Post Test "Fun" Period

[Chuilli, Kyo Sah Nim]

Okay, well after tests we usually have these 'fun periods' were we completely get away from any major curriculum needed to test and do things that are 'fun' for the kids. we do things like board breaking, obstacle courses, "karate survivor", races and things like that, but after tests it seems like thats all i have in my mind for creative thoughts for the kids. i cant seem to come up with anything else and would love nothing more than to surprise them with new and fun games or drills, so if you guys have any ideas, please let me know, i'd love to give them something new.

thanks

in tang soo,

k.chuilli

[ps1]

I don't know what kind of area you're in, but doing some outdoor training at a local park is always fun. You can usually use the playground equipment (monkey bars, jungle gyms ect...) as part of the obstacle course.

Circut training is nice to throw in every once in a while. Have several stations set up. Station 1: kata, station 2: punch the target, station 3: jump kicks ect... Have them do each station for a certain period of time then run/jog in around the school for a certain period of time/number of laps before moving on to the next station.

Hope that helps a little. I know it's only two ideas, but you seem to have alot of great stuff already.

[Rateh]

I like to do teamwork day.

Split the class into teams of about 5 (for us that ment two teams). Start them out by giving their TEAM a warm-up....say 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups and 500 jumping jacks. It doesn't matter who in their team does what, so long as as a group they finish the warm-up. Then have them race against the other team(s) to see who can finish the warm-up first.

Another team game is belt tying races. Have all the students take off their belts. Then have them tie them on as fast as they can. The team who finishes first wins (they should help the white belts in their team who are having trouble).

Then theres team races. Have each team make a line, do techniques or running or jumping etc down the dojo floor. Then the person comes back and tags their team mate. Students who do poor techniques (according to individual ability and rank) have to go back and start over. Team that finishes first is the winner.

Then theres team endurance contests. Have everyone stand in a horse stance. Students who come up (straighten their legs or have them not bent enough) are out. Each person thats left standing after a cirtain time gives points to their teams. Repeat with standing on one foot.

Next is team building contests. Have each team run and grab 5 or so peices of equipment and make a pile in a separate part of the floor. When you say go they have to make something out of the equipment (a game, a car, etc...). Give them a time limit, then have them present their creations and you decide the most creative one.

Finally theres team obstacle course. Set up an obstacle course. The teams have to go through one at a time, each person in the team must complete each section of the obstacle course before going on to the next. After an initial practice round, time them. Students who start on another section of the course before their team finishes an earlier section get time added. The team with the lowest time wins.

Each team contests have students winning points for their team. For instance the team that completes the warm-ups first gets 5 points. The team with the most points at the end wins. Usually I make the winning team do push-ups intead of the losing team. It makes it more fun because the students know they are competing for push-ups but they try their best in the competitions anyways.

[lordtariel]

There's one I know the kids at our dojo like. You have them line up, then bounce one of those inflatable yoga/stretch balls towards them(one bounce, it should be about chest level when it reaches them). They do a reverse punch or kick from a static guard position and if they do hit it correctly, it should fly straight back to you. It works great to figure out distance and timing since they're not allowed to move.

Another variation of this is to sidestep out of the way or sidestep and punch so they learn to sidestep far enough to avoid getting hit. I noticed when they were supposed to just sidestep out of the way, technique goes out the window and they try and just jump out of the way. The object is to get them to sidestep so they can attack, not just get out of the way.

You have to be careful with these drills though since hitting one of those things with a bent wrist can really hurt. So with the kids you may want to use a smaller ball and bounce it slower.

[bushido_man96]

There are a lot of good ideas here!

Something that you could do is a mini-tournament, where each of the kids watches the other do a form, and then tell them how they did, and what they need to work on. It can be good review for old material.

[Chuilli, Kyo Sah Nim]

wow these are great ideas, im definately going to use the tying the belt competition because im a stickler about properly tied belts! mini tournaments sound fun too. teamwork would be good too, its harder to cheat with a team than individually. thanks guys, keep em coming!

[DWx]

Then theres team races. Have each team make a line, do techniques or running or jumping etc down the dojo floor. Then the person comes back and tags their team mate. Students who do poor techniques (according to individual ability and rank) have to go back and start over. Team that finishes first is the winner.

We sorta do this in our adult classes except for we have to run down the gym and then do the exercises at the bottom before running back. It works really well as we get very competitive and have fun whilst still getting the fitness benefit. So far I've worked out a few ways to "cheat" and win. It includes gaining distance whilst doing star jumps...

Another thing we find the kids like is to get them into teams and have them do their forms. They get about 5 mins to come up with a syncronized routine for their form incluing stuff like where they stand, how the wanna walk on, doing like a domino effect with techniques...

[obiwansbane]

There's one I know the kids at our dojo like. You have them line up, then bounce one of those inflatable yoga/stretch balls towards them(one bounce, it should be about chest level when it reaches them). They do a reverse punch or kick from a static guard position and if they do hit it correctly, it should fly straight back to you. It works great to figure out distance and timing since they're not allowed to move.

Another variation of this is to sidestep out of the way or sidestep and punch so they learn to sidestep far enough to avoid getting hit. I noticed when they were supposed to just sidestep out of the way, technique goes out the window and they try and just jump out of the way. The object is to get them to sidestep so they can attack, not just get out of the way.

You have to be careful with these drills though since hitting one of those things with a bent wrist can really hurt. So with the kids you may want to use a smaller ball and bounce it slower.

and another thing to go with this, if you have a soft floor, (you don't want ppl getting hurt to badly) playing bowling for little kids.

have the black belts play a game of pin bowling using the students as pins.. but the students are allowed to move out of the way of the ball... they usually have a blast playing this.. and its not to often you get to throw a giant ball at a kid so the black belts have fun too

[Sensei Rick]

The timing on this topic is so funny, i just tested. I found this web site that makes word searches. I gave them to the students that were waiting to test and it kept them so quiet that I'm going to continue the new tradition. I put in words that are related to karate, and some fun words that mean stuff to my students and I personally. Here's the link http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/WordSearchSetupForm.html

[bushido_man96]

That is kind of cool, Rick. Thanks for sharing it.