What's your class structure?

[Sandan]

I have a general idea of what I do for each class.. I do like to change the order to make sure that people don't get 'comfortable' with the order of the class-so as to keep people on their toes. I think that variety is the best way to get people to engage in the class and they then also learn a range of skills.

I do like to start with some kumite, light and fast so that they use a skill that is part of karate. I work stretching into the class to give people a breather along the way and at the end I do advanced stretching so that no one is stiff going home.

The rest of the class will depend on the people in the class their level and also where the club is with regard to events i.e. gradings, competitions or seminars.

[JusticeZero]

Mine are 90 minutes. I try to break it up as

15 minutes - Music

10 minutes - Ginga and basic kicks (warmup - footwork and basic movements. I suppose if I was an asian stylist, i'd replace this with form/kata or some such)

20 minutes - Paired line drills ("Walking basics", was what a Goju told me their term for it was)

30 minutes - New material, paired drills

10 minutes - Practice roda (sparring)

5 minutes - Cooldown stretching

It never quite comes down exactly like that, though, after i've had time to assess the current status of the students. I once stopped everyone in the first few minutes and we ended up doing 75 minutes of ginga practice.

[Rateh]

I teach beginner and intermediate kids. Beginner classes are 30 mins and Intermediate are 45 mins. Generally, i have some idea beforehand what im going to focus on for class. I tend to spend about 10-15 mins with warmups, followed by the main lesson, and end with about 5 mins of a game.

As a rule, all students must stretch out before class starts. Occasionally i will teach them stretches as their main lesson in the beginner class, and i usually ask the more experianced students to help the newer ones. However, i always teach the new student some main stretches first...

As far as "winging it", ive been teaching for 4 years and i wing it 99% of the time. At first i used to have a structured plan, but i found that once i got in front of the class, the plan was never followed, as i taught more with the flow of the students. As far as i know, none of the instructors at my school uses a lesson plan. I like it that way, i think it makes the class more flexible to the particular students needs.

On another note...I also teach the 3-6 year old class

With them i prefer to constantly change up whats going on, and never spend more then 5 mins doing any specific thing. However, as they get more and more acustomed to the dojo environment, ive found that i can teach their lessons with the same structure as the older students.

[usatkdwtf]

I have been teaching for a long time also (15 years), and while I find that my classes are of excellent quality without a plan, with a lesson plan they are even better. I have one lesson plan for each testing cycle, for each club.

I have;

Basic club (white-yellow)

Black belt club (green-purple)

masters club (blue-black)

leadership club (instructor training...blue-black)

I wont compromise the rank structure for the clubs no matter what. Its one thing that keeps me from becoming a mcdojo. Some schools I know of take white belts in their instructor training as long as they pay the $. I will not even take a withe belt out of basic.

The plans are written out and posted on one sheet of paper and posted at the front of the dojang, so even he newest of helpers will be able to "know what they should do".

The class structure is the same for all the clubs, just taught at different levels, or with ore material as they progress. except the instructor training/leadership club. That class is mostly a breakdown of 3-4 students performing "moch classes" and trying to practice the quality of instruction for that class.

All other class structure is like this.

Warm-up

weapons

forms

bag/pad drill

theme (BJJ,XMA,Boxing,Muai Thai, or traditional self defense. We spend a month on each and rotate)

Boards

Lifeskill discussion/awards

Ever class follows this structure...however the way it is taught is independent of each intructor. However, Im the only instructor right now.