Setting up fitness classes for kids??

Please Kill Me

I don't think this has been asked before, but anyhoo....

I'm thinking of setting up a fitness class for kids (6 to 12 yrs old) in the local school. I was approached by a couple of the parents and asked would I be interested in doing it. I have no problem doing it, but am unsure of what I can do with them. I've had a couple of people asking advice on weights, cross-fit, Convict Conditioning etc., and I have (for the most part) been able to point them in the right direction. But I can't do any of this with kids. So - does anyone have any ideas/suggestions on what I can do with them?

Thanks.

RedXIV

Games, trust me on this. I used to work in summer camps and if you want to keep kids coming to your classes, circuit training without a "fun" aspect will fail.

I remember doing a Tae Kwon Do session in one camp and it was very apparent that the guy running it with me who was leading the class and teaching the technical stuff was losing the kids rapidly, but when I had them running and jumping with kicks into a pad onto some mats, I had to stop because I was the one who was tired.

Just be aware that from 6-12, if they aren't running around and having fun, they won't come back, so I'd stick with simple games with lots of movement like Stuck in the mud or leap frog and stay away from perfecting form for press ups and sit ups

Hanley

+1 for games

And have a look at the Crossfit Kids stuff.

Please Kill Me

RedXIV wrote: »

Games, trust me on this. I used to work in summer camps and if you want to keep kids coming to your classes, circuit training without a "fun" aspect will fail.

Yes, I was told this by the other half today. She "reminded" me that they're kids, and I'm not to be a drill instructor. As if!! :rolleyes: :pac:

cc87

Please Kill Me wrote: »

Yes, I was told this by the other half today. She "reminded" me that they're kids, and I'm not to be a drill instructor. As if!! :rolleyes: :pac:

Everything has to be made fun for them or they just won't do it.

Try and find out if they have any physical activity stuff going on in the school at the moment and if they do, can you find out about it or even watch a session. Keep what you do along the lines of what they are familiar with.

The younger they are the shorter their attention span is as well.

If you haven't worked with children before it might be worth asking someone who has or currently is just so you can cover yourself with all the different child protection stuff around.

http://www.canadiansportforlife.ca/ is a useful website

Please Kill Me

cc87 wrote: »

Everything has to be made fun for them or they just won't do it.

Try and find out if they have any physical activity stuff going on in the school at the moment and if they do, can you find out about it or even watch a session. Keep what you do along the lines of what they are familiar with.

The younger they are the shorter their attention span is as well.

If you haven't worked with children before it might be worth asking someone who has or currently is just so you can cover yourself with all the different child protection stuff around.

http://www.canadiansportforlife.ca/ is a useful website

Well, they don't do P.E. in school at all (long, ongoing saga!) which is why I was approached in the first place. But (and I know it's not really the same) but I have 5 kids from 1yr to 10yrs old, so I know only too well about the attention span (or lack thereof!) LOL

Nice one on the link, good stuff. Cheers.

Barry.Oglesby

Fitness training for kids already has a name- it's called sports.

Don't get caught up in this "anti-obesity", fitkidzzzzzz, If-only-someone-had-taught-me-how-to-lift-when-I-was-young horsepucky. If you're going to give them something, give them something real and decent. If you're in an urban area, there are probably 10-15 other sports within a 3 mile radius that are crying out for young people to join and that cost next to nothing. If you want to make a difference and get kids fitter, buy a mini-bus and drop them off at those. Or if you're a coach of another sport, start an after-school club.

If I ever see anyone teaching kids how to lift pvc pipes over their head in my jurisdiction I'm going to punch them square in the nose.

Please Kill Me

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

Fitness training for kids already has a name- it's called sports.

Don't get caught up in this "anti-obesity", fitkidzzzzzz, If-only-someone-had-taught-me-how-to-lift-when-I-was-young horsepucky. If you're going to give them something, give them something real and decent. If you're in an urban area, there are probably 10-15 other sports within a 3 mile radius that are crying out for young people to join and that cost next to nothing. If you want to make a difference and get kids fitter, buy a mini-bus and drop them off at those. Or if you're a coach of another sport, start an after-school club.

