Instructing kids class

[ladyj]

Set up an obstacle course. Put the mats on the floor for rolls, we have a practice balance beam, rebreakable board stations etc. The children beg to do this. We split the class into teams and make it a race.

[IronWarrior]

Try this game called 'Bull in the Ring' put all the students in a circle give them all a number put one student in the middle of the circle and when you call out a number that student attacks with 2-3 tecniques and the student in the middle has to defend and attack back, its a good drill for reflexes and awarness, just make sure the kids have head gear on and are padded up..lol since they arn't seeing some attacks straight on, after one student stays goes threw all the numbers pick another student to go in the middle e.t.c. e.t.c. keep going at a fast pace, calling numbers, changing students in the middle... it works well and keeps all students attention focused at the same time.

[AndrewGreen]

Here's a few I put into a list a while back, I was intending on adding to it but instead they ended up going into a wiki form (Wiki isn't up right now)

MMA Training Games Part 1

Copyright ©2004 Andrew Green

http://innovativema.ca

Name: Up and Down

# of Players: 6 or more

Skills: Reflexes, Teamwork, Warm up / cool down game

Equipment: Soft balls (3 is usually a good number)

Instructions:

Divide into 2 teams, each team gets one side of the gym and can't cross to the other. If a player gets hit he sits down. If the player that hit him gets hit then he gets back up. So if a player has hit 3 others on and then gets hit, all 3 get back up.

This encourages team work and basic strategy.

Name: Crab fights

# of Players: 2 or more

Skills: Balance, strength, movement

Equipment: none

Instructions:

Players start in a crab position, belly up on hands and feet, and must remain in that position. If they turn over or touch the floor with anything but there hands and feet they are out. They must push and pull other players to off balance them, last one still up wins.

Watch for kicking, if it is a problem restrict them to pulling / hooking other players.

Name: Freeze tag

# of Players: 4 or more (more is better)

Skills: Endurance, warm up / cool down game, other depending on variation

Equipment: none

Instructions:

One person is “It”, that person must “Freeze” all of the other players by tagging them. Once frozen they stand arms out until a non-frozen player runs under one of their arms, this unfreezes them back into the game.

You can also change the way a player becomes unfrozen to incorporate other skills. For example when frozen they drop to hands and knees and become unfrozen when another player shoulder rolls over them, or sits on their back and does a back break fall over them. Or have them stand arms out and become unfrozen when thrown. Make the skills match what you are trying to teach.

Name: Black Knights

# of Players: 2 or more

Skills: strategy, contact, footwork

Equipment: Foam Bats (These can be made with pool noodles, PVC pipe and duct tape.)

Masks are a good idea as well.

Instructions:

From Monty Python and the Holy Grail – Players must attack each others limbs with the bats, a clean hit removes that limb and the player may not use it. Arms go behind back when removed, with one leg the player is hoping, with both removed they are on their knees.

This is a great lead in to sparring as it gets them used to making contact and getting hit while keeping it fun and “Not scary”

Name: Belt Wrestling

# of Players: 2

Skills: Introduction to wrestling, control, strategy

Equipment: Belts

Instructions:

Players start of on knees facing each other, the goal is to remove the other players belt. Once it is off the match is over. Players can not grab their own belt at any time.

Variation - “Knock your socks off” - Same idea except players fight to remove each others socks.

Name: Cross the Floor

# of Players: 3 or more

Skills: Teamwork, balance

Equipment: Kick Shields, or any other object that can be moved and stood on.

Instructions:

You need just enough shields that all the players can fit on with one left and no room to move. They must cross the floor without touching the floor. This is done by everyone moving onto all but the last shield and passing it to the front, and repeating.

Name: Position Names

# of Players: 4 or more

Skills: Learning various positions and focusing on the smaller details

Equipment: none

Instructions:

Pair up the players, instructor calls out a position, ex. “Mount!” and each team goes to that position, They also must do it “properly”, so give 2 or 3 details that they are to focus on, so for “Guard” you might want a Underhook, hold the head down and cross the feet.

Keep the number of positions low to start and build up as you go. Change the details to match what you where teaching that class. So if you where doing basic attacks from guard you might call “Arm bar”, “Triangle”, “Chicken Wing”, etc.

Name: Escape!

# of Players: 2

Skills: Strategy, scramble, pins, escapes

Equipment: marked off “ring”

Instructions:

One players goal is to keep the other player in the ring, the other players goal is to escape. Start the player trying to keep the other one in the ring in dominant position and say go. Once the player escapes the match is over and they switch.

Name: Sumo

# of Players: 2

Skills: Balance, clinch control, strategy

Equipment: marked off “ring”

Instructions:

Both players face off in the ring, the first person to step outside of the ring or have anything but their feet touch the ground loses. Players may not attack the legs, or use their legs to attack. Only upper body control.

Name: Shield Fighting

# of Players: 2

Skills: Balance, clinch control, strategy

Equipment: Soft Kick Shields

Instructions:

Players face each other holding kick shields, If a player touches the floor with anything but their feet, lets go of the shield, or leaves the ring the match ends. They must push and redirect their opponent into losing balance or leaving the ring.

This is a great drill for introducing throws as it gets them to work on redirecting a person who is pushing into them, in addition it is a great tool for balance.

Name: Tails

# of Players: 2 or more

Skills: Footwork

Equipment: Short ropes, socks, gloves – Something to stick in the back of their belts

Instructions:

Players face each other with “tails” stuck in the back of their belts, if they lose their tale they are out. They must steal the tail from other players. Players cannot grab each other, and must remain standing. Restrict playing space and divide them pairs or groups, or one big free for all.

As an alternative attach the “tail” to the back of their knee to simulate a shoot.

