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Post by robbo78 on Jan 27, 2015 16:43:29 GMT
Hi all,
I have been asked by my sensei if I would start running some kids classes as in the past the club was pretty big, with a good few kids classes each week but over the years numbers have dropped like with a lot of independent clubs, along come some of the bigger organisations like SAMA(nothing wrong with that of course).
So anyways im interested in doing this but the main thing with the kids is obviously keeping them interested and keeping it fun and learning the art at the same time so my main question is has anyone got some good fun drills they can share to give me a helping hand.
Cheers!
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Post by Bob Davis on Jan 28, 2015 15:33:02 GMT
Hi Rob, I have taught a lot of kids over the years and it really comes down to whether you want to run a "martial art"day care session or a proper karate group (I'm not being sniffy when I say that, there's a place for both and one may well lead some to the other in the long run). Personally I always tried to teach "classical" karate in the style I was originally taught, however having said that you have to take into account the attention span of children and be aware of when you are starting to lose them (and also the limited physicality of young children who don't do "no pain no gain" at all ). So you are fine to teach normal basics, kata and drills but you'll need to take the long view, (little and often will get them there) so rather than spending an hour labouring one technique or drill trying to get them to get it right you'll need to have half a dozen things in any session and work on them over time, it's not the most efficient way to teach but you do stand more chance of them staying long enough to learn something and it's surprising (despite the way it may seem) how much they actually pick up. The big trick (and it's not that subtle) is to have real fun in the last 10 minutes, I used to do multiple pad drills as races or teams games doing the "bingo" drill on the big kick pads, all useful skills but too much fun to be seen as learning, losers (yes I'd did have "winners" and "losers") would do 10 press ups, then once they'd finished the winners would get to do 20 as a treat (but they'd still try to win every week). I'd also intersperse sessions where I'd split them into 4 teams, one in each corner of the room and assign a different exercise to each group (press ups, sit ups, star jumps, squat thrusts etc...) and get them to do 10/20 of each, run to the next corner and so on until they'd done all 4. The point of these "games" at the end was to play on the fact that they only really remembered how much fun they'd had at the end of the last session and be keen to come to the next. There are no doubt other ways to approach kids classes but this was mine.
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Post by jimlukelkc on Jan 28, 2015 22:23:53 GMT
I can only reinforce what Bob has said. As a rule of thumb I take the average age of the students and that would be how many minutes I spend on each technique or exercise. You can return to it but that is how long on each "lesson". Keep it fun and kids respond to praise and challenge.
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Post by malk103 on Feb 1, 2015 21:15:39 GMT
Adding to the above is to be "nice" to them where possible but still keeping a certain level of strictness, a tricky balance. I'm also lucky to have my son assist teaching and the younger students really enjoy partnering with him or doing free sparring, although I normally let 2 or 3 loose on him. Saying "well-done" or "good" is also essential.
I have quite a few kids in amongst my clubs and they are generally good kids, there is always one that just wants to coast along and then moan when they are prevented from grading, normally around 8th/7th Kyu, they normally leave.
On my Wednesday club I once kicked too close to the wall and put a 4 inch hole in the plasterboard wall, the kids thought it was hilarious so I often play on something that made them laugh. If anyone is doing really well at something then I sometimes get them out front to demonstrate and give them a round of applause etc. One girl is gradually losing her shyness and actually came out from to help take the warm up - 6 of them took it in turns to do different exercises and they got a real buzz out of it.
Some things you can try is work on one technique for 20 minutes but do it fast, slow, with a partner, with different applications, as a speed drill etc.
I'm determined not to let my clubs turn into a McDojo belt factory so I'm very hard on standards and stress that they won't be able to grade every time unless they are up to standard, keeping them interested whilst doing this is tricky!
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Post by jimlukelkc on Feb 2, 2015 9:44:45 GMT
As a rule of thumb I tend to take the average age of the kids and make that the amount of minutes we spend on one exercise/drill/technique. that is usually the limit of attention span; you can return to to the drill to recap but keeping to that gets the best results. I agree about keeping standards but you need to allow for the limitations of age and physical ability, coordination and maturity. kids thrive on praise and challenge if it is presented as fun! We instituted a mon-grade system to break down the grades into stripes on the belt as it gives them realistic, achievable goals on a shorter timescale. This can be done in class and then they are only required to formally grade for a " full belt". Invest in focus pads, kids love hitting things! Make a lesson plan that incorporates at least one game/fun thing and keep the atmosphere light. Also take time to chat to the parents about their childs progress and encourage them to stay and spectate. Teaching kids is a whole different discipline and you need to be careful about showing any "self-defence" moves that could be deemed inappropriate to teach to young ones. Parents want their kids to be safe and need to trust the instructor, it is a rel exercise in PR and needs careful thought and planning. Good luck!
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Post by jimlukelkc on Feb 2, 2015 9:45:03 GMT
As a rule of thumb I tend to take the average age of the kids and make that the amount of minutes we spend on one exercise/drill/technique. that is usually the limit of attention span; you can return to to the drill to recap but keeping to that gets the best results. I agree about keeping standards but you need to allow for the limitations of age and physical ability, coordination and maturity. kids thrive on praise and challenge if it is presented as fun! We instituted a mon-grade system to break down the grades into stripes on the belt as it gives them realistic, achievable goals on a shorter timescale. This can be done in class and then they are only required to formally grade for a " full belt". Invest in focus pads, kids love hitting things! Make a lesson plan that incorporates at least one game/fun thing and keep the atmosphere light. Also take time to chat to the parents about their childs progress and encourage them to stay and spectate. Teaching kids is a whole different discipline and you need to be careful about showing any "self-defence" moves that could be deemed inappropriate to teach to young ones. Parents want their kids to be safe and need to trust the instructor, it is a rel exercise in PR and needs careful thought and planning. Good luck!
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