If I ever see anyone teaching kids how to lift pvc pipes over their head in my jurisdiction I'm going to punch them square in the nose.

I live out in the sticks and the only "sport" available is GAA, and not every child is interested in that. I do boxing and kickboxing 3-4 times a week, so I was thinking maybe something along those lines, but there's already a karate class going on of a Tuesday night.

Barry.Oglesby

Why not kickboxing? You're going to lose kids pretty fast if you're doing strength or fitness work. 6 year old's just don't have the capacity or interest. And the benefits are sketchy at best. Kids get stronger by running, jumping, climbing, wrestling, hopping, doing handstands and so on. That takes up 15 minutes of your class before they're bored. They need a structured sport to keep them going.

mood

Games orientated is the best way. I don't think sit ups, push ups or the like are suitable. I also wouldn't talk about calories, toning or weigh loss. Make it fun but also make it for kids who may not be the fastest runners etc.

Please Kill Me

mood wrote: »

I also wouldn't talk about calories, toning or weigh loss.

Oh good God no, that'd be the furthest thing from my mind. This is a fun thing with a benefit factor. I certainly won't be going into any of that with them.

Cheers.

mood

Who is it aimed at? Sporty kids or non sporty kids? I'm assuming non sporty. If that's the case the fun element is very important. I was never sporty as a child (not a fast runner and not good catching a ball etc) so it resulted in me avoiding sports. Make it non competitive if possible. Sorry I can't be more specific.

Please Kill Me

mood wrote: »

Who is it aimed at? Sporty kids or non sporty kids? I'm assuming non sporty. If that's the case the fun element is very important. I was never sporty as a child (not a fast runner and not good catching a ball etc) so it resulted in me avoiding sports. Make it non competitive if possible. Sorry I can't be more specific.

Nah, that's bang on, cheers!

It's aimed at non-sporty really. I was similar, never did footyball or hurling or anything like that. So if nothing else, I can empathise.

Mr. Rager

I'd say start them off on a strict, structured, low carb diet, maybe a cheat meal once every few months. Protein shakes thrice daily.

Slowly begin their strength training with something like Stronglifts 5x5, and then work it up to high rep isolation exercises and perhaps even some more advanced lifts, eg clean and jerk.

Their fitness training should definitely consist of HIIT, circuits and weekly 5km's. Perhaps give them a break on the Sabbath.

You should try to instill a winner-takes-all attitude into the kids , right from day one. I recommend bi-weekly motivational video classes, and perhaps forewarning the children of the perils of unemployment, the Fiscal Treaty, relationships and how we are all going to die one day, most of us with regrets.

Persuade the kids to take down their Wayne Rooney posters and hand out Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler ones for them to hang up on their walls.

And finally, encourage them to discover the wonderful world of bro-science.
Soon enough, you will have your own legion of superhuman Mr and Mrs Olympia's. Good luck, and godspeed.

Please Kill Me

Mr. Rager wrote: »

I'd say start them off on a strict, structured, low carb diet, maybe a cheat meal once every few months. Protein shakes thrice daily.

Slowly begin their strength training with something like Stronglifts 5x5, and then work it up to high rep isolation exercises and perhaps even some more advanced lifts, eg clean and jerk.

Their fitness training should definitely consist of HIIT, circuits and weekly 5km's. Perhaps give them a break on the Sabbath.

You should try to instill a winner-takes-all attitude into the kids , right from day one. I recommend bi-weekly motivational video classes, and perhaps forewarning the children of the perils of unemployment, the Fiscal Treaty, relationships and how we are all going to die one day, most of us with regrets.

Persuade the kids to take down their Wayne Rooney posters and hand out Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler ones for them to hang up on their walls.

And finally, encourage them to discover the wonderful world of bro-science.
Soon enough, you will have your own legion of superhuman Mr and Mrs Olympia's. Good luck, and godspeed.

and hopefully end up with this....

UL_heart_throb

I actually think this is a fairly significant endeavour. Make sure you cover yourself with regard to public liability insurance, inform and get written consent from parents and make sure the school has officially endorsed everything you are doing.

I'm not a PE teacher nor have I substantial coaching experience of children but I do have some thoughts on the matter.