Name: Punching drills

# of Players: n/a

Skills: combination punching, form

Equipment: none

Instructions:

Spread players out and call out combinations, they react and perform the combination. ex. “Jab-Cross”, “Jab-Round Kick”, “Jab-Jab-Shoot”, etc.

Be ready with a foam bat in case their hands start dropping, sweep the feet if the legs go straight, etc. Be loud and keep the energy high.

Name: Sword Dodging

# of Players: 2 or more

Skills: Reflexes

Equipment: A sword, or something to represent one.

Instructions:

Stand in front of the class, swing the sword horizontally high, low of downward vertically. On high swings players must duck, on low swings jump and on downward swings side step. If they make a mistake they sit down (or do some push-ups) Last one standing wins.

Name: Ball on the wall

# of Players: The more the better

Skills: using legs in guard, teamwork

Equipment: Swiss Ball

Instructions:

Lie players down on their backs, butts to the wall. They must pass the ball along the wall from one end to the other without dropping it and back again. Alternatively go heads to the wall, or even stagger them. They can only use their legs, no hands.

Name: Overhead Ball Pass

# of Players: 3 or more

Skills: Leg use in guard, Spinning in guard.

Equipment: Swiss Ball

Instructions:

Players lie down on their backs, legs up as in guard. All of them start head towards the beginning of the line. Hand the ball to the first person, The ball can only be touched with their legs, the objective is to pass the ball down the line without dropping it. Once they have it they must turn so that their head is facing the other way and pass it over their head to the next person. After passing it stand up and run to the end of the line.

[AndrewGreen]

A few more ideas....

First, it's a kids class, don't try to structure it too rigidly. Looking at your curriculum everything integrates eventually, why try to seperate it? Clinch and ground are not to seperate subjects, and if you are doing striking with them too that isn't either.

If you try to get them to think of it as seperate ranges they will, and they will seperate them, which is not what you want. You want them to be able to put together all of the pieces into one big piece.

Striking gets seperated because of the need for gloves and shin pads, I would suggest you seperate into Kickboxing and Submission. In both they can clinch and takedown. The difference is in striking they are wearing the gloves and don't do submissions. And make the distinction based on "No hitting without gloves"

Now, the other thing to watch is that kids are not little adults. They think differently and the learn differently. They are at a stage where they are still learning to spell, add, subtract, learn the way around the neighbourhood and countless other things. They do not have time to stop and bother with the little details on any of them.

They will be able to pick up general ideas and motions quickly, but if you make things detailed, they will not process them. So if you are teaching an armbar and are telling them to keep there knees together, pull there feet in and a half dozen other details, they won't. At least not until they become neccessary (escapes get taught) to learn, until then they have better things to write into there memory.

You're also going to want to teach very few techniques from any given position. So 2 or 3 sweeps tops for the first year or so. maybe 1 for the first few months. For the same reasons as above they won't learn more, and will end up mixing up the details.

It should be when you are in guard do this one thing, not one of these 12 things. They are in a completely new environment and learning 20+ other brand new things at the same time. Keep it simple, and keep it general. Once they have been sparring for a while and kno w that one thing well and know to do it when the time the details will work themself in as needed. Why isn't this working? you need to grab his arm first. Still not working, do the same thing going the other way...

After they have been doing it for a few months and can do it well, give them a new technique to play with.

It might help to draw up a table, list all the basic positions, give a row for top and a row for bottom, then put the technique you want them to start with in the boxes. Once they are doing them all... or at least attempting them all at the appropriate times there is your first belt/level/whatever you are using.

This should include one shoot, one or two clinch takedowns (maybe one from front and one from the back) and all the bare basics of whatever standup you are doing.

Also make the techniques you choose "force" them to develop key elements that apply to other things. likes scissor sweep - Teaches them hip movement on the bottom, to stay off there back and to open there guard. A Body lock and trip from standing - Gets them pummeling for underhooks and closing in tight before going for the takedown.

And here is a rather lengthy article on kids in martial arts:

http://innovativema.ca/index.php?section=articles&page=kidsinmma

(Ignore anywhere it says "mma" and replace with whatever style you like....)

[greenbelt_girl15]

here's a good cardio game that we use. have the kids play tag and when they get tagged have them do ten push-ups before they can start running again.

[jperk1966]

I let the kids play foot tag.. everyone tucks their hands in their belt and plays tag using their feet. The kids love it.

[jaymac]

A good endurance drill (also works aggression) is have 2 or 3 students of the same build on one stand up work out bag. Use one belt from one of the students to wrap around his partner. 1 or 2 of the students hold the ends of the belt to try and give the student some resistance while he/she fights to hit the work out bag. We have found that the kids love it and it is a great work out too. Sometimes we use it at the beginning of the class to warm up but mostly use it as an end of the class fun drill.

[shogeri]

I hope with all of these replies, you found something useful.

Contineu to train smart, and not hard, doing only those things that add to your skills and not diminish them!

Good luck!

[claflintsd]

Sometimes in line drills when they reach one end of the floor, instead of having them turn and do more drills going back, I shout "run back and touch the wall".

If the kids have a lot of energy, this helps a lot.

I sometimes have the kids run around the perimeter of studio and hold out a pad and have the kids punch it as they go by. "Remember, first two knuckles!"

[Jiffy]

Also, you can FIND a martial arts related purpose to a game, remember, martial arts is all around us. In the example of dodge ball, I ask them what it has to do with martial arts.

These are some things they may come up with...

Learning to move out the way, learning to look for the gap, learning to move as soon as you see a gap, learning to move fast, learning to react quickly, hitting a target, learning strategy... etc etc etc.

These all relate to Martial Arts.