New instructor: Teaching Kids

[Stewie3345]

I'm soon to be an instructor of karate. I was wondering if there were any games out there for kids such as battleship sparring or anything like that

Any tips or advice is also very welcome

[Lupin1]

What age are the kids?

[Stewie3345]

The oldest student will be 12 years old and I will have about 5-8 year olds and a few 10 year olds

[Lupin1]

That's about the age of the kids in our class. They love relays. Set up a line of instructors with bags and some standing bags or whatever you use and have them do certain moves or combinations at each station before moving on and have a race. We save stuff like that for special occasions so it's more of a treat-- games shouldn't make up the majority of training. Kids that age are definitely capable of training without having to play games all the time. Keep it as a treat and a motivation to train hard-- if they work hard all class, they can have a race or play a game at the end or something like that. It'll work wonders for classroom management.

[sensei8]

Tennis ball drill...It's an game of dodge ball, but with tennis balls. It's an awareness drill. I've been doing this drill with kids and adults for over 30 years.

[BlueWaveKarate]

I spent four years teaching kids 8-12 in the inner city. My best advice to you is DON'T STOP MOVING!

Adults need time to let lessons sink in, so good water breaks are a great part of training to let the mind absorb what's just been done.

Kids, on the other hand, need to be hooked like a fish - keep tension on the line at all times or they'll zip off in another direction completely!

My adult classes are currently 90 mins and, though I'm not teaching youth at the moment, if I return to it I'll keep it short; 45 mins tops. That way I can run through basics, kata, and some fun exercises without stopping (lesson plan, lesson plan, lesson plan!) and I don't get burned out by the little bundles of energy.

[mal103]

I started off with mostly kids in my class so had to try and keep them interested as well as the adults motivated.

Don't try to be the big strong Sensei but don't let them walk all over you either. Have plenty of smiles, greet them cheerfully and tell them well done afterwards.

Have a fair amount of discipline but not too regimented, raise a hand to ask question etc.

Teach them normally but include the odd game near the end of the lesson, they will remember the training but especially the fun bit. Don't spend too long on one technique, come back to it later on or in the next lesson.

I would be careful about doing too many games though. Bring in the odd prop, punch bag, rubber knife, bat, ball - one of my favourites is to see who can punch (Gyaku) a slightly deflated football down the dojo, you are teaching them good hip techniques but making it fun and different.

Keep criticism to a minimum, try to get the point across like "good stance, maybe just a bit lower, that's good!" It may not seem much but you can bet that some will be telling their Grandma that "Sensei said I had a good stance and was doing really well"

Think of it as cutting diamonds, on the first sweep you take off the rough edges, the next a bit smoother, etc, etc... It can't be all done in one go so accept some bad form but keep chipping away at it.

Try to get an assistant, any senior grade adult/teen, give them free lessons if they agree to help out a bit. There will be some that struggle and take up a lot of time, give them to your assistant for 10 minutes while you keep the others busy. They will also see what standard they should be heading for and you also get someone to demonstrate things with.

Don't ever get angry with them, just move on if they aren't getting something. You will have to also accept that you will get a couple who don't get it, they won't get anything, they will eventually leave but don't be dis-heartened. Your best day is when you see your students go off and grade, ripping off their old belts and mis-tying their new one around their wastes with big grins all over. Priceless!

[JGarner890]

I do a game at the end of every class with the kids. Some games I do is:

1. Chicken Fighting: each kid stands on one leg and they try to push each other over. First kid to set the other foot down looses. This teachs balance.

2. Shield Fighting: each kid uses a padded kicking shield and they push each other moving every which way. First one to get out of the fighting area, looses. Works different muscles in the legs.

3. Jumping over the Barrier: set up a barrier that the kids can jump over. Have rounds. Each round raise the height of the barrier. This teaches the students to tuck their legs for jump kicks.

Apart from the listed above, just fun games to keep their heart rate up is great for cardio.

Hope this helped a little bit. Good luck!

[LSc]

I'm in the same situation as a new co-instructor for our junior class. I have bought the e-book 50 KidsGames, and have found some good stuff on the website "karateteaching". But Best of all, I have found good advise in this forum

Thank you everybody for sharing your experiences. It's very appreciated!

[mal103]

Of course you can always keep the games as reserve and just teach good Karate, last night I did the whole lesson around basics for all grades/ages, we also mixed in resistance training where one student holds the others belt while they go forwards punching, after 5/10 minutes of this then they whould really fly forwards without the resistance.

Don't be affraid to stick with basics and drill the same movement several times, you could stick with your syllabus or pick ANY move. If i'm stuck for ideas then I will just go through an advanced Kata, on Monday I did moves from Jion like Teisho in Kiba Dachi.

I always tried to add something special to every lesson but now i've gained a bit of experience i'm not affraid to expand on the syllabus or to drill it over and over. Adding something different to the end of each lesson, maybe something fun can help keep it interesting but to get good students they will also have to punch/kick hundreds of times to get any good.