Suggestions Please

[fylcon]

In addition to getting them to take turns attacking and defending, have them work on say right side or left side only, hands or feet only. Everyone has a stonger side and most people are stronger in say hands over feet so getting them to work both sides and hands and feet will help them to become more balanced and more flexible.

Liana

[BLueDevil]

thanks for the great input, everybody seems to be on the same page as me and my friend. the class starts on Thursday, so keep the suggestions coming

Another idea that we were throwing around was practice on trapping drills, and of course combinations with and without trapping.

[JusticeZero]

Teach an attack, teach the counter to the attack, teach a different attack, teach the counter to that attack. Have people drill against each other dynamically slowly using only those four techniques and being very picky about proper form.

[KF Dude]

What I was wanting was some suggestions on what kind of drills would be benificial(sp?) to beginners.What I want to do is a progression through drills and realistic situations to eventually free sparring. Ive got my own ideas and so does my friend and we seem to be on the same page. Any thoughts on something I could use, all views are welcome Thanks

PS. Im trying to stay away from point sparring

I think you going about this the smart way. Give your new students some skills to work with before sparring. Focus on the basic techniques of your system.

Drill a block into a straight punch. Then have everyone pair up - one side throws the the punch, the other blocks. Keep the drill very regimented. Everybody does exactly what you demonstrate - nothing else. Once everybody feels comfortable with the drill have the attacking side punch for real. The technique still remains the same, nothing changes except for the intent of the attacker & defender.

It's amazing what this little shift in mindset will do to a simple drill. Have the attacking side wear a glove for safety.

[BLueDevil]

Ah well tomorrow is the day it begins. I think what we intend to do is start with the basic drill alot of you guys have been suggesting. We'll be working on one person only punching and the other side defending then get into one side only kicks and the other side defends and probably some trapping and then me and my friend will (time permitting) free spar a bit to let people see where all of it is going. Sounds like a pretty good line-up for beginners.

Anymore suggestion just let me know im sure I am not the only one this is going to help. Thanks to everyone so far with the suggestions.

[srv]

I agree with most of the other posts. Start slow. Work on footwork as a drill. Then slowly add in jabs. Then crosses etc. Also doing the pair up drills of 1 throwing a punch, the other learning to block. Show them different ways to block. Working through defence of different techniques in this way will be helpful. When actually getting them to spar atart off with one attacking, one defending and taking turns like that. Another really good thing which was of great benefit to the higher ranks as well was sparring at sort of half speed and power which allows you more time to see the techniques coming. See the split second moment when hands may drop slightly. Just gives you a better idea as a higher rank of when, in terms of timing, you're more likely to get a technique in. You're also not worried about getting hit so you can really focus on those things eg someone does a spinning axe kick, instead of worrying about defending and being focussed on survival so to speak, you can watch at a slower speed and see when you can get that shot in. Then you speed it up and you just seem to have better drilled reflexes. For a beginner this just allows them to spar without concern of getting hit and just concentrate on their techniques and combinations.

[BLueDevil]

Well, I guess the last instructor scared some people off for sure. Luckely I have gotten a reputation for being a thorough teacher so I had a few people come in because they found outI was teaching. I decided to start from the very bottom and do footwork and basic block punch drills. Most where beginners so I spent a long time on basics. I tend to hammer on things over and over again. I think the class in itself went well. Thanks for the suggestions guys!

[rs_coble]

hey this is the other instrutor in blue devil's class and i just wanted to say thanks for all the input. we've got some good ideas and hopefully we can make this class something people will enjoy coming to instead of avoiding.

[Flying_Tiger]

What I did for my little brother and sister to start them out was some light gymnastic kind of stuff, teaching them how to roll, jump and roll, backwards, from being pushed all that fun stuff. Then, once they got the gist of that (I would spend about 20 min. every session doing that) We did very basic bag work (one is 4 almost five, one is , focusing mostly on form and correct placement and positioning of hands, ect. Then at the end we would have a physical contest--who can do the most push-ups, most rolls, run fastest, whatever, or I would do some free sparring, only allowing them to work on before-taught items. I don't really know what age group you're working with, but they seemed to enjoy those sessions.