What's fun and interesting for a 6 year old probably won't appeal to a 12 year old and vice-versa. If my assumption is correct, and you'll be talking the entire school for a exercise class, it's going to be very difficult to adequately supervise, control and stimulate that many people with such varying ages.

I would strongly advocate against the sports approach, mind you, this is almost purely academic and not built on actual first hand experience so feel free to ignore. What I mean is, throwing them a ball and letting them play for an hour might give a good chunk of them good exercise but it will leave a significant chunk bored and possibly disillusioned.

What facilities and equipment do you have access to anyway? A hall? A field? Balls, hulla-hoops, bean bags, mats?

What I would do, would try and implement some kind of adventure/obstacle course using what ever stuff you have available to. Let's say you have 30 kids, I'd split them into groups of 5 or 6. Based on age/height/gender/something (or those demographics evenly split across groups).

The aim of the obstacle course would be testing gross motor, balance, coordination, speed, agility and stuff like that. So maybe 6 stages.

Stage one - walk across a balance beam (long school bench or something).
Stage two - Climb over wooden/pommel horse
Stage three - Frog jump 10m
Stage four - hulla hoop for time or something
STage five - move some blocks or balls from one location to another
stage six - skipping
stage seven - spring back to start or something

What I've described sounds a bit like what you'd see a border collie do on TV but that's really what i just came up with off the top of my head, maybe you see something in there you can use.

Please Kill Me

@ UL heart throb - thanks a mill, that's brilliant! It's a pity I can only click the thanks button once! You've given me quite a few ideas between that and the crossfit kids and boxing. Hmmmm....

mood

I don't think a class of 30 is workable. Also you will need to break up into age groups.

Barry.Oglesby

Where has King of Kings' post gone it was really interesting?

UL_heart_throb wrote: »

I actually think this is a fairly significant endeavour. Make sure you cover yourself with regard to public liability insurance, inform and get written consent from parents and make sure the school has officially endorsed everything you are doing.

Whatever you do, do this.

I would strongly advocate against the sports approach, mind you, this is almost purely academic and not built on actual first hand experience so feel free to ignore. What I mean is, throwing them a ball and letting them play for an hour might give a good chunk of them good exercise but it will leave a significant chunk bored and possibly disillusioned.

I don't think anyone has said that should be the approach. I think you've straw manned me.

I'm going to do one of those annoying dissections of a post now.

Stage one - walk across a balance beam (long school bench or something). - Or walk on a wall on the way to school.
Stage two - Climb over wooden/pommel horse- or just climb over any old thing in your daily life.
Stage three - Frog jump 10m- or play on a trampoline for a while
Stage four - hulla hoop for time or something- or buy a €5 hula hoop for your kid and let them play
STage five - move some blocks or balls from one location to another- Or clean your room.
stage six - skipping- Or buy a €2 rope to skip with
stage seven - spring back to start or something- or run more often.

I'm highlighting those, not to make a fool of you, but to show that kids get these things anyway. They don't need structure to learn how to do these, and if they do, they're covered in the Primary PE curriculum.

My basic point is that people get to 25-35, and naturally assume that their lack of fitness or professional sports career is entirely due to the failings of the primary school system, or that they didn't meet a coach who really inspired them when they were younger. "If only I'd discovered X or Y sport in school imagine what I'd be today". It's wishful thinking. Then there's others who have some desire to mould kids into their ideal shape, so they set about training them the way they (think) they would like to have been trained as kids, but they don't have the practical experience and they wonder why the kids aren't as disciplined as they are.

Bad news guys, the PE was probably quite decent in school, you were just too lazy and disinterested to take part. (cue stories of "all we ever had was GAA....")

UL- your above obstacle course lasts 5 minutes in a practical environment. You now have 55 minutes left with the kids. Pop quiz hotshot- what now?

Knocking 5 seconds off your obstacle course time will be great for maybe 1% of 6-12 year olds. They'll like that. The others just won't give a damn because after a while (like 5 minutes) it's old and dull. What they need is a game they enjoy playing, that is constantly varied and new, and that they are stimulated by. Just because some aren't any good at football doesn't mean that there's not a sport out there for them. Might be a team sport, might be individual.

