hey guys,
i'm looking for tips on fun drills/activities/games to complement the regular syllabus to keep kids interested in class.
all advice is welcome.
thanks!
neil
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hey guys,
i'm looking for tips on fun drills/activities/games to complement the regular syllabus to keep kids interested in class.
all advice is welcome.
thanks!
neil
Maybe look up some p.e games or some gymnastic fun stuff or physical sponge activities.
How about have 3 rounds grappling game that whoever can
- grab hold of his opponent's leading leg, or
- have his hand control his opponent's neck, or
- get a head lock on his opponent, or
- get an overhook, or
- get an underhook, or
- get a bear hug, or
- ...
will win that round. Try to make it simple and start with 1 target. You can then increase to 2 targets, 3 targets, ...
imo, if a kid isn't prepared to train and drill they aren't ready for martial arts.
i'm not saying kids should train with the same intensity as adults. but the same information should be taught in roughly the same manner within the physical and developmental restrictions of the age of the child you are teaching.
otherwise, you're babysitting.
How's it going, Neil?
Use a stick.
Start here.
http://4kicks.com/
bah, teach kung fu/karate/judo/jujitsu whathaveyou.
if you need a game then it's not a martial discipline now is it?
the biggest reason you have sites like that is because people are trying to make money off of teaching to kids and kids are hard to teach martial arts to because it's hard and boring to learn the basics.
defeats the purpose it does.
The thing to do is to give them lots of sugar and caffeine just prior to sending them home with their parents.
Do you own a school? Or have kids of your own?
I ask because I usually see this type of mind set with traditionalist who have very little experience with children.
I've been teaching martial arts for 15 years and I have 5 kids with a 6th due in August. You can't be so hard core when it comes to teaching children. If you are they won't listen to you and they'll quit real fast. And if you own your own school a high turn over rate is bad for business.
Most of these games are martial arts related. Just because the child isn't sitting in a horse throwing punches and kicks while you walk around and condition them with a shanai doesn't mean they'll develop poor "martial discipline". The idea isn't to play games all class ever class but having them play a game at the end of the week for the last 10-15 minutes of class will boost moral and give them something to work/train hard for.
Teach your students good quality martial arts. Have passion while doing so but also have fun with your students and they'll learn better and stay longer.
I have several "games," that I use to develop proper technique, focus, etc;
1) Operation: This is used to develop proper front kick structure-knee up, kicking straight.
remember the game where you remove different items from the "patient?"
Ok, so here how it works;
Take two-three kicking sheilds and stack them. Then take two and place them vertically on top, so it looks like an inverted Pi. You will have to stand in back and hold these up. I also place a strip of blue, or green painter's tape (an indispensible tool) so they can stand in fighting stance on it.
The idea is to kick over the pads and in between the two upright pads.
If their foot touches any pad, you make the "ERRRRT!" Buzzer noise.
They love this, the other kids love watching and making buzzer noises, and they learn to develop and understand proper structure.
2) Concentration: Develops focus during forms.
Use your most basic form for this, counting each move one at a time.
Rules: any movement that is not in the form, you're out and sit down.
This means ANYTHING- you can't scratch, you can't open and close your hands in chamber, you can't look around. If the kid's next to you head catches on fire, LEAVE IT! If an ant crawls in yur nose looking around for something cool to eat, leave it! And no laughing. (this is important as the game goes on and there are only a few left.)
Also-eye contact-look straight ahead. If I am standing in front of you, your eyes better be straight. If I see you make eye contact, you are out.
You will be AMAZED in how fast they pick this up, and the look on parents' faces when they see the discipline.
more:
"Gunshots."
get some sheets of x-ray paper from the local vet.
Hold these up for punches. When they hit them, they make a loud "crack"
All kids love making noise.
X-Ray paper doesn't hurt, doesn't buckle their wrists, so they don't hold back.
What is also cool, is when you show the kids the x-rays and see if they can recognize what it is of. We had one of a bird that looked like an alien, so of course, I told them it was.
ps-Bruce Lee was an advocate of using x-ray paper to develop speed and focus
Fei Charp Choy-Flying Leopard Punch-similar to Superman punch only the front knee is forward-ex: right knee, right Leaopard punch,
Anyway, we do this when we are doing warm ups and I have the kids shuffle around the cones, (small orange plastic cones you can buy in any sports store) then jog, adding jumping jacks, mountain climbers, and then I hold a pad and have them as they come around, run and throw fei charp choy to the pad.
They beg to do it every class.
Power Lines
you can do this with any technique or combination. Basically, you have them line up at one end of the room and you do the drill to the other end, one at a a time, then run back to the end of the line.
some examples:
1. Figure eights-walking gwa/cup choy to the focus pads as you walk backwards in front of them holding them.
2. Shuffle side kick to the sheild-he moves you across the room, and at the end, he fires off 5 quick side kicks
3. Front leg roundhouse, rear leg roundhouse, (landing forward so you keep switching sides as yo go across thr room. At the end, jump roundhouse, jump roundhouse, jump high five.
We do a lot of partner oriented games to ease kids into the idea of cooperatively working together.
Our goal is to get kids to spar.
So in order to do that, we make sure they know how to work with each other, 1 on 1 without losing focus or control. One example is pairing them up and have each kiddo carry one end of a folded mat and hop across the room - can't let the mat drop.
We found that the more kids are able to cooperate with each other in a 1 on 1 scenario, the easier it is to direct them towards doing partner oriented combat drills.
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