martial arts for kids, games n stuff

patjunfa

Colum you mentioned a book you thought was good on this stuff for kids. Can you remind me of the name please. Curious to read stuff on training kids in general. I also do a Tai Chi and general movement class with a group with disabilitys. Might find something enjoyable to bring to that too, or a fun game for my kung fu class who know's.

Cheers

Roper

I think what Colum was on about was this:
http://www.onedragon.com/prod_paw_video.shtml

Might seem expensive but to be fair it's not just a book or DVD with a couple of ideas in it, it seems to be a whole kids coaching course.

dudara

I teach the kids class in our TKD club, and while it's not hard to come up with routines involving the more traditional stuff, I also like to give about 1/3 of the class over to fun activities. Just to keep the kids interested and moving. We have some real butterballs in the class!

Any tips on good games or routines are appreciated.

Roper

I have a whole bunch of striking games for kids (and big kids!) if anyone wants them, mail me baz.oglesby[at]gmail.com

With a bit of imagination and a "goal" in mind, you can come up with a few.

Cake Fiend

My kids class ideas tend to concentrate on tiring the little buggers out as quickly as possible I tend to split the class up into teams, giving points to each team for technique, behaviour, enthusiasm, etc. I find kids love to hit things, so I'll often have them punch or kick a loosely-held rolled-up mat or something (I don't think having young kids hitting anything hard is a good idea though) or perform a particular combination.

If you're teaching kids regularly, I'd recommend reading up on child-specific stretching and conditioning exercises to make sure they're not in danger of injuring themselves. A lot of instructors I've seen use the same warmup routines for children as for adults :rolleyes:

dudara

Sico wrote:

My kids class ideas tend to concentrate on tiring the little buggers out as quickly as possible

Ditto! Last night for instance, I threatened 50 situps as a punishment to one little boy, to be administered to the whole class. Imagine my surprise when some of them pipe up going "50 situps, I can do that!! Let me!!" So I did. I varied the types of situp in 5 batches of 10. They were a little quieter afterwards.

Kids are very rewarding though (sounds very American beauty queen I know!) and are just about always guaranteed to bring a smile to your face every night.

Sico wrote:

I tend to split the class up into teams, giving points to each team for technique, behaviour, enthusiasm, etc. I find kids love to hit things, so I'll often have them punch or kick a loosely-held rolled-up mat or something

I split them into teams and get them to relay-kick an airshield. Fastest team wins. Kids really react well to competition type situations.

Sico wrote:

If you're teaching kids regularly, I'd recommend reading up on child-specific stretching and conditioning exercises to make sure they're not in danger of injuring themselves.

Good tip, thanks

Colm_OReilly

Dudara,

I'd be wary of giving them exercise as punishment. Aren't we trying to foster the ideal that exercise is good. There's enough fat people

I never realised just how much work the kids put it until I did an adults class one day in kid's class format. They were knackered within half an hour.

Oh and murderball is the best warm up game ever!

Cake Fiend

Elytron wrote:

Sico can you tell me what type of streching exercise you'd use for an adult class but not for a children's class and vice-versa please.

I don't actually do stretching as such for the children - I just get them warm (running around, jumping, etc) and start doing slow versions of punches, kicks, whatever I'll be covering in the class and gradually speed things up. I don't actually know enough about children's physiology to give advice on stretching (I only teach kids very occasionally, so haven't put the research in myself ).

For an adult warmup, I'll concentrate on getting the blood flowing and dynamic stretching - I don't believe static stretching has a place in a warmup. The kinds of warmup I hate (it's amazing how many people in martial arts haven't a clue how to warm up properly) involve running you into the ground till you're knackered (what use is wrecking yourself before you've even begun? ) or loads of static stretching and no dynamic (or even worse, static stretching before the warm-up part :rolleyes: ) I'd imagine the warmup I do for adults would also be appropriate for kids, but I wouldn't try anything without being sure about it. A child's body is not fully developed, and can't take the strain of some common exercises the way an adult's can.

Roper

Murderball rocks!:D

Just on "punishment" in classes. We can all accept that in an ideal world we wouldn't have to keep order in classes. It does have to be done on occasion though. I too would stay away from "physical" punishment particularly exercise related punishments as this is surely the type of behaviour we are trying to encourage, not but in the "what we do when we're bold" bracket.
The system we use is fairly simple and quite practical.
- The "Sin Bin". 5 minutes sitting on the bench, unable to participate in the class. The types of behaviour that warrant a trip to the sin bin are quite few, but essentially anything that puts the safety of themselves or their classmates at risk. So if a kid is being intentionally too rough in a game- sin bin. If someone isn't listening to the rules of a game- sin bin. It takes a week or two but after a while sin binning becomes a very rare occurence.
- For younger kids, the hands-up system. This is difficult to explain but essentially it replaces shouting to get their attention. With juniors, the only time we raise our voices is to encourage or motivate.

Just on a point, "discipline" is often a confused concept in MA teaching to kids. One of the first things you have to accept is that kids are LOUD, kids are boisterous and energetic. There are lots of ways of encouraging good behaviour without getting them to conform to an adult norm. If you're not in control of a class or seem to have to shout all the time, then there's some techniques that can be used. It just takes time and patience.

On another note, since we've moved away from the traditional sort of discipline system that we were taught to use in a martial arts class (this is how it is!) classes have become far more challenging to teach. But out of that they've become far more rewarding to teach as well. I'm having fun, the kids see that I'm having fun and that enthusiasm rubs off on them. And of course, they're having a lot of fun.

Thanks to anyone who's asked for a list of those games by the way, I'll dig them out over the weekend, they were on my old PC so they're on some disc somewhere!

Colm_OReilly

s. One of the first things you have to accept is that kids are LOUD, kids are boisterous and energetic.

It's for those exact reasons I love teaching kids. In fact we often joke about how loudness pays with the kids.

The "Sin Bin". 5 minutes sitting on the bench, unable to participate in the class. The types of behaviour that warrant a trip to the sin bin are quite few, but essentially anything that puts the safety of themselves or their classmates at risk. So if a kid is being intentionally too rough in a game- sin bin. If someone isn't listening to the rules of a game- sin bin. It takes a week or two but after a while sin binning becomes a very rare occurence.

I bench kids for dangerous behaviour. Same thing really, but there's no fixed time period.

dudara

I commonly use sin-binning, and often deliberately up the ante and fun quotient of the class when someone is sitting down. Make them think about all the fun that they're missing!

patjunfa

Hiya Spelt name wrong in 1st post, that book question is to Colm O'Reily,
will send you a mail thanks Roper