Entertaining Teenagers

[atalaya]

when i was a teen i had been studying kyokushin for some time and found that the routine wasn't wearing on me, but on my fellow students which would wear on me. my teacher, thankfully, was very understanding of the teenage preocupation with games and competition. one day he came in with a bag full of styrofoam blocks wrapped in electrical tape and threw them at us. first we had to dodge them (standing against a wall), then try to hit them out of the air with punches, kicks, blocks, and last we had to try to catch them.

as some of you may know, Master Oyama studied for a time with some of the big wigs in Goju-ryu and goju uses the old training method of throwing fruit (and catching it) to train. this is a very good game and i have used it since with my students with much success! you can use anything wrapped in duct tape (soft things get fewest complaints) like socks balled up, empty water bottles, pieces of styrofoam- differing sizes increase difficulty. have fun!

[sdargie]

I'm not too old to play games.

Sometimes games are needed to distract students from the actual techniques because they analyizing to the point of paralysis.

[TSharkey]

Most of the time we drill them hard. I find it fun just to get away from the techniques once in a while. Not like we play games EVERY day.

[Rateh]

in that case

obstical course is a favorite in my dojo

ofc MOST of it involves techniques of some kind, whether it be a takedown, roll, strikes to a bag, whatever

another favorite is "Kata Races"

pic two students and a kata

the students have to do the kata as fast as tehy can, and whoever gets through first wins

Sparring games such as "king of the mountain" and "team sparring"

recently i have begun to use games with a group

ie: make two or more groups of students, and assign a leader

set the teams against eachother in various tasks

one of my favorites is to assign each team a cirtain number of pushups, jumping jacks, etc

thats the total number the team has to do, and the captain decides who will do what

so if one person is really good at pushups, they may be doing most of it

this is especially good for team work, because if one person has finished their part, they help any student who has not completed theirs, until the entire team has done all of the warmups alloted

also, when i let them do an obstical course, i make THEM set it up, and take it down

this also forces them to work together as a team

i give htem a time limit to take it down and have everything back in its proper place, for every second over, the entire team gets 1 pushup

fyi, i use these with the students aged 5-12, but i dont see why u cannot adapt them for older students

[y2_sub]

What "Games" or "Activities" do you guys use in your class to entertain the teenager students.

None , students come to the class to learn karate not to be entertained

[atalaya]

here is an idea that i was reminded of a little while ago... have students break boards using techniques! that is a lot of fun and is definitely good training. my teenagers did that this morning and despite bruises and sore hands they laughed their way through seeing who could break the most in one strike, what kinds of strikes they could use, et cetera. (i break one with a one inch punch, you try to do the same) (or you break five boards, i try to do the same) ... one inch pine boards (with the grain!!) cut your own, i got fifty four for around sixty bucks.

Edited September 8, 2005 by atalaya

[TSharkey]

We do that once n awhile. We have the breakaway boards.