD to find out what they are going to do about the bullying in the school.
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Good choice, it is a form of wrestling/grappling and even at very young ages students are encouraged to get up close and personal with supervised sparring to cross that contact barrier. Not the ideal choice if going up against someone bigger and stronger but with good technique it can work.
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Hope he enjoys the jiu-jitsu, and that it helps.
I would also have suggested some sport but I guess its best to do the activity away from the bully.
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Yeah the school is more academic than sporty, unfortunately. And doing a sport outside of school would likely mean I would need to outlay a fair bit to get him started or going.
I’m already doing some queries on jiu-jitsu a academies and so forth. And frankly I’m impressed with his maturity and reasoning for wanting to do this. His head and heart seem to be in the right place.
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This was actually a mostly relaxing day, Im happy I could switch off my brain for a while so that I can just destress and not to let the crap currently over run my life. (aka ignoring the youngest brother and his wife again)
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Morning everyone. Have a good day today.
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Monday public holidays are the best Mondays! Good morning all.
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Public holidays means double pay, so if I can I grab the shift, luckily today was not as hectic as Saturday but we still were busy.
Went to visit dad again (we go most days when my shifts allow me to go - soon he will be closer and at a place where we can visit whenever we want to).
He was a lot calmer, we suspect the meds are finally getting the aggression under control. But he still makes no sense. Tonight he was talking about finding numbers on websites and getting the wrong info and then about how the tube station and trains are unreliable and we have to go now so that we don’t miss our train.
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Tuesday, bluesday. Tuesdays suck when they feel like Mondays. In my excitement over having Monday off yesterday, I did not consider this. 
Just and .
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