So here's what I think as a practical idea. Get in touch with every sports coach in the local area- say 10 sports, and make it as diverse as you can, basketball, archery, gymnastics. Tell them they can have one free afternoon/evening with a group of kids you're looking after and that you'll have warmed them up in advance. (so you get to do your obstacle course and can add in what you think you'd like to do) They'll be delighted to come, they'll get to promote their club and sport, the kids will be exposed to all manner of activities, and they may find something they love to do.

Other than that, it's just ****enastics or what they're doing in PE anyway.

Thud

Mr. Rager wrote: »

I'd say start them off on a strict, structured, low carb diet, maybe a cheat meal once every few months. Protein shakes thrice daily.

Slowly begin their strength training with something like Stronglifts 5x5, and then work it up to high rep isolation exercises and perhaps even some more advanced lifts, eg clean and jerk.

Their fitness training should definitely consist of HIIT, circuits and weekly 5km's. Perhaps give them a break on the Sabbath.

You should try to instill a winner-takes-all attitude into the kids , right from day one. I recommend bi-weekly motivational video classes, and perhaps forewarning the children of the perils of unemployment, the Fiscal Treaty, relationships and how we are all going to die one day, most of us with regrets.

Persuade the kids to take down their Wayne Rooney posters and hand out Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler ones for them to hang up on their walls.

And finally, encourage them to discover the wonderful world of bro-science.
Soon enough, you will have your own legion of superhuman Mr and Mrs Olympia's. Good luck, and godspeed.

You've just described Hanley's childhood

Hanley

Thud wrote: »

You've just described Hanley's childhood

My childhood was spent riding your mum pretty much as Barry described tbh!

UL_heart_throb

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

Where has King of Kings' post gone it was really interesting?

Whatever you do, do this.


I don't think anyone has said that should be the approach. I think you've straw manned me.

I'm going to do one of those annoying dissections of a post now.

Stage one - walk across a balance beam (long school bench or something). - Or walk on a wall on the way to school.
Stage two - Climb over wooden/pommel horse- or just climb over any old thing in your daily life.
Stage three - Frog jump 10m- or play on a trampoline for a while
Stage four - hulla hoop for time or something- or buy a €5 hula hoop for your kid and let them play
STage five - move some blocks or balls from one location to another- Or clean your room.
stage six - skipping- Or buy a €2 rope to skip with
stage seven - spring back to start or something- or run more often.

I'm highlighting those, not to make a fool of you, but to show that kids get these things anyway. They don't need structure to learn how to do these, and if they do, they're covered in the Primary PE curriculum.

My basic point is that people get to 25-35, and naturally assume that their lack of fitness or professional sports career is entirely due to the failings of the primary school system, or that they didn't meet a coach who really inspired them when they were younger. "If only I'd discovered X or Y sport in school imagine what I'd be today". It's wishful thinking. Then there's others who have some desire to mould kids into their ideal shape, so they set about training them the way they (think) they would like to have been trained as kids, but they don't have the practical experience and they wonder why the kids aren't as disciplined as they are.

Bad news guys, the PE was probably quite decent in school, you were just too lazy and disinterested to take part. (cue stories of "all we ever had was GAA....")

UL- your above obstacle course lasts 5 minutes in a practical environment. You now have 55 minutes left with the kids. Pop quiz hotshot- what now?

Knocking 5 seconds off your obstacle course time will be great for maybe 1% of 6-12 year olds.

Other than that, it's just ****enastics or what they're doing in PE anyway.

I swear to god, I meant to stick in a disclaimer admitting i'd strawmanned you just to make a point. I should have said that from the start.

In my head I just had the kids doing this like, 5/6 times in a row.

Fair enough, you think my idea is **** and ripped it to sheds. I thought the point was this school didn't have a pe teacher or a primary school curriculum in place and my ideas are there to incorporate the principles.

Essentially if you see your role as being the guy that blows the stop and start whistle and throws the football/basketball/floor hockey ball well that's different to how i envision it.

Not that i don't think it's a good idea. It would be very stimulating and enjoyable to be exposed to a new sport/game every week - badminton day one, table tennis week 2, tkd week 3, ballet week 4, yoga week 5, netball week 6.

