Dropped By a 5 year old!!!!!

[Ryukyu1]

Picture this: Highly motivated 3rd degree black belt teaching a class of juniors (4-8yrs). He is standing in a horse stance while they all line up in fornt of him to practice hitting him in the stomach with their newly learned palm shot. My 5 year old is about mid way down the line observing the whole thing and waiting for his turn but also noting none of the shots are having any effect. Finally his moment of glory arrives....he assumes the correct stance...looks the black belt square in the eye and proceeds to plant the hardest kick I have ever seen out of a 5 year old straight in the gonads!!!! Tears rushed to my eyes both in appreciation of the pain the Black belt was going through (he wasn't wearing a guard) and also thru trying to surpress convulsions of laughter. Needless to say he will think more carfully before carrying out this drill again.

[myosim]

It's a funny tale, no doubt. And bad plan on the part of the instructor to not pay more attention as people are hitting him. But I have to say, your 5 year old is not ready to start training. If his goal to hurt people is so great that he breaks the ground rules of an exercise, he shouldn't be in class. At the very least, I hope the instructor made him do more pushups than he count. I'd have ejected him from class. But then again, I refuse to teach kids.

[TKD_McGee]

Ok Junior, here's what you do.... you go up to that mean man and kick him as hard as you can between the legs!

 

Yes daddy!

 

 

[Ryukyu1]

I would have to agree that is was not too bright a plan by the instructor and in defense of the kid this was only his second class with no ground rules laid out to him. With regards to punnishing him with pushups I don't agree that is the right way to deal with a very young child, All this would serve to do is scare them away from class. I do agree with the way the instructor dealth with the situation once hee had recovered and that was to take the child aside and explain to him what he had done wrong. Then again I think it takes special skills and patience on the instructors part to teach young children and to harness there abilities and skills from a young age. Not all have the ability and so it's their choice.

[SBN Doug]

Easy myosim, he might not have understood what they were supposed to be doing.

 

I personally won't teach under a mature 9 yr old, but a lot do. And sometimes its just them trying to mimic what they THINK they see the others doing.

[BlueDragon]

You are very wise myosim.

[Phantasmatic]

I agree that making such a young child do a overload of pushups would not be the smartest thing in the whole world and teaching a 5 year old karate might not be right either.

 

_________________

 

"If you have job, you wear the pants!"

 

[ This Message was edited by: Phantasmatic on 2002-02-15 15:03 ]

[Kickbutt]

The easy thing to do would be to have the child do push-ups...the harder and more appropriate thing to do would be exactly what that instructor did...he realized his mistake and he took the child to the side and took the time to properly explain to the child what is and isn't acceptable - after all children are a product of what we teach them and if they aren't taught properly then it's the responsibility of the instructor to correct that. I think you guys should lighten up a bit here...that story was freaking hilarious!!!! and it seems as though both the child and the instructor learned something, so all was not lost. It takes a very patient person to teach a child...my daughter does very well in class...she's 5 and she has great role-models to look up to - is always polite and pays attention well. I would perhaps have waited however as I do understand how challenging it is to have one child, nevermind a whole class of them!! My daughter's instructors have the utmost respect from their students and especially myself as I'm in awe as to how well they get them to perform and listen...they're amazing!

[Angus]

Kids shouldn't be training in the formal classes... They need to be doing 'kids' things so they can learn. Sure u can teach them strikes, but don't teach them too many in one class. Make them do sets of 5, make them do a little running, but make sure that they are disciplined when they are naughty or do not do something correctly...

 

They should be taught co-ordination by having to toss tennis balls to each other and have to catch them (two hands then one hand). Various ball games like brandings with a soft beach ball or something like that cold be used... Something so it's fun for the kids. I know this is a bit off topic but i find it weird that a five year old had to do a palm strike to an instructor's stomach when he was only in his second class... Little kids shouldn't be doing contact stuff anyway. It's okay to teach them 'fresh air' when they're that young, as long as the contact is introduced later on and they are not promoted to black belt or something ridiculous like that when they are under 15.

 

Angus

 

 

[Phantasmatic]

Along with Angus's comments, a fun game would be another good practice for them.

 

Maybe kid sumo. We have that at our dojo, where the kids are on one foot and have to push each other over on a very soft mat, it is parent-friendly also.