Barry.Oglesby

UL_heart_throb wrote: »

Essentially if you see your role as being the guy that blows the stop and start whistle and throws the football/basketball/floor hockey ball well that's different to how i envision it.

More strawmanning. When was the last time you watched a kids session?

mood

UL_heart_throb wrote: »

Not that i don't think it's a good idea. It would be very stimulating and enjoyable to be exposed to a new sport/game every week - badminton day one, table tennis week 2, tkd week 3, ballet week 4, yoga week 5, netball week 6.

But that would mean the OP investing in a lot of equipment. And he/she possibly doesn't have all the skill to teach such a variety of sports.

UL_heart_throb

I've sat in on a few different kids PE sessions in primary schools with primary school teachers.

The younger kids did something fairly similar to what i outlined (senior infants).
The older kids played football (6th class).
Left to their own devices the sessions would develop into chaos (mostly good chaos).
Regulation for the older kids required a drill Sargent approach.
Regulation for the younger kids seemed easier as they were more compliant, but did look bored.

i've sat in on a few sports sessions for kids and they focused on teaching the sport through mini-games but it was even more chaotic than the PE classes.

UL_heart_throb

mood wrote: »

But that would mean the OP investing in a lot of equipment. And he/she possibly doesn't have all the skill to teach such a variety of sports.

I thought the idea was you ring up the local basketball/tennis/gymnastics coach, offer him the opportunity to promote his club/game to the school if he can bring his own insurance and his own nets/balls/stuff.

that was my interpretation

COH

Do Irish kids still play unihoc?



I remember it being the single greatest 30 minutes of the primary school week... I can almost guarantee that anyone that ever played it loved it, ask the person beside you if you don't believe me. I just asked three people in work, they all smiled in recollection, and one suggested I clear out all our gym equipment and just focus on a unihoc facility.

There ya go... Unihoc.

Problem solved

UL_heart_throb

I thought it was ****. the sticks were too light and bendy. i always wanted to play real ice hockey and smash into people.

Hanley

COH wrote: »

Do Irish kids still play unihoc?



I remember it being the single greatest 30 minutes of the primary school week... I can almost guarantee that anyone that ever played it loved it, ask the person beside you if you don't believe me. I just asked three people in work, they all smiled in recollection, and one suggested I clear out all our gym equipment and just focus on a unihoc facility.

There ya go... Unihoc.

Problem solved

We used to being roller hockey sticks and a street hockey ball into the hall instead. Now THERE'S carnage.

Monkey61

Ooooo a big plus one for Unihoc. I don't think you'll ever meet someone who doesn't enjoy that. The best thing about that being that nobody is particularly good at it, because nobody has a clue what they're doing, so it is always more fun rather than competitive.

The problem with football for instance is that there are always going to be the kids that are brilliant at it and play every day and those that aren't. I loved sports as a kid, but always dreaded sports at P.E in primary school, because it usually descended into 4 kids hogging the ball and giving out to anyone else who dared get in their way.

Martial arts would be great, or letting them try new sports that none of them are familiar with. I also like the idea of a variation on circuits (climbing jumping etc) if you have the space and equipment to make it interesting.

traco

Firstly - make sure you're covered from a Child protection perspective as it is very important.

I'm far from an expert but I do look after groups of young kids on Saturday mornings to introduce them to sport and try and get them moving.

We have a "loose" format / structure, genrally a warm up routine, follow the leader or races etc to get them moving, you'll get 5 -8 mins out of that.

Then I put them into teams, pick a captain and make them responsible for knowiing who is on their team and tell the team members to make sure they know who their captain is. From here you can be a drill seargent with an intermediary!

The team thing works cos it means you can keep if competitive, make up games that contain the actions / items that you want to get them to do and issue points to teams, can be for speed, consistency, skill whatever.

Keep asking teh captain to track points - its becomes like a vidieo game and young kids of 5 or so really get into it. Before you know it the time will be gone. One suggestion I would have and this is from personal experience, introduce some small ball games with something like a tennis ball as I am stunned at how poor the hand eye co-ordiation can be of some kids.

So, teams for competitive short fun games, that'll keep them focussed on pushing themselves while carrying out specific exervises that would work certain skills.